Jalapeno Cheddar Sourdough Bread

A jalapeno cheddar sourdough bread recipe that’s loaded with flavor. A beautiful crust, soft interior, and sharp cheese and spicy peppers combine for a loaf you won’t forget.

If you love the idea of a sourdough bread with mix-ins, try lemon zest and blueberry sourdough too!

The eternal problem with sourdough bread is that your starter has to be fed and discarded all the time and you are forced to bake bread constantly. And sometimes…. your favorite recipes get a little… boring.

And the antidote to boring bread? Adding cheddar cheese and jalapenos!

The best part of this bread is that its just as easy as to make as regular artisan sourdough bread. The cheese and jalapenos don’t do anything to hurt the rise of the bread or anything like that. If you have a made successful loaf of sourdough bread, this recipe is going to turn out great.

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Helpful tools and special ingredients

• A kitchen scale. This is helpful any bread baking, but almost essential for sourdough. It is more accurate, less messy, and totally worth the cost.
• Bread flour! Don’t be tempted to substitute all purpose flour. Bread flour will give a chewy, crusty loaf and the hydration of this recipe is calculated using bread flour. If you can’t find it at your grocery store, you can order it online.
• A Dutch Oven with a tight fitting lid. This helps create a mini oven and lets the load bake in a steamy environment, which helps it rise. If you don’t have a Dutch Oven, you can simply preheat a rimming baking sheet on a lower rack and pour a cup of water on it to create steam.
• A proofing basket with a cloth liner. This will help your loaf keep its shape as it proofs overnight in the fridge. If you have a bowl that’s the right shape, you can line it with a tea towel. But the proofing baskets are pretty!
• Rice flour. This makes a HUGE difference if you are having trouble with your loaf sticking to the proofing basket.

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Step by step jalapeno cheddar sourdough

We being with an autolyse stage. Don’t be alarmed. It just means to stir the bread flour, water, starter, and sugar together and let them sit in a bowl. This is not a very high-hydration recipe, so it might look a little rough and somewhat dry. Just use your hands to combine everything into one mass. Cover it with a clean tea towel and let them rest at room temperature for thirty minutes.

Once the dough has rested, it’s time to add in the salt, cheddar, and jalapeno. Dump it right on top of the dough and knead it in. You’ll want to knead by hand for a few minutes to make sure that everything gets incorporated well.

Now that the mix ins are worked in well, it’s time to let the dough rise. Put it in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover it with greased plastic or a damp tea towel.

The first rise will take about three to four hours at room temperature. But every hour during this rise, you will need to reshape the dough back into a ball. When the next hour passes, the dough will have relaxed again into the shape of the bowl, like this:

You want to build up structure in the dough and fold it back up like this:

After three folds, you can move on the next stage. It’s time for the second proof, which is a cold proof in the fridge, overnight.

Place the ball of dough into a well-floured proofing basket and cover it with plastic wrap. Pop it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, it should look like this:

In the morning, take the dough out of the fridge and preheat your oven to 450 degrees with a rack in the middle.

Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper and slash with a lame. One slash down the middle is fine, or you can get fancy!

Place the paper and the dough into a Dutch Oven with a lid. Bake for 25 minutes with the lid on, 25 minutes with the lid off. Then (this is optional), remove the loaf from the Dutch Oven and the paper and bake directly on the oven rack for five more minutes. This helps to brown and crisp the crust all over.

Let cool for at least 3 hours, and slice and serve. Now since this is a jalapeño cheddar sourdough with tons of flavor, I like it best with something plain, like making a turkey sandwich or serving alongside a roast chicken. But of course, you can serve it however you like.

Here’s the recipe!

Want more bread recipes?

• Dutch ovens make the best, crusty round loaves. Check out my favorite Dutch Oven bread recipes here.
• Jalapeno cheddar sourdough is not an everyday bread but these sourdough rolls are something you will always want on hand in your kitchen.
• And if your sourdough starter is taking over your life, don’t forget you can use your sourdough discard for all kinds of things

And check out all my recipes here:

Happy baking!