Bread Machine Sourdough Bread (No Oven)

This bread machine sourdough recipe produces a delicious sourdough bread. It is a fantastic sandwich bread to make at home because sourdough bread has an unique sour and tangy flavor.

Sourdough bread tastes similar to the breads that were made hundreds of years ago (when home bakers used “wild” yeast versus today’s mass produced baker’s yeast in order to make their breads).

Bread Machine Sourdough Bread

Recipe Sections

1. Ingredients
2. Instructions
3. Helpful Tips

Recipe Rating 4.86 from 90 votes Featured Comment Linda “This is the second time that I’ve made this bread and the second time that it looks exactly like the picture that you posted. I’ve been making bread machine bread for over 20 years and my husband said that this bread is the best one yet that I’ve made. Perfect recipe!!”

FYI – This sourdough bread recipe is mixed, kneaded & finished in your bread machine and does not use an oven (unlike many other bread machine sourdough recipes where the sourdough ends up being baked in an oven). Because my recipe only uses a bread machine to make sourdough bread, it tends to be a little easier to make than oven-baked recipes.

Nevertheless, please be aware that bread machine sourdough bread is a slightly more advanced bread machine technique. Sourdough bread can be a little more difficult to make (versus many regular bread machine sandwich breads). For example, you will also need to learn how to create a sourdough starter & maintain it (feed it!). Nevertheless, I have added tons of tips & instructions below to help you make this recipe.

Live Sourdough Starter Should Look “Spongy” & Bubbly

My recipe produces a rustic-style sandwich bread with a mild sourdough taste. This sourdough recipe is perfect if you want to make an amazing sourdough sandwich for lunch.

Making sourdough bread can also be a fun family project. You can let your kids help you to grow & feed the sourdough starter. It also teaches kids a little biology (e.g. they can watch the yeast grow & create carbon dioxide bubbles in the starter).

FYI – For details on how to make the 1 lb version of this recipe, please visit my 1 lb Bread Machine Sourdough Bread page.

Ingredients – Sourdough Bread Machine Recipe

• 1 Cup – Water (warm) – 237 milliliters
• 1/2 Cup – Sourdough Starter – 115 milliliters – You need to add LIVE sourdough starter (not dry starter) to the bread pan. The starter should NOT be very liquidy. It should look like bubbly dough (see picture above). See the tips section for more info.
• 4 Tablespoons – Vegetable Oil – 60 milliliters – Use a neutral flavored vegetable oil (such as corn oil or light olive oil). If you prefer a slightly buttery sourdough bread, you can replace the oil with 4 tablespoons of softened & sliced unsalted butter.
• 2 1/2 Cups – Bread Flour – 300 grams
• 1/2 Cup – Whole Wheat Flour – 73 grams
• 1 Tablespoon – White Granulated Sugar – 13 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Salt – 6 grams
• 1 Teaspoon – Bread Machine Yeast – 3.6 grams

Servings – Roughly 12 slices

Equipment – Measuring cup & spoons, sourdough starter jar, flexible spatula, oven mitts, cooling rack… and of course, a bread machine!

Close-up of the Sourdough Bread – Lots of Internal “Bubbles”

Instructions – Sourdough Bread Machine Recipe

• Settings – Basic/White Bread, Light Color & 2 lbs.
• Unplug your bread machine.
• Remove the bread pan from the bread machine (so when you add the ingredients, they can not accidentally spill into the machine).
• Measure the sourdough starter and stir out any bubbles (if you can). This helps to make the volume more consistent (versus including the volume of “empty” bubbles).
• Pour the water, sourdough starter & oil into the bread pan first and then add the other ingredients.
• Put the bread pan with ingredients back into unplugged bread machine.
• Plug in bread machine. Enter the correct settings (basic/white bread, light color & 2 lbs) and press the “start” button.
• When the bread machine has finished baking the bread, unplug the bread machine.
• Take out the bread pan and remove the bread from the bread pan. Place the bread on a cooling rack. Use oven mitts when removing the bread pan as it will be very hot!
• Optional – Right after you remove the hot bread from the bread pan and place it on the cooling rack, you can use a pastry brush to brush 1 tablespoon of melted butter on the top of the bread. This creates a more golden crust and adds even more buttery flavor. This works best when the bread is still hot. FYI – Do not use too much melted butter or it will run all over the sides of the bread. Also do not brush on when the bread has cooled down.
• Let the bread cool on the cooling rack for 1 to 2 hours before cutting.
• Please READ the tips section below (especially the sourdough starter tips) for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully. FYI – Sourdough bread is harder to make than regular breads so please read all of the tips below.

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Helpful Tips – Sourdough Bread Machine Recipe

• The tips below are designed to help sourdough & bread machine “novices” and those who haven’t touched their bread machine in years. This page contains many tips because working with a sourdough starter takes more time and effort when compared to regular bread machine yeast.
• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• This sourdough recipe is part of Bread Dad’s series on Bread Machine Recipes such as buttery white bread, banana bread, French bread and multigrain bread.

• This recipe is for LARGE bread machines that can make 2 lb loaves. FYI – Some bread machines with a supposed 2lb loaf capacity are smaller than advertised. This “2 lb capacity” is based on the manufacturer’s smaller internal recipes and not on many standard online recipes.
• If you have a small compact bread machine or a machine better suited for MY 1.5 lb recipes (e.g. the KBS bread machine – model # MBF-016), you might want to try my 1 lb Bread Machine Sourdough Bread recipe. My 1 lb sourdough bread does not use exactly 1/2 of the ingredients used in my larger sourdough recipe. Why? My larger one is roughly 1.7-1.8 lbs (despite using the 2 lb setting). Because my larger sourdough bread recipe rises so high, I had to trim the ingredients a little bit so the loaf would fit most 2 lb capacity machines.
• Nevertheless, my 1 lb suggestion does not apply to all compact bread machines. One of my visitors (thanks Liz!) stated in the comment section that she has the “Cuisinart Compact Automatic CBK 110 Series”. When she tried the 1 lb recipe version, it did not work well with her specific machine. However, she also stated that “Second attempt I followed the 2 lbs recipe and the cups measurements and it came out perfect!”
• I have also added a page to Bread Dad with the Bread Machine Pan Sizes for a number of popular bread machines. This should help you to determine if your machine is capable of handling Bread Dad’s 1 lb, 1.5 lb or 2 lb recipes. For example, some bread machines with a “2 lb loaf capacity” are better suited for my 1.5 lb recipes (as they can’t handle my fluffy 2 lb recipes) and some are better with my 2 lb recipes (as their pans have lots of extra space).

• As I stated above, bread machine sourdough bread is an advanced bread machine recipe. It is more difficult to make than regular yeast based bread machine sandwich breads. This recipe is not recommended for absolute beginners! Beginners are more likely to make a mistake because sourdough starter takes days to grow and the starter must have the right consistency (not too wet or dry) to use properly. However, if you are an semi-experienced bread machine user, you should be able to handle this recipe.
• Of course, this recipe is not for advanced sourdough bakers. It just produces a mild sourdough sandwich bread and not a strongly flavored artisan-style sourdough bread.
• Number #1 Recipe Error – Using an overly wet sourdough starter to make this bread. The starter should NOT look like runny pancake batter when added to the bread pan. You do not want the sourdough starter to be mainly liquid.
• Number # 2 Recipe Error – Using starter straight from the refrigerator (a cold & resting starter) and not a bubbly & active starter. See below for further details on this problem.

• Be aware that this recipe creates a MILD tasting sourdough bread. It is not a super sour tasting bread. Why? Because a bread machine has roughly 3 hours (on the “basic” setting) to complete the mixing/kneading, rise and baking (with 1 hour of the 3 hours dedicated to baking the bread). So there is very little time for the sourdough bacteria to generate a strong sourdough taste. In contrast, many stronger tasting sourdough bread recipes often place the shaped dough in a refrigerator for 8-24 hours (or longer) for a final “proof” before baking it in the oven. This allows the sourdough bacteria (not the yeast) to generate sufficient amounts of lactic acid (which provides the sour flavor) in order to have a stronger sourdough taste.
• If you want a strong & more complex sourdough taste, you should look for a sourdough bread recipe that has a long proofing period (8-48 hours). These recipes are usually baked in an oven (and often use a Dutch oven container to bake the bread). These stronger flavored recipes are generally not bread machine recipes.
• Moreover, the taste of your sourdough bread maker bread partially depends on the starter that you buy. Try to find a starter with lots of positive flavor reviews if you are buying online. Also be aware that San Francisco-style sourdough starters tend to be more sour & tangy than many other sourdough starters (if you are looking for a sourdough with a stronger taste). Therefore, if you use a San Francisco-style starter, it could help to give your bread machine bread a slightly stronger sourdough taste.
• My recipe is based on using the standard white bread/basic bread setting (usually setting #1 on most bread machines) because many bread machines do not have a dedicated sourdough bread setting.
• It also uses yeast (in addition to the sourdough starter) in order for the bread to rise fast enough based on using the standard white bread/basic bread setting (that has roughly a 3 hour time frame). Sourdough without yeast rises very slowly (and needs a much longer “rise” time).

• Optional – Right after removing the baked bread from the bread pan (while the bread is still hot), brush on 1 tablespoon of melted butter on the top crust of the bread. This creates a more buttery top to the bread. Use a pastry brush to brush on the butter.
• Optional – You can add 1 or 2 tablespoons of small seeds (e.g. flaxseeds or sunflower seeds) or multigrain (chopped grains – not large cereal flakes) in order to add some crunch & a different texture to your sourdough bread. However, make sure to use an ingredient that does NOT absorb moisture or it will throw off the liquid-to-dry ingredient ratio of the recipe (and this will cause the bread to fail).
• Optional – Some people like to add 1/2 cup of dried fruit to this recipe. You can add dried fruit such as dried cranberries or raisins.
• Optional – Others like to add 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts or chopped pecans.
• Optional – You can use buttermilk (instead of water) if you want to make an even softer sourdough bread with a little extra tanginess. FYI – The slight acidity of the buttermilk tenderizes the bread.
• Visitors – What do you add to your sourdough bread to make it more unique? Chopped nuts? Dried fruit? Herbs (e.g. dried rosemary)? Garlic? Jalapenos? Seeds? Cheese? Olives? Please post your sourdough bread variations in the comment section below.

• Sourdough breads are usually more sour (duh!) & tangy than regular white breads. Moreover, sourdough bread is a very historic bread. Sourdough starters were the main leavening tool used for making bread hundreds of years ago. According to Wikipedia, “Sourdough remained the usual form of leavening down into the European Middle Ages until being replaced by barm from the beer brewing process, and after 1871 by purpose-cultured yeast”.
• Sourdough bread also has a more rustic looking interior and exterior with lots of yeast bubbles, etc.
• Sourdough starter provides the classic sourdough taste & the rise to the sourdough bread. The starter is a combination of lactic acid bacteria (the sourness) and yeast (the rise).
• This bread machine recipe produces a delicious & soft sourdough sandwich bread. Bread machine sourdough recipes tend to be beginner sourdough recipes (but advanced bread machine recipes!!). As you gain experience with sourdough, you will be able to create more advanced hard-crusted & oven baked sourdough rolls & loaves with greater and/or varied sourdough flavor.
• Visitors – Please post your sourdough tips & suggestions in the comment box below. There are many sourdough experts out there so I would love to learn how you make your sourdough breads, read your advice regarding the best sourdough starters, learn how you maintain your live sourdough starter for months, etc. Your tips are a great help to beginning sourdough bakers!!!

• This sourdough bread machine recipe requires you to use LIVE sourdough starter and DRY bread machine yeast. The live sourdough starter provides the classic sourdough taste & some rise to the bread machine sourdough. The dry bread machine yeast helps with the rise of the dough (because the live sourdough does not rise fast enough for most bread machine kneading, rising & baking cycles). Sourdough starters are generally slow rising (and are not designed for the rapid rise needed for most bread machine breads).
• Dry inactive sourdough starter is not the same as live sourdough starter. The dry sourdough starter must be feed with water & flour (over a number of days) before you have a sufficient quantity of live sourdough starter.
• What is dry sourdough starter? Dry sourdough starter is made by dehydrating live sourdough starter. This preserves the natural bacteria and yeast that is contained in live sourdough starters and allows for longer term storage options.
• Some new bread machines (e.g. my KBS 19-in-1 bread machine) have a sourdough bread setting which is often 6 hours or so long. Unfortunately, most bread machines (esp. older machines) do not have this setting. Therefore, I designed this sourdough recipe so it would work with the basic/white bread setting (so it would work in a wide variety of bread machines – new & old). Nevertheless, this means it needs to use bread machine yeast in order to rise fast enough to mix, knead & bake within 3 hours or so (versus the 6+ hours for the typical bread machine sourdough bread setting).
• FYI – Even bread machines with a sourdough bread setting often include some yeast in the sourdough recipes found in their manuals.
• Visitors – Please share your sourdough starter stories & experiences in the comment section below.

• You do not add dry sourdough starter directly to the bread pan. Dry sourdough starter does not work like dry bread machine yeast. You must first turn the dry & inactive sourdough starter into a LIVE & active sourdough starter before the sourdough starter can be added to the bread pan. This starter “activation” can take a number of days.
• This recipe uses bread machine yeast (instant yeast). It does NOT use active dry yeast. Active dry yeast is different from instant yeast & bread machine yeast. Instant yeast & bread machine yeast are added directly to the recipe’s ingredients. In contrast, active dry yeast must be activated in water before being added to a recipe’s ingredients. Many bakers find it quicker to use instant yeast because you just add it to the dry ingredients. With active dry yeast, you need to spend roughly 10 minutes “proofing” (activating) the yeast with a liquid & sugar.

• You can buy either live sourdough starter directly or buy dry inactive sourdough starter and then create your own live sourdough starter.
• Live sourdough starters can be bought online from companies such as King Arthur Baking, Breadtopia, etc. They will rush you the live starter and then you need to take care of it (e.g. feed it). Make sure to read the instructions included with the live starter (and watch the videos below).
• I prefer to use dry inactive sourdough starter (which you can purchase from Amazon, King Arthur Baking, Breadtopia, etc.) due to its long-term storage advantage. I use dry inactive sourdough starter because I can create sourdough starter whenever I want (and I don’t have to worry about feeding live sourdough FOREVER… as I am kind of forgetful about things hiding in the back of the refrigerator!!!). However, the drawback to dry inactive sourdough starter is that you have to build it up over a week or so by feeding it every day (with increasing amounts of flour & water) until it reaches the right volume & consistency. Of course, you should always read the instructions included with the dry sourdough starter (and watch the videos below) in order to learn how to activate the dry starter.
• If you need to buy some sourdough starter, please check out my Sourdough Books & Tools page.

• Use bread flour and non-chlorinated water (e.g. natural non-carbonated spring water) to feed your starter. Don’t use chemically treated water (e.g. some city tap waters) because it can impact the growth of sourdough.
• After the first 6-7 days (if you started with dry sourdough starter), the starter should look spongy and full of bubbles. See the “spongy” starter (in the clear container) picture earlier on this page as an example.
• If the starter is looking too wet during the 6-7 day “growing” process, add some flour until it reaches the right consistency.
• Of course, the starter should also not look very dry or the sourdough yeast will have a tough time growing. If the starter is too dry (e.g. you added too much flour when feeding the starter), you might have to add some extra water until the starter reaches the right consistency.
• FYI – There are links to more information further down this page on how to maintain sourdough starter.
• When starting from scratch (with dry sourdough starter), it generally takes me about 6-7 days (depending on room temperature) to build up enough live starter for this recipe. This is the reason that people like to keep live sourdough starter in their refrigerator if they make lots of sourdough bread throughout the year.
• FYI – When the sourdough starter is fully activated and of sufficient quantity, I like to feed the starter early in the morning because this allows it to be ready by mid-afternoon for the bread machine. With this “final” morning feeding, the starter should be ready within 4 to 6 hours (and at that time, it should look bubbly and vigorous).
• Visitors – How do you use your sourdough bread? For making sandwiches? As a side dish? For “regular” toast? French toast? Croutons? Other? Please leave your ideas on the best ways to use sourdough bread in the comment section below.

• When adding the live sourdough starter to the bread pan, the sourdough starter should be a slightly wet dough (after you have scooped it out of the container where you have been growing the starter and the bubbles get compressed/removed with the scooping action & stirring the starter in the cup).
• As I stated above, the starter should NOT look like runny pancake batter when it is added to the bread pan. You do not want the sourdough starter to be mainly liquid.
• After scooping out the starter into your measuring cup, you should stir the starter to reduce any bubbles. This helps to make the “volume” of the 1/2 cup more consistent (more starter “dough” & less “empty” bubbles).
• Given variations in flour measurements (e.g. fluffed flour versus compacted flour), kitchen humidity, use of old flour (which has absorbed moisture from the air) and starter hydration (drier versus wetter starters), you may have to add 1-2 tablespoons or water (if the dough is looking too dry when it is being mixed) or 1-2 tablespoons of flour (if the dough is looking to wet when it is being mixed).
• I prefer to use a measuring cup to measure my sourdough starter versus a kitchen scale. Why? Because the weight of sourdough starters can vary due to the hydration rate (more water = heavier), type of flour used, using heavier discard versus “airier” & lighter recently fed starter, etc. Nevertheless, these variations can impact both types of measurement (volume and weight). It is just harder (for me) to give an exact weight measurement given these factors.

• Do NOT use sourdough starter straight out of the refrigerator (where it has been kept overnight, etc.). It will be “sleeping” and not very active. You want to use an active starter (non-sleeping) for better flavor & rise.
• I like to use starter 4-6 hours after feeding it so the starter is bubbling and nice & active. FYI – This time can vary depending on the temperature of your kitchen (e.g. faster for warm kitchens and slower for cold kitchens).
• Common question – I am in a rush. Can I use sourdough discard to make this bread machine recipe? Here is my long winded answer – As you probably know, sourdough discard is the live sourdough that you remove from your sourdough starter jar in order to make “room” in the jar before feeding the starter. Some people just throw out the discard but many bakers don’t want to waste this “leftover” sourdough and use the discard to make baked goods such as sourdough pancakes. However, since discard is the sourdough starter before a feeding, it is much less active than a recently feed starter (see my comments above). Therefore, based on this information, my answer is a hesitant yes (but only if you can’t wait for your starter to become much active after a feeding). However, your sourdough bread will rise better and taste more “tangy” if you use active sourdough starter (versus using much less active sourdough discard).
• However, do NOT use sourdough discard if it looks moldy, has weird colors, smells bad, etc. Throw out the discard (and starter) if it has gone bad.
• Visitors – What do you do with your sourdough discard? Throw it out? Use it to make sourdough pancakes? Sourdough banana bread? Sourdough bread? Other? Please leave your sourdough discard suggestions in the comment section below.

• Here are some links to great sourdough starter videos to help you learn the process of creating & maintaining your bread machine sourdough starter. Watch the videos below if you want to “see” the correct level of starter consistency.
• How to Activate Dry Sourdough Starter – Youtube Video
• How to Feed Newly Delivered Live Sourdough Starter – Youtube Video
• How to Maintain Live Sourdough Starter – Youtube Video & Youtube Video
• Many beginning sourdough users have trouble maintaining & growing their sourdough starter properly. Please watch the videos above & read the article below if you are new to sourdoughs.
• If you really get into sourdough, you might also like to read these more in-depth online sourdough guides.
• King Arthur Baking – Sourdough Baking: The Complete Guide
• Food & Wine – Beginner’s Guide to Sourdough
• Or you can explore these popular Sourdough Bread Cookbooks as they provide expert advice on how to make a wide variety of delicious sourdough breads.

• FYI – If you see something like 1:1:1 in articles discussing how to maintain your sourdough starter, they are talking about a ratio of weights (e.g. grams) and NOT volume (e.g. cups). If you use cups for this ratio (instead of weight), you will be adding too much liquid.
• Starter growth will vary in part due to room temperature. Warmer rooms (e.g. during the summer) result in faster rising and colder rooms (e.g. during the winter) result in slower rising.
• Make sure to mix your starter thoroughly when you feed it with flour and water. You do not want pockets of dry flour in your starter and/or bread.
• Live sourdough starter should smell slightly sour, yeasty & doughy. The starter should not smell bad, funky or rotten. In addition, any starter that has signs of mold should be thrown out.

• Be aware that sourdough bread maker breads may not come out with a perfectly shaped bread top. The moisture variability of people’s starters (e.g. some people’s starters will be drier or wetter depending on how they made it) and lots of internal bubbles can lead to a lumpy top. Nevertheless, the bread will still taste delicious!
• If you are making multiple sourdough breads throughout the year, you probably want to maintain live sourdough starter year round in your refrigerator. However, if you are making sourdough bread maker bread infrequently and don’t want to worry about feeding the starter year round, you might prefer to use dry inactive sourdough starter.
• After you have made this recipe, you can store your remaining live sourdough starter in the refrigerator. However, you must remember to feed it! Please see the videos & online sourdough guide links above for more information on how to maintain and store live sourdough starter.
• FYI – Some sourdough starters have been kept alive for over 100 years…. which means that someone has been probably feeding them roughly weekly for 100+ years!
• If you like baked goods made with sourdough, you might like to try Bread Dad’s recipe for Sourdough Banana Nut Bread. It is a more “adult” tasting banana bread.

• I like to use a neutral-flavored vegetable oil (such as corn oil) when making this recipe (instead of butter). A neutral-flavored vegetable oil has less of an impact on the sourdough flavor of the bread (as this is not a 100% sourdough bread recipe).
• If you would prefer to use olive oil, you should use a “mild” or “light” olive oil. These have a lower flavor impact on the sourdough taste (versus stronger flavored extra virgin olive oil).
• However. if you prefer a slightly buttery sourdough bread, you can replace the oil with 4 tablespoons of softened & sliced unsalted butter.
• I would recommend NOT reducing the salt in this recipe. You generally want to keep the salt-to-yeast ratio at a 1:1 basis in most bread recipes (1:1 based on teaspoons to teaspoons and NOT grams to grams). The salt moderates the growth of the yeast. If you cut the salt (and disrupt this 1:1 ratio), the yeast will grow faster than expected. In turn, this leads to more bread collapses (because the yeast rises too high and then craters in the middle) and/or results in “slack” less manageable dough. In addition, less salt will impact the flavor and browning of the bread.
• If your family doesn’t like the taste of mild sourdough then you are better off making Bread Dad’s buttery Bread Machine White Bread or Bread Machine Country White Bread.

• Do not change the flours used in this recipe because different flours can require more or less liquid (as they have different moisture absorbency rates). Changing the flour used in this recipe is likely to lead to bread problems.
• Why does this recipe include whole wheat flour? The natural bran and germ contained in whole wheat flour can help to increase the starter’s “sourness & tanginess”. In contrast, bread machine sourdough bread made with only white flour often has only a VERY mild or nonexistent sourdough flavor.
• This recipe will NOT work with gluten free flour. Gluten free flour differs significantly versus flours with gluten and requires you to use recipes specifically designed for the use of gluten free flour. If you use gluten free flour in this recipe, you are likely to have a baking disaster.

• Use FRESH ingredients (e.g. flour) for the best results. Ingredients that have been sitting in the pantry for months can become stale or pick up weird smells & flavors.
• Try to keep your ingredients (e.g. flour) in airtight food containers in order to extend their shelf life.
• Flour absorbs moisture from the air (if the flour is kept in an open bag and not in an airtight container). This extra moisture can throw off recipes and leads to overly wet dough and/or underbaked bread. You know there is a problem when the flour looks “lumpy” and pours out with many clumps of flour. FYI – Sometimes, even new flour can have an excess moisture problem if the paper package is not tightly sealed. I occasionally have this problem with “generic” supermarket brand flour.

• Some bakers like to “scrape” the sides of the bread pan with a soft flexible spatula in order to loosen any flour stuck to the sides of the bread pan. Do not use a hard spatula as you might damage the interior of the bread pan. In addition, for safety reasons, do not put your hand inside the bread machine.
• You should let your bread COMPLETELY cool down before slicing. If you try cutting bread while it is still warm, you will squash & compress the bread and interfere with the bread slowly releasing the steam/water vapor from the interior. Thus premature slicing can negatively impact the bread by making the bread more gummy. FYI – It can take 1 to 2 hours for a bread to completely cool.
• Do not overbake your sandwich bread!! As soon as the bread machine done, you should remove the pan from the machine and then remove the bread from the pan. This applies to most sandwich breads made with a bread machine but always follow the recipe’s instructions for the best results.
• Do not forget the bread & let it sit in the bread machine or pan after the machine has finished baking. The residual heat will continue to bake the bread, drying it out and the loaf will turn into a rock!!
• Cool your bread on a wire cooling rack. This type of rack allows moisture to escape via all the sides of the bread (including the bottom of the loaf). FYI – A lot of moisture escapes through the paddle hole in the bottom of the bread.
• If you place bread on a cutting board or plate to cool down, the bottom of the loaf will become soggy. The escaping moisture has nowhere to go and is trapped by the plate/cutting board. This means that the bottom of your bread just sits in the trapped moisture.

• If your bread comes out too dense or doesn’t rise properly, it is likely due to one of the following reasons; You are using old or stale yeast, using a cold refrigerator temperature liquid (which slows yeast growth), baking in a cold winter temperature kitchen (yeast likes a kitchen air temp around 80 degree F), using all purpose flour (versus bread flour as called for in the recipe), placing salt on top of or next to the yeast (salt kills yeast so it must be placed away from the yeast in the bread pan), etc. For more reasons, you should visit Bread Dad’s Why Is My Bread Machine Bread So Dense? page.
• In addition, if your dough is having trouble rising properly, you should check out my How To Test Yeast page. This yeast test will show you if your yeast is alive & active or dead/expired. It will save you from a few bread disasters!
• If you haven’t used your bread machine or bread maker in a long time, please buy some new bread machine yeast before making your bread. Old bread machine yeast can die or lose its potency and this will lead to bread that does not rise properly. Bread machine yeast is not likely to be viable if it has been sitting in your pantry for years.
• If you would like to read my review of the bread machines that I own & use to create my bread machine recipes, please visit my Best Bread Machines page. It covers bread machines such as Briskind, Hamilton Beach and Zojirushi. The page provides my thoughts regarding the strengths and weaknesses of these machines.

• Before using your bread machine, you should read the bread machine manufacturer’s instructions in order to use the bread machine effectively and safely.
• If you have a problem with a bread machine recipe, please make sure that you are following the recipe exactly (e.g. using the correct bread machine settings), using the correct amount of an ingredient (e.g. don’t eyeball the measurements versus using a measurement cup or accidentally add a tablespoon when a teaspoon is called for), using the correct ingredients (e.g. bread machine yeast versus regular yeast or bread flour versus all purpose flour), etc. Please don’t “wing” things with recipes.
• If you start substituting ingredients (e.g. different types of flour), you are experimenting and should NOT expect similar results to the recipe shown above. Experimenting can be fun. However, you should expect some successes but more potential disappointments when you start to experiment with recipes. For example, if you substitute whole wheat flour for bread flour, you will probably experience a problem (as whole wheat flour doesn’t rise nearly as well as bread flour). Moreover, whole wheat flour has a totally different flavor.

• You can also use this homemade bread to make one of Bread Dad’s hot & toasty Grilled Cheese or Panini Sandwich Recipes such as air fryer grilled cheese, chicken paninis and ham & cheese paninis.
• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with a bread machine. The bread pan and the rest of the bread machine can get very hot during the baking process. This means that the bread pan and bread machine is likely to be very hot when you attempt to remove a baked good from the bread machine and/or bread pan.
• For more easy bread ideas, visit Bread Dad’s sections for Bread Machine Recipes and Bread Recipes.

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Questions

Why is sourdough sour?

According to Wikipedia, “Sourdough is a stable culture of lactic acid bacteria and yeast in a mixture of flour and water. Broadly speaking, the yeast produces gas (carbon dioxide) which leavens the dough, and the lactic acid bacteria produce lactic acid, which contributes flavor in the form of sourness.”

What is sourdough discard?

If you are keep sourdough in your refrigerator for long-term usage, you need to “discard” some of the old sourdough starter when you feed the starter (usually weekly with flour & water). If you don’t discard some of the starter then there might not be room in the container (as the newly fed starter grows in volume). In addition, discarding some of the starter helps to improve the sourdough taste (because inactive sourdough starter can taste more acidic after sitting in the refrigerator for a few days).

Some people throw out the discard and others use it to make more sourdough recipes.

Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia – Baker’s Yeast
2. Wikipedia – Bread Machine
3. Wikipedia – Sourdough

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