Year Round Sourdough Baking Strategy

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I want you to steal my sourdough baking strategy for year round sourdough baking and in return you’re going to bless your future self.

I just can’t get this message off of my heart and YOU need to know it.

What do I mean by bless your future self? It is doing the work NOW to make life easier in the future. There are definitely times where I am feeling burnt out, but I remind myself that my future self will thank me.

I have always sort of had this philosophy but my friend Steph at Homestead on Purpose coined the phrase “bless your future self” and I love it! It is such an accurate description. Do the hard work now and in the future you will reap the blessing!!

Here’s how to Bless your future self with sourdough:
Summer me likes to fill the freezer with pie crusts and biscuits and tortillas and pizza dough. These are all items that can be mixed, but not baked, and then frozen to thaw out at the time its needed.

During summer, it often feels daunting to be baking. Quite honestly, it can be daunting to want to bake and then overwhelming to make something with your sourdough when its hot out. Sourdough can feel like a burden in the summer. I like to mix up my sourdough and create freezable items ahead of time!!

Whereas winter me likes to fill the freezer with loaves and rolls and pizza dough and hot pockets and pretzels. Winter is when you crave baking because of the warmth and nourishment it provides.

When summer hits and it’s too hot to be baking…YES!! You can bake in the summer but sometimes you just don’t want to heat the house more…YET your sourdough still needs to be used: use the time to prep your freezer with ready to bake items…
Pie Crusts & Biscuits freeze exceptionally well
Tortillas & English muffins can be made on the stove top.
Pizza Dough can be made ahead of time too!

When you need these, remove from the freezer and allow to defrost! Dont worry I am sharing how I do this below. Please keep reading.

I’m so thankful summer time me premade pie crusts to make this beautiful chicken pot pie.

Winter time me loaves 😉 to make bread and usually it’s two loaves at a time. One loaf for now, one loaf for later. This action blesses my summertime self so that I can have bread in the heat of summer without having to bake!

Additionally, I always have sourdough bread ready for an impromptu family dinner or I can share the abundance and bless a friend.

HOW TO FREEZE

For unbaked cut or shaped sourdough items (i.e. biscuits or rolls), I like to place them individually onto a baking sheet with a silpat mat and into the freezer. I freeze for 24 hours, then the item is able to be peeled off the silpat mat (parchment may stick) and I place into a freezer safe ziploc container.

If you’re wondering about freezing for 24 hours, no damage like being freezer burnt will occur.

For unbaked pizza dough or pie crust, once they’ve been fermented for 24 hours, I shape into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, into a ziploc and freeze.

For baked items like rolls and bread, allow your item to cool and place into a ziploc bag. My sandwich loaves and boules, tend to be quite large. In this instance, I have found that two gallon bags are the best. I can store two sandwich loaves in the bags.

With all items that you are freezing, remove as much air as possible. You can safely store items in the freezer for 6-8 months and up to 12 if you were to vacuum seal and remove all air. Just be sure to check and rotate your supply.

Remember: first in, first out.

HOW TO THAW AND BAKE

For Pizza dough and pie crust, I remove the night before and into the fridge to defrost. Approximately, 3 hours before baking I will move to room temperature (especially if it s pizza dough).

Cut out and shaped items like biscuits or rolls can be baked from frozen, they’ll just need to cook longer. Alternatively, you can remove from the freezer a few hours ahead of baking to defrost and rise.

For all unbaked items, once thawed, bake according to your recipe.

Baked bread and rolls can be thawed at room temperature. It is crucial that the loaves be kept in their freezer safe bag as any ice crystals will help to moisten the loaves. UNLESS it is excessive, then dump the majority out and reseal.

Once the loaves are thawed, my loaves keep best in beeswax wrap or keeki co bags.

You can also pre make cookies and cinnamon rolls, as well as pancakes, waffles, french toast.
Ok. Really the sky is the limit!

I hope that this encourages you to start blessing your future self. I hope that you find the tools you need to start creating sourdough year round and the overwhelm decrease. You can do this!

Happy Baking!

Boots

PS have a question? Let me know in the comments

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.