What is sourdough? Our ultimate guide

Discover everything you need to know about sourdough, including where we source our top-quality ingredients and clever recipe ideas.

Food Editor

Emily Lambe

Dig into the ancient art of bread making with our sourdough guide. Learn what makes sourdough bread different from other loaves on the shelf, including some gut-friendly benefits. Plus, discover how we make our crusty-on-the-outside, soft-and-tangy-in-the-middle Collection Sourdough and where we source our Wildfarmed flour. Then use your loaf with our creative recipe ideas, from a cosy toastie to a light, summery sourdough salad.

Discover our sourdough

One white sourdough loaf and one seeded sourdough loaf

What is sourdough bread?

Sourdough is a type of bread that uses fermentation to rise instead of adding commercial yeast. This popular loaf uses a ‘starter’ – a mixture of water and flour that creates a live fermented culture – as a natural leavening agent. The result is a chewy texture and a tangy, almost sour, flavour. The crust should be crisp and crackly with a dark, golden-brown colour.

Sourdough is one of the oldest types of bread in the world as it was the standard technique for making bread until the Middle Ages. It may also be more beneficial for gut health than other kinds of bread, as fermented foods contain live friendly bacteria that help restore the natural balance of your gut microbiome.

Explore the bakery

Meet our sourdough maker

Our Collection sourdough loaves, baguettes and rolls are made to an exclusive recipe at Village Bakery, an award-winning spot in North Wales run by brothers and third-generation bakers Robin and Christien Jones. The sourdough “mother” (also known as a sourdough starter) was developed by Village Bakery’s master bakers and new product development team. The bakery is run using energy-efficient ovens and with minimal waste. The bakery is surrounded by six acres of woodland that's maintained by North Wales Wildlife Trust. It’s open to the public and is home to owls, buzzards and endangered grizzled skipper butterflies.

Our favourite white sourdough

Our Collection sourdough

Making sourdough is like making beer – it takes patience, knowledge and enough time to get it just right. Each loaf takes more than 30 hours to make, allowing it to develop an incredible flavour and irresistible texture. The bread is allowed to prove slowly, while nothing artificial – like commercial yeast – is added. It’s folded several times by hand, which develops the protein in the flour, creating an open texture and signature air bubbles, and then baked on Italian marble for a deep, dark crust: total bread bliss.

Try our signature loaf

This is not just flour

Most of the wheat used in our Collection sourdough is grown by a network of British farmers who work with the innovative regenerative farming company, Wildfarmed. Founders of Wildfarmed, Andy Cato, George Lamb and Edd Lees, encourage growers to embrace regenerative farming practices, helping to improve biodiversity, soil health and climate resilience while reducing carbon emissions from food and farming. All Wildfarmed farmers grow wheat without the application of insecticides, herbicides or fungicides, helping to protect the planet for future generations whilst tackling the climate crisis.

Working with M&S, they’ve transformed vast areas of arable land from chemical-based farming systems to those that promote soil health. By growing a diverse variety of wheat alongside companion and cover crops, the aim is to make agriculture a solution to the country’s biodiversity crisis, rather than a contributor to it.

M&S Select Farms

Sourdough recipe ideas

With its deep, crunchy crust and soft centre, our Collection crafted sourdough is a cut above. If you’ve got some leftover slices that have gone slightly stale, don’t throw them away. They’ll make sensational croutons to sprinkle on soup or over a salad – toss cubes of bread with a splash of olive oil and bake in a medium oven until golden. Discover more ideas for using up your loaf of sourdough with our easy recipes.

Bread recipes to try

Summer tomato and sourdough salad

You’ll love this summery take on a panzanella salad from top chef, Tom Kerridge. Toasted sourdough is torn into bite-size pieces and mingled with a selection of fresh and juicy tomatoes, basil, garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

See the recipe

Three-cheese and spiced ham toastie

Is there anything better than an oozy, mega melty toastie? Tom Kerridge has taken the humble cheese and ham treat to new heights, filling M&S sourdough with not one but three types of cheese, sweet and spiced ham and tomato and garlic tapenade.

See the recipe

Pickled blackberry and goat's cheese sourdough crostini

Showcase plump and juicy blackberries with these elegant crostini bites. Pickle the blackberries and pair with our crumbly Kidderton Ash Goat's Cheese for a punchy balance of flavours. Serve on grilled slices of sourdough as a sophisticated starter.

See the recipe

Sensational sourdough

We only use high-quality ingredients and trusted partners to create our exceptional Collection sourdough. We believe in a slow process, using age-old methods for the best loaf possible. And our commitment to exceptional products doesn’t stop there – explore the Foodhall to find more favourites.

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Published 3.19.2025