Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough

This is one of my favorite sourdough bread loaf recipes! It is simple, makes a flavorful soft bread, and is not too complicated to make. I love a good, fancy, gorgeous artisan loaf, but sometimes you just want easy and good, right? Being a mom of three with a full and busy schedule means I don’t often have time to dedicate three days to baking a loaf of bread. This is a great recipe for beginners and people who just want an easy yet flavorful loaf.

This amazingly flavorful sourdough bread is so simple to make, and is ready in one day, or you can stretch it to two with an overnight rest in the fridge. Slices are awesome by themselves with butter, buts it’s also great when served beside soups or chilis, or when used in a grilled cheese sandwich!

Also try these other fun flavorful sourdough bread recipes

• Rosemary Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Beer Bread
• Sourdough Chocolate Bread
• Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread

How to add mix-ins into sourdough bread

Adding mix-ins into sourdough bread can seem complicated. What can you add? When do you add it? How will it affect your dough?

Because neither jalapenos or shredded cheese are “dry”, they won’t change the hydration level of the bread by adding extra liquid, so we don’t have to worry so much about how they will affect the dough. 

How much should you add? Generally speaking, you want to add about 20% flavorings vs flour. So for 500 grams of flour, you will want to add about 100 grams of ingredients. This works well for dry ingredients like nuts and fruit, but you don’t have to be so exact with spices. For this recipe, we are adding a little more (the total weight of the jalapenos and cheese is about 170 grams) but we can get away with adding a little more since the cheese will melt into the dough a little.

When should you add flavorings in? Typically the best time to add in flavorings is in the middle of the stretch and fold stage. This gives the dough some time to build elasticity and strength, but also helps the mix-ins be evenly distributed in the dough.

Ingredients Needed

You only need a few simple ingredients to make this great tasting bread:

• Sourdough Starter – We use a 100% hydration starter for this recipe. Don’t have one? Learn how to make a sourdough starter.
• Bread Flour – You need a good quality flour with an extra protein content. I suggest bread flour, but you can use all purpose, too. Just know that you might have to do more stretch and folds to build up the strength of the dough.
• Sliced Jalapenos – you can use fresh or pickled! If using pickled, make sure you drain and dry the slices before adding them to the dough.
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese – Do not buy pre shredded cheese, as it is usually covered in extra ingredients to help it not stick together. You will want to buy good quality cheese. It doesn’t matter if you get a white or yellow cheddar cheese, except know that you won’t really see the white in the bread, and the yellow will stand out more and have little “streaks” in the bread. 
• Salt – salt helps add extra flavor, helps to regulate the yeast activity, and helps to strengthen the gluten development. Don’t skimp or skip it!

Make sure you have these tools on hand:

Jenni Ward/The Gingered Whisk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

• Large Mixing Bowl
• A shower cap or plastic wrap to cover the bowl during fermentation time. I like using a shower cap because it fits the bowl so nicely.
• Banneton Proofing Basket (affiliate link)
• Parchment Paper
• Bread Lame (affiliate link)
• Dutch Oven for baking

*For other tools you need for sourdough baking, check out Sourdough Bread Tools.

How to make a cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread loaf

Make sure you scroll down to the recipe card below for the full set of directions!

Prep work

• Feed your sourdough starter and allow it to become active – you want it at its peak activity level, so doubled in size and nice and bubbly.
• Slice the jalapenos into thin slices (remove the seeds if you want it to be less spicy).

Mix the dough

1. In a large mixing bowl (preferably glass), mix together the sourdough starter, water, and sea salt (affiliate link) until combined. 
2. Once mixed, add in all of the bread flour and mix until just combined. It will be loose here and quite rough, clumpy. 

Stretch and Folds

3. Cover the bowl with a plastic shower cap for about 1 hour. Allow to sit on the counter at room temperature (around 70 F is a perfect temp here).
4. Remove the cover. Grab the edge of the dough farthest away from you and stretch it up and then place it back down closest to you. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat the stretch and fold. Repeat again until you have done this a total of four times. 
5. Recover the dough and let it sit for 1 hour. 
6. Remove the cover. Add the sliced jalapenos and shredded cheese on top of the dough and perform the second set of stretch and folds all the way around the bowl.
7. Recover the dough and let it sit for 1 hour. 
8. Remove the cover, and lift and fold the dough all around the edges for the third and final time.

Bulk Fermentation

9. Once you have completed 3 foldings, keeping the shower cap on, leave it in a warm place to rest for 2-3 hours, or until doubled in size. 

Shaping

10. Place the dough onto a lightly floured counter and shape into a ball, tucking the edges under to create a ball. The outside of the dough will not be smooth because of the added jalapenos and cheddar cheese. 
11. Flour the top of the ball. 
12. Place it upside down in a floured banneton proofing basket. 

Final Proofing

13. Cover and allow to rise at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, or until it has risen about 20%. 

* Recipe Note: You do have the option of placing the dough in the fridge to do an overnight cold fermentation after you place the dough in the proofing basket. This can be 12-36 hours. The longer it stays in the fridge the more pronounced the sourdough taste will be.

Baking

14. Preheat the oven to 450 F for 30 minutes. Place a dutch oven in the oven to preheat with the oven.
15. Once preheated, carefully turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper.
16. Score the bread with a lame or razor.
17. Carefully lift the parchment paper into the dutch oven, place the cover on the dutch oven and put in the oven.
18. Bake for 30 minutes.
19. Remove the lid from the dutch oven and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes.
20. Once done, remove the bread carefully from the dutch oven and place on a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 1 hour, until cooled. This step is KEY to result in bread that isn’t gummy or soggy.
21. After an hour, cut bread and enjoy!

How do I get a softer crust? To get a crust that is not so thick and hard, keep the lid on your dutch oven for another 10 minutes. Then remove the lid and allow the crust to develop a lighter brown color.

Baker’s Schedule

Knowing how this bread recipe fits into your schedule is an important step for knowing when you should start to have it be done on time. I like to work backwards from when I want the bread to be done baking and figure out when I should feed my starter.

• Mixing Dough – 20 minutes
• Stretch and Folds – 3 hours 30 minutes
• Bulk Fermentation – 2 to 3 hours
• Shaping – 20 minutes
• Final Proofing – 3 hours (can also do your final proof overnight in the fridge)
• Baking – 50 minutes

*NOTE: The timing of this schedule is dependent on the temperature of your house. Dough will proof faster in a warmer house, and slower in a colder house. Watch the dough here, not the clock! For reference, the temperature of my house is 70 F. 

What kind of sourdough starter do I need for this recipe?

This recipe uses a 100% hydration sourdough starter – meaning one that has been fed equal amounts of flour and water. For more reading on what that means, check out Feeding your sourdough starter.

This recipe needs a fed and active starter – so a starter that is nice and bubbly and has at least doubled in size. 

New to sourdough? Read my Ultimate Guide to Sourdough for Beginners to answer all the questions you have!

How to serve this to your family

What can you use jalapeno cheddar bread for?

• Use it to create awesome sandwiches
• Serve it beside homemade tomato soup
• Turn it into grilled cheese sandwiches
• Make an awesome breakfast strata with it
• Serve it beside homemade chili.
• Serve it beside breakfast with eggs!