Ember’s Wonder Bread begins differently from an ordinary bread-machine loaf.
Instead of using a small spoonful of sourdough starter simply for flavor, this loaf uses two full cups of cultured starter, allowing a substantial portion of the grain to spend time in the starter before it ever reaches the bread machine.
A small amount of commercial yeast isn’t the enemy here. It simply provides the dependable lift needed for the bread machine’s relatively short timetable.
The result is meant to be simple: cultured bread for the everyday table.
Ingredients
- 2 cups active sourdough starter
- 1½ cups bread flour, plus a little more if needed
- 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey or allulose, optional
- 1 teaspoon instant or bread-machine yeast
- 0–½ teaspoon salt, depending on how salty your starter already is
- Up to ¼ cup lukewarm water — only if needed
Important: Don’t add the water automatically. The starter may already provide everything the dough needs.
Build the Loaf
Add the ingredients to the bread-machine pan according to your machine’s preferred order.
For a liquids-first machine:
- Sourdough starter
- Butter or olive oil
- Honey or allulose, if using
- Bread flour
- Salt, if needed
- Yeast
Hold back the water.
Select the machine’s Basic/White Bread program and begin the cycle.
Watch the Dough
After approximately 5 minutes of kneading, open the machine and look at the dough.
This is more important than blindly following a water measurement.
If it’s right:
You should see a soft, slightly tacky dough ball that pulls mostly away from the sides of the bread pan.
Leave it alone.
If it’s too dry:
Add lukewarm water 1 tablespoon at a time, allowing the machine to knead between additions.
If it’s too wet:
Add bread flour 1 tablespoon at a time until the dough begins holding together.
Your starter determines the final adjustment. Every starter carries a slightly different amount of water, so let the dough tell you what it needs.
Why Use Yeast?
The sourdough starter provides the culture.
The commercial yeast provides the schedule.
A bread machine doesn’t necessarily allow enough fermentation time for a particular sourdough culture to raise the loaf adequately on its own.
Using 1 teaspoon of yeast gives Ember’s Wonder Bread reliable lift while allowing the recipe to use considerably more cultured starter than an ordinary bread-machine recipe.
A Note About Salt
If your sourdough starter already contains substantial salt, do not automatically add more.
Bake the first loaf with little or no additional salt and adjust future batches according to taste.
Too much salt can also slow yeast activity, so more isn’t necessarily better when you’re trying to achieve a good rise.
Why It’s a Pillar
Some recipes decorate the table.
Bread builds it.
Toast in the morning.
A sandwich at noon.
A piece torn from the loaf beside supper.
Ember’s Wonder Bread isn’t meant to be complicated. It’s meant to be there.
And because much of its dough begins with an already-established culture, yesterday literally becomes part of today’s loaf.
“Give us this day our daily bread.”
Pillar • Anchor • Bridge
Keep the culture.
Build the loaf.
Share the bread.
Ember’s Wonder Bread
Daily bread, As You Wish.