27 bread starter recipes

Old-fashioned milk-and-flour sourdough starter with no commercial yeast. Two ingredients capture wild bacteria for tangy bread. Patience required.

Bloody Mary bread uses V8 juice and a splash of vodka in a bread machine dough for a savory, tomato-tinged loaf with a soft crumb. A conversation starter at any brunch table.

Easy pumpkin loaves made with sourdough starter and biscuit mix for a shortcut spiced bread with raisins, walnuts, and a sweet golden glaze.

Sourdough pumpernickel bread with rye flour, molasses, black coffee, and caraway seeds. Uses an active sourdough starter for deep, complex flavor in every dense, dark slice.

Moist bran date bread with sourdough starter, buttermilk, and lemon zest baked into a dense, naturally sweet loaf. Spread with cream cheese for something truly special.

Friendship-starter prune cake spiced with cinnamon and studded with chopped walnuts and stewed prunes. A moist, sourdough-tinged sheet cake from the Amish friendship-bread tradition.

Stir flour, yeast, and water together to create a simple sourdough starter that bubbles to life in days, ready to bake tangy bread without fussing over wild yeasts.

Wild yeast sourdough starter made with just milk and unbleached flour. A 2-ingredient no-yeast method that captures natural bacteria over several days for homemade sourdough bread.

Traditional German rye sourdough starter (Sauerteig): a three-phase rye flour and water leaven built over 3 days for authentic German rye bread baking. Maintainable and long-keeping.

Just milk, yogurt, and flour. This 3-ingredient sourdough starter uses live yogurt cultures to kickstart fermentation, giving you a bubbly, tangy base for homemade sourdough bread in about 3 days.

Yeasted chocolate bread made with a honey sponge starter and semi-sweet chocolate rolled jelly-roll style into 8 individual mini loaves. Brushed with egg glaze and best served hot from the oven.