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Soft, hearty and full of that sweet molasses flavor, you are going to love this sourdough discard brown bread recipe. Based on the sourdough discard version of my sourdough molasses brown bread, you will never know that this loaf is made with a combination of whole wheat flour and bread flour – it just tastes delicious. If you love brown bread from the grocery store or a favorite restaurant, you will especially love this homemade sourdough discard version. We love making sandwiches out of it but also serving thick slices with dinner. It’s a tried and true family favorite.
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Why You’ll Love this Sourdough Discard Brown Bread Recipe
- Flavor: You’ll love the hearty flavor that molasses gives this brown bread.
- Discard Recipe: This discard brown bread recipe is great if you don’t have time for a 100% sourdough recipe. Including commercial yeast decreases the rise time for your bread.
- Hearty: Sourdough Discard Brown Bread uses a combination of whole wheat and bread flour for a healthy and hearty loaf of bread.
Important Ingredients
- Sourdough Discard – Use sourdough discard straight from the fridge or room temperature.
- Instant Yeast – This recipe uses commercial instant yeast to reduce the rise time.
- Honey – Honey adds sweetness to the dough. The flavor is reminiscent of the sweet brown bread you can buy in grocery stores or find at favorite restaurants.
- Molasses – I use regular molasses in this recipe. For a deeper (and more bitter) molasses flavor you can use blackstrap molasses.
- Cocoa Powder – I use a Dutch processed cocoa powder in this recipe. The loaf does not taste chocolatey. The cocoa powder just gives the beautiful dark color and adds a depth of flavor to the molasses sourdough loaf.
- Water – Depending on the temperature of the other ingredients and the temperature inside your kitchen, you’ll want to use either cool, warm or room temperature water. This strongly influences how well your dough will rise (especially in the winter).
- Salt – Salt enhances flavor. Don’t forget to add it!
- Whole Wheat Flour – I use a freshly milled HARD whole wheat flour for the whole wheat flour in this recipe. I usually like a combination of white HARD wheat and RED hard wheat. Both are high in protein (13-14%) and are milled using a grain mill. You can also use whole wheat flour from the grocery store.
- Bread Flour – I use a good quality bread flour that I buy from my local mill (any bread flour works great) at around 12.5% protein content.
How to Make Sourdough Discard Brown Bread
Mix the Dough and First Rise
Add the warm water, molasses, honey and instant yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer. Let the yeast activate a bit until it gives off a “yeasty” smell, telling you that it is active and ready. Add the sourdough discard, cocoa powder, salt, whole wheat flour and bread flour. Knead the dough in the stand mixer for 8-10 minutes until cohesive and strong. You’ll know your discard brown bread dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It will feel tacky to the touch, but should not be overly sticky. If it is very sticky, add a little bit more flour 10-20 grams at a time until it feels tacky and workable.
Note: If you don’t have a stand mixer, that’s okay. You can make this loaf by hand, kneading for 10-12 minutes.
Transfer the dough to a large container and cover with a plastic shower cap or kitchen towel. Let rise for about an hour or two until doubled in size. The whole wheat flour, honey and molasses tend to slow down the rise of this loaf a little bit. Use a bread proofer or dough mat to speed this process if you want to.
Shape & Proof
Once the bread dough has doubled in size and is light and airy, dump the dough onto a countertop and separate into two equal portions.
Shape your loaves by patting one of the portions out into a rectangle. Starting at the edge closest to you, roll up the dough. Take care to press in the dough at the seam after each roll and pinch the seam closed at the end. Pinch and round the ends of the dough just a bit to get a uniform loaf. Place in a greased 8.5-by-4.5 loaf pan and cover. Repeat with remaining portion of dough.
Let the bread rise in the pan until the dough has risen over the edge of the loaf pan. Keeping the dough warm during the rise will help it rise more quickly.
Bake the Bread
Once the brown bread loaves have doubled in size and risen above the loaf pan, bake the bread for 40-45 minutes at 350ºF until the internal temperature is about 200ºF. Spread melted butter on the tops of the loaves if desired. Let bread cool completely before slicing. Enjoy!
Amy’s Recipe Tip
This is a versatile dough. Shape the dough into 3 or 4 smaller mini dinner-sized loaves to serve alongside your dinner if you don’t want a sandwich-style bread. Bake mini loaves for about 30-35 minutes. Or shape the dough into 24 rolls (about 80-85 grams per roll) and bake for 20-25 minutes.
Substitutions
- Whole Wheat Flour: Use freshly milled hard whole wheat or aged whole wheat from the store. You can substitute bread flour or all-purpose flour for the whole wheat, though it may change your fermentation times.
- Honey: Substitute brown sugar for the honey and add a little less flour while kneading the dough to compensate for the loss of liquid.
- Cocoa Powder: The cocoa powder gives color and depth of flavor to this loaf, but if you want to leave it out and substitute it with bread flour, that can also work.
How to Store Leftovers
Leftover bread can be stored at room temperature for 24 hours. I slice and freeze anything extra in bread bags. Pull out to defrost when ready to use or toast from frozen.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! Shape into 3-4 smaller loaves, place on a baking sheet and let proof. Then bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for about 30-35 minutes. Shape the loaves similar to this discard french bread, but smaller.
Yes, you can make sourdough brown bread with active starter, but know that it will take MUCH longer. The honey and molasses slow down the fermentation of the bread and it can take a very long time to rise.
Yes! Just divide all the ingredients in half and make 1 loaf instead of 2.
Sourdough Discard Brown Bread Recipe
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 450 grams water, warmed , about 1 3/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons
- 80 grams molasses, about 1/4 cup
- 175 grams honey, about 1/2 cup
- 9 grams instant yeast, 1 Tablespoon
- 200 grams sourdough discard, heaping 3/4 cup
- 30 grams cocoa powder, about 5 Tablespoons
- 14 grams salt, about 2 teaspoons
- 460 grams whole wheat flour, freshly milled, about 3 1/3 cups
- 550 grams bread flour, about 4 cups
Instructions
- Mix: To the bowl of a stand mixer add the warm water, molasses, honey and instant yeast. Look for the yeast to give off a “yeasty” smell telling you that it is active and ready. See recipe notes for using dry active yeast.Add the sourdough discard, cocoa powder, salt, whole wheat flour and bread flour. I like to reserve a little of the flour (a little less than a cup) and add it in as needed. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until cohesive and strong. The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl or gather all together as it kneads. It will feel tacky to the touch, but should not be overly sticky. If it is very sticky, add a little bit more flour 10-20 grams at a time until it feels tacky and workable. This dough can also be kneaded about 10-20 minutes by hand.
- Bulk Rise: Transfer the dough to a large container and cover with a plastic shower cap or kitchen towel. Let rise for about an hour or two until doubled in size. The warmer you keep the dough, the faster the dough will rise.
- Separate: Once the dough has doubled in size and is light and airy, dump the dough on the countertop and separate into two equal portions.
- Shape: Pat one of the portions out into a rectangle. Starting at the edge closest to you, roll up the dough. Take care to press in the dough at the seam after each roll and pinch the seam closed at the end. Pinch and round the ends of the dough just a bit to get a uniform loaf. Place in a greased 8.5-by-4.5 loaf pan and cover (I use a plastic shower cap or plastic wrap). Repeat with remaining portion of dough. You can watch a shaping video here.
- Rise: Let the bread rise in the pan until the dough has risen above the edge of the loaf pan. Press in gently on the dough with a finger. If the dough springs back immediately, it needs a little more time to rise. If it leaves a little indentation and springs back just a little bit, it is ready to bake.Note: Keeping the dough at a warm temperature will encourage this bread to rise more quickly. If the dough is warm, it should take about 1 – 1.5 hours to double in size. Do not bake the bread until it has at least doubled in size.
- Bake: Pre-heat oven to 350ºF. Bake loaves of bread for 40-45 minutes until the loaf is baked through and the internal temperature is about 200ºF. Spread melted butter on the tops of the loaves if desired. Let bread cool completely before slicing for sandwiches. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can I omit the wheat and use all bread flour?
You can do that.
Delicious! Full of flavor! Very good for sandwiches!
So glad you love this bread! Thanks for sharing.
Do you know if roasted carob powder will give the same flavor as the Dutch cocoa? Thank you for this and all of your delicious recipes.
I am not sure if carob powder would work – I think it would but I haven’t tried it. Let me know if you do try it and how it turns out!
No mention of the time it will take to double in the loaf pan
Thanks for the feedback. It really will depend on the temperature of your dough, but usually about 1 – 1.5 hours to double in size.
I absolutely love this recipe! The bread came out full of flavor. I’m glad you mentioned holding some of the flour back or it would have been too much. Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
I’m so glad you love this! Thank you for sharing your review.
Delicious! Real keeper, and cannot wait to try so many of your other recipes. Eager to attempt incorporating some grains/seeds into this brown bread…any recommendations re amount(grains)? Also, on nutritional info please estimate 1 serving in grams/ slice…I love baking using grams. More likely to produce a professional product, thank you so much from your biggest new fan!🤗
This recipe is written in grams. I use a recipe card plugin to format the card and I’m not sure if they have that feature but I can look into it. As far as incorporating more grains, you could up the whole wheat in this loaf to be about half of the flour if you wanted to. With seeds, I would start small and you may need a little extra liquid (they can sometimes dry out a loaf).
Great recipe, tastes amazing! Will do again! Definitely hold back some flour.
So glad you enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
We really enjoyed this bread. It’s very sturdy, yet soft–perfect for sandwiches or my favorite, toasting! The recipe is easy to follow and I loved that you put the weight measurements first, + include the regular measurements. Excellent!
So glad you loved this recipe! Thank you for the review.
OMG! Love this bread! Amy, such a great recipe. Thank you!!!
I’m so glad you love this recipe. Than you for the review.
Can this be made without the cocoa powder? Tastes like malt loaf! Very good.
You can make it without. The cocoa powder does absorb some water, so you may need to make adjustments if the dough seems too wet by adding more flour.
What could I substitute for the molasses
The molasses is what gives this bread its unique flavor, so you would be changing up the recipe quite a bit if you substitute that out. You could probably use honey or even sorghum if you have that available – but the flavor will be different.
No oil?
No oil in this recipe.
Can’t wait to order your book I love all your recipes
Thank you! So glad you are loving the recipes.