cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread

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Looking to take your sourdough to the next level with some heat and cheese? You’ve come to the right place. Let’s learn How to Make Cheddar Jalapeno Sourdough bread!

Before we start, if you are brand new to making sourdough bread, you may want to start with my simple old-fashioned sourdough bread recipe.

Baking sourdough bread has become a staple in our household. This recipe uses my basic sourdough loaf recipe but with added inclusions such as cheddar cheese and jalapenos. Once you start making sourdough bread from scratch you will NEVER go back to yeast bread. 

Here is a list of sourdough loaves with inclusions worth trying:

• Double chocolate espresso sourdough bread
• Chia seeds sourdough loaf
• sourdough cinnamon brown sugar raisins bread
• Simple white sourdough bread full recipe
• Pumpkin-shaped sourdough loaf
• Cheesy sourdough pull-apart bread

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BREAD MAKING TOOLS

Sourdough bread has been made for thousands of years without any modern tools. However, some equipment is available to make this process a little easier.

• Food scale- There is one tool that, in my opinion, is necessary: a food weight scale. When it comes to baking sourdough bread, precision is key! There’s no better way to measure accuracy than using a digital food
• parchemnt paper
• lame– for scoring the loaf
• Dutch oven- Last but not least, you will need a Dutch oven. A Dutch oven helps the bread to get the delicious crunchy crust that sourdough bread is famous for. Without a Dutch oven, it will be hard to achieve this. Ok! Now that you have all your tools let’s start to bake!
• banneton basket (proofing basket)
• shower cap– to cover the dough
• dough whisk

Make two loaves at a time!

You can mix a double batch of this recipe, and then when you divide the dough for the final shaping, you can do so much with it! You can make one savory bread and one basic sourdough loaf or add any inclusions, such as chocolate chips, fruit, lemon zest, sugar, cinnamon, etc. 

If you don’t have fresh jalapenos on hand, you can use pickled jalapenos instead of fresh jalapenos, but you would have to drain them very well.

INGREDIENTS FOR JALAPENO CHEDDAR LOAF

• 500 grams of bread Flour – (you can use all-purpose flour, but I prefer bread flour)
• 325 grams of filtered water
• 10 grams salt
• 100 grams active sourdough starter (fed in the last 12 hours)
• 2 large fresh jalapeños- thinly sliced (you can use one if you do not want it too spicy)
• 6 oz cubed cheddar cheese – sharp cheddar cheese, white cheddar, or mozzarella
• 1/2 cup dried onion

PRO TIPS: 

These tips I bring to you after some trial and error, I made the mistakes so you don’t have to!

• First- the most essential tip is to use an active starter (bubbly). If you are not using a starter you fed 4-12 hours prior, This will not work. It’s best to use a starter while it is at its peak! (meaning, feed your starter water and flour. Give it a good mix, then leave it on your countertop until it doubles in size)
• Pay attention to your sourdough in between each stretch and fold. If it looks like it isn’t fermenting, with no visible bubbles in the dough, let it sit at room temperature a little longer before you do your next stretch and fold.
• My second tip is don’t mix your sourdough starter with too much water. When your sourdough starter has too much water, the starter will become foamy on top and might not get the best rise. I have baked with it in the past anyway, and it makes your bread flatter than usual. A good ratio for a sourdough starter would be, 50g sourdough starter, 100g water, and 100g flour.

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IS YOUR SOURDOUGH BREAD BURNING FROM THE BOTTOM WHEN BAKED?

• Placing something between your Dutch oven and the base of your oven can lower the heat transfer underneath. Try leaving a sheet pan on the lower rack than the Dutch oven.
• Another trick to prevent sourdough bread from burning is to cut out a silicone mat to fit your Dutch oven. And place it on the bottom of the Dutch.

Cheddar Jalapeño sourdough bread recipe

Place a large bowl on the food scale, zero it to grams, add active sourdough starter and warm filtered water, then mix it using a bread whisk until the water becomes milky and the starter has dissolved. Next, add in the flour and salt (Zero out the food scale after each ingredient for an accurate reading.) Give this a good mix using your hands or a dough whisk. You don’t want to knead the dough; you need to combine all the ingredients till there are no dry streaks of flour. The dough will be very sticky, and you might be tempted to add more flour. But trust the process! Do not add more flour than what the recipe is asking for.

After a good mix, cover bowl with a damp tea towel, beeswax wrap covers, or a shower cap. Place dough at a warmer temperature near a stove or inside the oven with the light on, and rest for 1 hour. 

 Wet your hands to keep the sourdough from sticking to your hands while doing the next step. Stretch and fold the sourdough. Gluten relaxes over time, and this step will help build up the gluten and give it strength and shape, resulting in a beautiful rise when baking.

Place your hands under the sourdough, and with both hands, stretch the sourdough up as far as it will let you. Be gentle not to rip the dough, then fold it over to the middle of the bowl. Repeat this process on all sides. Once you have stretched and folded all sides of the sourdough, cover it with the lid and let it rest for 45 minutes.

Perform 3 sets of stretch and folds. 

After 3 stretches, gently take out the sourdough on a clean countertop. Do not dust flour on the countertop once the dough is out of the bowl.  Cover the dough with a damp towel and rest it for 10 minutes. This step will ensure that your dough relaxes, then it will be easier to stretch it for the next step.

SHAPING THE BOULE

Gently stretch the sourdough out on a clean countertop into a rectangle. It will be a little sticky, but make sure not to add any additional flour to the work surface. If the sourdough is too sticky to work with, use your bench scraper to help.

Spread half of the dried onions, chopped jalapenos, and cubed cheddar cheese all over the top of the dough, then gently press the ingredients into the dough. 

Next, take one side of the sourdough and fold it over to the center. Place half of the remaining inclusions on the folded side, then fold over the opposite side and add the remaining chopped jalapenos and cubed cheddar. It should be in a log shape. Roll the dough into a ball and tuck the ends underneath the dough to form a boule. 

After the sourdough is formed into a boule, cup your hands behind it and push it two inches towards yourself, then turn the dough clockwise as you push it to create surface tension. Do a quarter turn, then repeat this process around the boule to create tension evenly. But be gentle not to rip the bottom. ( this step will ensure you get a beautiful oven spring when you bake)  twist the dough on the table to create tension on the bottom, being gentle not to rip the dough anywhere. This helps to close up any open holes on the bottom.

Now that your cheddar jalapeno sourdough is shaped into a ball- lightly flour a 9-inch banneton basket then flip your sourdough loaf into the basket with the bottom facing up. Pinch to seal any holes. Dust the Sourdough ball with a little bit of flour, then cover it with saran wrap or a shower cap. Let it rise in the banneton basket for 1 hour, place it inside a plastic bag, then tie it so air doesn’t get inside. Place in the fridge for overnight cold ferment (bulk rise) for 12-24 hours. The loaf will rise in the fridge up to 30%. 

TIME TO BAKE YOUR CHEDDAR JALAPENO SOURDOUGH BREAD

Place a Dutch oven into the oven with the lid closed the next day and preheat the oven to 450F. Once it reaches 450 degrees Fahrenheit, leave the Dutch oven inside the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove your loaf from the fridge and gently flip your dough onto a piece of parchment paper big enough to cover all the bottom and sides of your Dutch oven. This will catch any of the cheese that might leak out to prevent a mess in your Dutch oven. 

This is the time to score your bread! When the sourdough bread is baking in the oven, it rises to almost double its size, and if you don’t score it, you will have random cracks throughout the loaf. Scoring gives you control over where you want the bread to expand. Using a lame ( this is the one I use and recommend! Or you can use a razor blade), make one deep score in the center of the sourdough cheddar jalapeno bread.

BAKING THE CHEDDAR JALAPENO SOURDOUGH BREAD

Take the Dutch oven out of the oven; be careful; a preheated Dutch is very hot! Use oven mitts for your safety. Place the cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread into the Dutch oven with the parchment paper, and bake for 40 minutes with the lid closed on the Dutch oven.

Remove the lid from the Dutch oven, lower your heat to 425F, and bake for 5-10 minutes or until golden brown for a beautiful crust. Depending on how much color you want on your jalapeño cheddar sourdough bread. 

Take out your cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread from the oven and place it on a cooling wire rack for two hours before you slice into it. I know it’s tempting, but it is important to let it cool completely before cutting it open. 

Enjoy! I hope your household will become as obsessed with this jalapeño cheddar sourdough bread recipe as we are! Store the left overs in a bread bag