Here’s a recipe for a no yeast, sweet, Sourdough Maple Bread loaf. We show you how to make this no knead bread that’s so soft and tangy it makes the perfect toast or sandwich bread. Make artisan sourdough bread at home! 
Sweet Maple
I just got a copy of Michelle Visser’s new book, Sweet Maple. This book is a cookbook, but it’s also a detailed accounting on how to harvest your own maple syrup. With detailed instructions, great photos, lots of DIYs and experience shared, Michelle’s family makes it easy for you and I to learn about tapping maple trees.
Even if you don’t have maples, there are still a lot of trees that can be tapped to make other kinds of syrup. For example:
- Joybilee Farm can teach you how to tap birch trees for syrup making
- Homestead Honey can explain how to tap walnut trees for sap to turn into syrup
To be sure, the mapling aspect of Sweet Maple is for the self-sufficient, homestead-y types. It IS a lot of work, as Michelle honestly shares. However, it’s work that can be done as a family and the family stories are actually one of my favorite parts of Sweet Maple.
If you’d just like to learn to cook and bake with maple syrup, no worries! Sweet Maple can help you out there, too. Michelle makes the case for maple syrup as a healthy replacement for table sugar. She provides multiple recipes from Maple Scones to Maple Pork Stir-Fry to teach us how to work maple syrup into favorite dishes.
In fact, my ten-year-old unwrapped Sweet Maple from its postal envelope and wouldn’t give it to me until she’d read through it. She fell in love with the Maple Blueberry Pie recipe and made it that night!
The Best Sourdough Book
Hands down, of all the sourdough books I’ve read, Melissa Norris’s Beyond Basics with Natural Yeast is my favorite. I’ve used it for several years now for all my sourdough baking. She writes in normal-person speak and her recipes are fabulously reliable.
- To have on hand for quick lunches Sourdough Pitas
- Sourdough Kulich for the holidays – any holiday!
- For an overnight soak and a healthy breakfast while running out the door – Sourdough Breakfast Cookies
I even use up extra starter in recipes like this non-fermented Pumpkin Biscuit Recipe just because the flavor is SO good!
Sourdough Maple Bread Recipe
This sourdough maple bread recipe is simple and easy to put together the night before to bake up in the morning. It’s a simple no knead recipe that can be used as a sweet bread or a sandwich bread. I used both Sweet Maple and Beyond Basics with Natural Yeast as inspiration for this recipe.
If you’re new to making sourdough bread, here’s a quick tutorial video for this recipe. After you view it, be sure to read the more detailed instructions in the recipe.
Sourdough Maple Bread
Equipment
- Cast Iron Bread Pans, if available.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sourdough starter
- 1/2 Cup Maple syrup, to taste May increase to 2/3 cup, if desired.
- 2 Cups Warm water
- 1 1/2 Tbsp. Sea salt
- 1 Tbsp. Butter, room temperature May also use coconut oil.
- 6-61/2 Cups Fresh wheat flour
Instructions
At Least 8 Hours Before Baking
- Combine the starter, water, syrup, salt and butter in a mixing bowl. Mix until smooth. If using a mixer, you can use the whisk attachment of your mixer, if desired. Once done mixing, replace with dough hook attachment.
- Add flour in 1 cup increments and mix until incorporated in between. The dough will clean the sides of the bowl when it is thoroughly mixed. The dough will be slightly sticky still but don't add too much flour or this will dry out the bread. See notes for more info.
- Take out the dough hook and scrape off dough into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or lid and keep in warm place until doubled. This can take 8-10 hours.
Place Into Pans and Bake
- Wet your hands and punch down the dough.
- Wet your hands again, if needed, and remove half the dough from the bowl. Form into a roll and place into a greased bread pan.
- Repeat with the other half of the dough - wet your hands, roll the dough and place into a greased bread pan.
- Place into your oven with the oven light on for extra warmth. Allow bread to rise again until doubled in size - about 2 hours.
- Score the top by cutting a 1/4 inch deep line in the top of the dough with a sharp knife. Bake at 325F/163C for 35-40 minutes or until an inserted thermometer reads 180F/82C.
Notes
Sourdough Maple Bread Notes
Use cast iron bread pans, if you have them, for the best shape and rise. Cast iron bread pans are slightly more narrow than standard bread pans. They help the sourdough maple bread keep its shape during rise and bake times. If you don’t have them, a regular bread pan will do.
If you mix well the first time, you won’t need to knead this bread. You know the sourdough maple bread dough is mixed well when it begins to clean the sides of your mixing bowl. It will also become more difficult for your machine to mix it. you CAN knead the bread, if you discover you prefer it. However, this will have a lovely texture without kneading.
To make this bread taste even better, I suggest you cut a thick slice and serve it with this Whipped Chocolate Butter recipe which you can find at Montana Happy. I used to eat this for tea when I visited friends in Eastern Europe – so delicious!!
Whipped Chocolate Butter from Montana Happy!
Have Maple Left Over?
My friend Susan at Learning and Yearning also picked up Michelle’s book and made these delicious Old Fashioned Maple Syrup Cookies. If you have more maple syrup and want to treat the family, these cookies are an excellent choice!
This sounds so delish! My son and I love breads (especially sourdough) and adding maple seem like the perfect addition for this time of year to change things up 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Christine! It is SO delicious – you won’t be sorry you made it!
I’m in the middle of making this. Doubled overnight, punched down but it could not be rolled. It’s turned into a sticky mess. I scooped it into pans, this is a new starter(8-9 days old) and the bread I tried to make yesterday also wouldn’t hold shape after the first rise. Is my starter too active? Any ideas what I’m doing wrong? Thanks
Great question, Sara, though I’m sorry you’re struggling – sourdough can sometimes be frustrating! If I’m understanding you correctly, after your punch down, the dough is very wet? If so, let’s see if we can figure out why.
Are you attempting to shape the dough after you’ve kneaded a bit more flour into it? Sometimes it’s necessary to do a quick knead with some flour just to get the loaf shaped. The variation in moisture from dough to dough can usually be traced back to ambient humidity, temperature and the fact that sourdough is a living thing, so it changes. The water from the dough is absorbed by the flour differently each time.
Usually, this can be remedied after punch down by the addition of a little bit more flour and a quick knead. I don’t like to incorporate any unleavened flour, so I keep some Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 flour on hand for this. You can use regular flour if you’re not so picky.
If I’ve understood incorrectly, please let me know and I’ll try again. We’ll get this figured out, no worries! I’m mobile today but I’ll be back tonight. If you want to send a picture (should you have the energy to try again!), you can email me through the site at tessa@homesteadlady.com.