Forget About Water: Using These Liquids Can Make Sourdough Bread 10X Better

If you've mastered a basic sourdough recipe and whip up weekly loaves without thinking twice, you might consider different ways of elevating it. There are plenty of delicious mix-ins that can transform your sourdough, but if you prefer to keep your bread soft and fluffy, swapping water for a different liquid might be the way to go. Brandon Cochran, the baking blogger behind Sourdough Brandon, shares his favorite alternative liquids to include in sourdough, as well as his tips for a successful bake.

Brewed coffee, milk, and beer are the three main liquids Cochran suggests when swapping liquid in your fresh-baked sourdough bread. However, he notes, "Anytime you substitute water in a sourdough bread recipe with another liquid, you have to think about the various factors that can affect fermentation beyond hydration and water content."

Take baking with coffee as an example. This is a great swap to make, especially if you're working with chocolate, since it helps enhance chocolate's depth. But "coffee is slightly acidic and can lower the dough's pH, which may affect yeast and bacterial activity," he says, and "other compounds in coffee, including caffeine, can influence the microorganisms in fermentation." Thus, he explains, the dough itself can take longer to proof or have a denser crumb. So, if you decide to swap water for a coffee, it's especially important to keep pH in mind — and make sure you use room temperature coffee to avoid killing your starter's yeast. 

When it comes to adding other ingredients like whole milk, Cochran notes that it has "proteins, fats, and sugars that make it useful in enriched loaves like fluffy sourdough brioche bread." Using whole milk also "increases tenderness, produces a softer crumb and crust, gives crusts a darker color from the browning of sugars." Additionally, it "makes doughs taste richer, and the fat may weaken the gluten network." However, non-whole milks, such as plant-based milks, may react in slightly different ways, so don't be afraid to play around with different varieties to see what works best for your preferences. 

Beer is another alternative liquid that adds a nice malty flavor to bread, but if you choose to make this swap, Cochran says to "start with substituting with a light pale ale, lager, or wheat beer instead of something very hoppy or high-ABV at first." The different characteristics can drastically affect your dough, so trial runs may be in order here.

Overall, when adding different liquids to your sourdough, Cochran recommends starting with a small percentage of the liquid before you make a full swap. "Pay attention to how your dough is different, make notes, and adjust for your next bake," he recommends. "This kind of experimentation is a great way to understand how different ingredients and liquids affect sourdough." At the end of the day, working with sourdough is as much of a science as it is an art, so put on your lab coat and start experimenting to shake up your weekly bake.