11 Traditional Sourdough Breads From Around the World

When I think of sourdough bread, I’m taken back to the slightly-sweet, slightly-sour, homemade white bread that my mom used to make with her sourdough starter when I was a kid. Not too different from the bread I make today! But, since sourdough is actually a method for making bread rise, rather than a particular bread recipe, traditional sourdough breads look drastically different around the world. In fact, until brewer’s yeast was domesticated in the sixteenth century, it’s likely that all leavened breads were once a type of sourdough bread.

So, what does traditional sourdough bread look like around the world? That’s what I’m excited to explore with you today. In this article, I’ll share 11 types of sourdough bread that are popular (or used to be popular) in regions around the world.

Photo above by Rod Waddington is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

Types of Sourdough Bread (by Region of the World)

1. Injera (Ethiopia)

Injera is a naturally leavened flatbread made exclusively from Teff flour. This dark and bubbly flatbread is a traditional food staple of Ethiopia and Eritrea in northeast Africa. Instead of using a separate sourdough starter to leaven the flatbread, injera batter rises and attracts wild yeasts over many days before it is ready to cook.

Once injera is finally cooked over a large flat cooking surface, the bread is torn, shared, and eaten with a variety of vegetable and meat dishes. See this traditional injera recipe from the Maskal Teff company to try to make it yourself.

2. Pain de Campagne (France)

Pain de Campagne, or country bread, is a type of rustic sourdough bread from France. Historically, this was a naturally leavened sourdough bread, made with a combination of white, whole wheat, and rye flours. Although today, country breads are sometimes made with commercial yeast.

Large loaves of these breads used to be baked in communal ovens and would have nourished families for a number of days. Interestingly, this style of bread seems to have influenced Chad Robertson’s famous sourdough bread at the Tartine bakery in San Francisco.

3. San Francisco Sourdough Bread (USA)

A round loaf of ultra-tangy, white, naturally leavened bread has become known in the United States as San Francisco sourdough. As such, the word sourdough in English is almost inextricably linked to San Francisco.

As the story goes, gold miners used to carry sourdough starters under their arms during the California gold rush so that they could make their own fresh bread. In 1849, Isadore Boudin, the son of French bakers, took one of these starters to San Francisco, and opened the now famous Boudin Bakery. Thus, San Francisco sourdough bread was born.

San Francisco sourdough bread is famous for its light, blistered crust, with many irregular holes scattered throughout the interior of the loaf.

4. Rugbrød (Denmark)

Rugbrød is a traditional type of sourdough rye bread from Denmark. Rye breads, like rugbrod, tend to be popular in cold-weather countries, since rye is more capable of withstanding cold weather than wheat.

This bread is made of whole grain rye flour with the addition of chopped rye kernels, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, or pumpkin seeds. Although not traditional, sometimes recipes also call for whole grain wheat flour to be used.

Rugbrød is a usually baked in a long rectangular loaf pan and is used as the base for smørrebrød, the traditional Danish open-faced sandwich (pictured above).

5. Bauernbrot (Germany)

Bauernbrot, or farmer’s bread, is a rustic sourdough bread from Germany originating in farming families. Recipes may differ from one region to the next, but bauernbrot is usually a dense loaf of bread made from white, whole wheat, and rye flours. It can also be flavored with caraways seeds and other spices.

Here’s a bauernbrot recipe that you can try from The Spruce Eats.

6. Panettone (Italy)

Panettone is a sweet, cake-like bread filled with dried fruit and nuts that is made in Italy around the Christmas holiday. This bread is traditionally leavened with a stiff sourdough starter called a lievito madre (mother dough).

Since the lievito madre itself can take weeks of feeding and nurturing until it is ready to use for leavening sweet dough, panettone is considered one of the most difficult sourdough breads to master for bakers.

7. Valais Rye Bread (Switzerland)

In the Swiss canton of Valais, a traditional sourdough rye bread is made exclusively from whole grain rye flour, water, and salt. This sourdough bread, which today is uncommon, was essential during times when rye was readily available and affordable, and wheat flour was a luxury item (source).

At its core, Valais rye bread is a just a typical sourdough rye bread, much like my own recipe, but one that relies on knowledge passed down through generations, and heritage rye sourdough starters.

8. Birotes Salados (Mexico)

The Guadalajara region in Mexico is famed for its short, crusty, sourdough rolls, known as birotes. As tradition goes, there’s something about the environment in Guadalajara that makes these rolls special. Allegedly, even if you follow a birote recipe exactly, if you don’t make it in Guadalajara, it won’t taste the same.

Birotes salados from Guadalajara are made from a unique sourdough starter, which traditionally includes beer, lime juice, egg, sugar, and salt (source). This uniquely acidic sourdough starter is what gives birotes their signature flavor, distinguishing them from a French baguette.

9. Borodinski Bread (Russia)

Borodinski bread is a dense and hearty sourdough rye bread from Russia. It is made with a mixture of whole grain rye flour and and sometimes bread flour or whole wheat flour. Dark molasses is added to sweeten the bread and caraway and coriander seeds provide extra flavor.

There is a Russian legend that the seeds represent bullets and the dark color of the bread represents solemnity after the battle of Borodino. But…many people consider that story to be fictitious. Either way, the bread is delicious! Check out an easy to make recipe for Borodinski bread here.

10. Bazlama (Turkey)

Bazlama is a wheat-based Turkish flatbread that is traditionally leavened with a sourdough starter. They are similar to Greek pita breads and are typically baked in outdoor ovens.

Nowadays, many Bazlama recipes call for commercial yeast, but as a standard village food in Turkey, these would have been made with sourdough. These are flatbreads at their simplest – flour, water, salt, and starter.

11. Eish merahrah (Egypt)

Eish merahrah, or smoothed-out bread in Arabic, is a corn-based, sourdough flatbread from Egypt. Traditionally, this flatbread is made from maize flour, flavored with fenugreek seeds, and let to ferment overnight.

In addition to the benefits of the natural sourdough leavening, it is thought that the fenugreek seeds in Eish merahrah aid in digestion as well. This bread is less common in Egypt today than Eish baladi. Eish bladi is similar to whole wheat pita bread and made with commercial yeast.

People Sometimes Ask

Is sourdough German?

Sourdough bread is not German. Although the bread culture in Germany is very robust, and sourdough breads are very popular in Germany, sourdough bread actually originated in Egypt with the discovery of wild yeast fermentation.

Is sourdough bread from San Francisco?

Sourdough bread is not from San Francisco. Despite the popularity of San Francisco-style sourdough bread in the US, sourdough bread actually originated in Egypt. Sourdough bread is one of the oldest forms of bread, and before bakers started using brewer’s yeast in the 1400s, all leavened breads were sourdough breads.

Conclusion

There are plenty of types of sourdough bread. Dense rye breads, lofty wheat breads, and nourishing flatbreads from all over the world are worthy of mentioning. The next time you refresh your sourdough starter, try making one of these breads – whichever sounds best to you!

If you are interested in making your own sourdough starter from scratch, you need to check out my video here. It shows you exactly how to make a sourdough starter in six days, using just flour and water.