How to Make Sourdough Bread Less Sour

Not everyone wants a face-puckering sour loaf. Some people love the texture and crust of sourdough but prefer a milder, sweeter flavor. The good news is that sourness is not fixed, it is a variable you can control. With a few simple adjustments to your process, you can dial the tang way down while keeping everything else you love about sourdough.

What Makes Sourdough Sour

The sour flavor comes from two acids: lactic acid (mild, yogurt-like) and acetic acid (sharp, vinegary). The balance between these two acids, and their total amount, determines how sour your bread tastes. Longer fermentation, cooler temperatures, and stiffer doughs all increase acetic acid production, which means more tang.

5 Ways to Reduce Sourness

1. Use your starter young. Feed your starter and use it before it peaks, when it has risen about 75% of the way and is still climbing. A young starter has less accumulated acid than one that has peaked and started to collapse. This single change makes the biggest difference.

2. Shorten bulk fermentation. End bulk fermentation earlier. Instead of waiting for the dough to double, aim for a 50 to 75 percent rise. Less fermentation time means less acid production. Your bread may have slightly less oven spring, but the flavor will be noticeably milder.

3. Ferment warm. Keep your dough at 78 to 82°F (25-28°C) during bulk fermentation. Warmer temperatures favor lactic acid bacteria (milder tang) over acetic acid bacteria (sharper tang), and they speed up fermentation so there is less total acid accumulation.

4. Skip or shorten the cold retard. That overnight fridge proof many recipes call for develops great flavor, but a lot of that flavor is sourness. If you want milder bread, proof at room temperature instead and bake the same day. The bread will have a more straightforward wheat flavor with just a hint of tang.

5. Use more white flour. Whole grain flours give the bacteria more to work with, producing more acid. A loaf made with 100% bread flour or all-purpose flour will be milder than one with significant whole wheat or rye.

If you are just starting out and want a forgiving recipe to practice with, check out my First Sourdough Loaf guide. And if you want to go the opposite direction and make your bread more sour, just reverse all the advice above, long, cold fermentation is your friend.