Slow Cooker Sourdough Bread

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With a sourdough starter you can bake Slow Cooker Sourdough Bread in your slow cooker. If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can still cook 1 pound of bread in your slow cooker.

It’s a bit lumpy, I know.

This week #SundaySupper is all about slow-cookers.  Some people use theirs when the weather gets colder, but if you’re like me, you use yours year round.  We make at least one slow cooker meal every week.

Honestly, who wouldn’t LOVE to come home to a home cooked meal?  All it takes is some chopping and dropping, maybe some browning, and then you set it and forget it!  Then, you think about the aroma when you get home and smell the deliciousness that has been cooking all day while you were out or at work.  OR, maybe you’re home and just don’t want to be in the kitchen.

That’s the reason I use my slow cooker at least once a week; even in the summer months.  Who wants to get in the kitchen and cook a hot meal when it’s hot outside?  I know I don’t.  That’s also the reason I don’t bake bread in the summer months, too. 

So, for me, this a win win!

This recipe was a complete experiment, too.  I haven’t made a lot with the sourdough starter I purchased online.  Because, well, I just haven’t.  This apartment isn’t all that big and having the oven on for more than an hour really does heat things up no matter what the temperature outside.  So you can imagine my delight when I started seeing recipes for cooking bread in your slow cooker!  YAY!

Bread is a hands on process.  Be prepared to get dirty.  Like, under your fingernails, dough everywhere dirty.  It’s the best way to make bread.  And since you’re breaking apart the starter into water then adding flour it’s truly going to get in every nook and cranny of your fingers and nails.

But it’s worth it.

Since some might not know what a “shaggy” dough looks like, this is my best picture of one.  It’s not smooth and it’s not loose like quick bread dough.  There is some gluten that has formed, but it’s not completely formed.

And it rests.  A lot.  

Once this part is achieved and the salt is added, it’s pretty much hands off.

I have a nice, tall plastic container with volume markers on it that I use to raise dough.  It’s perfect and has a nice lid that fits on it for raising overnight.  This is after the salt has been incorporated and it’s ready to raise overnight.  It’s important to have a container where you can mark the volume before it goes in or can put a rubber band around to mark the volume so you know when it’s doubled in size.

I don’t know much about bread, but what I do know is the slower the bulk raise the better the flavor of the bread when baked.  You don’t want to rush this.

Once it’s doubled in size, then lightly knead to form a small ball.  Place on a large piece of parchment and lower it into the slow cooker.  Slash the loaf.  I made an X.  You can slash it three times if you’d like.  It just needs some place for the steam to escape so it doesn’t bust open.  I’ve forgotten this step.  It makes for not so pretty bread.

This is a two pound loaf.  It looks deceptively small when it goes in the slow cooker, but I have a LARGE slow cooker for just the two of us.  I put the whole loaf in.  If you have a smaller one, then divide the dough in half and cook for half the time or until the internal temperature is at least 205 F.

When it in finished, it’s not brown on top.  AT ALL.  

Please don’t be disappointed that it’s not.  With just a few short minutes in the broiler, it can look like this!  Golden brown and slightly crusty on top.

This has made delicious sandwich bread.  It’s nice and wide with perfectly moist crumb.  It has a slight sourdough flavor.  Even S said it was good!  Which for a bread that I’ve made is amazing!

I CANNOT wait to make sandwiches with it tomorrow and Monday.  As Monday is a holiday, it’s just the girls home Monday.  And since I’m not opposed to sandwiches for breakfast a lunch, that’s what I’ll be having.  With bread like this, can you blame me?

See what I mean?  Perfectly large and scrumptious slices just dying to be topped with ham, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and be promptly devoured!

No, Mom, it doesn’t have to be sourdough bread.  

I know how you don’t like sourdough.  I would simply take your favorite bread recipe that generates at least a one pound loaf, place on parchment, and lower into your slow cooker to cook on high at least 45 minutes to an hour.  If it’s a larger loaf, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Now that I’ve successfully baked one loaf of bread in my slow cooker, I will be experimenting more with this method!  And experimenting more with my starter.

There are over 30 slow cooker recipes this week.  Make sure to scroll down and see what everyone else simmered away in theirs.

   

• Slow Cooker Tomato Basil Soup from Noshing With The Nolands
• Spicy Ham and 10-Bean Soup from Food Lust People Love
• Slow Cooker Acorn Squash and Apple Soup from Rants From My Crazy Kitchen
• Slow Cooked Apple Pie Oatmeal from Life Tastes Good
• Slow-Cooked Country Pork and Veggies from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Slow Cooker Shredded Beef Tacos from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Scalloped Potatoes from Peanut Butter and Peppers
• Slow-Cooker Kheer (Indian Rice Pudding) from Magnolia Days
• Slow Cooker Sourdough from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures