Sourdough Jalapeno Cheddar Bread: A Recipe from the Farm
Last Updated on March 17, 2024 by TheFarmChicken

I didn’t think I would enjoy this recipe so much! I made this with fresh jalapeños (you can substitute pickled if you prefer or if you don’t have any fresh available to you) and sharp cheddar cheese. This bread has a delicious flavor and just the right amount of heat. Let’s make some Sourdough Jalapeno Cheddar Bread: A Recipe from the Farm
This sourdough bread is packed with jalapeño flavor and complemented by sharp cheddar cheese throughout the bread. Baked till golden brown and it makes the most beautiful crust with the cheese and jalapenos showing through where the bread was scored. This bread makes for a great side with soup or a hotdish or use it for grilled cheese like this Fancy Grilled Cheese. So many tasty ways to eat it!
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The Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Cheddar cheese is a great addition to this bread. I find it to be like the happiness I get when I find a raisin in cinnamon raisin bread. It’s not in every bite but appreciated when it is.
My favorite way is to shred the cheddar cheese. The little bits throughout the bread are what I like but if you would like a gooier bite of cheese in your bread then I would recommend you use small chunks/cubes.
I have been using Tillamook Sharp Cheddar and it has worked well!

The Jalapenos

This year in our garden we planted quite a few peppers and different varieties too. One of those being jalapenos. They have been fun to grow and cook with and I’m glad we planted them so we could enjoy them in sourdough bread!
The spicy jalapenos give this bread so much flavor and a nice spice. Especially when you get a taste of one of the jalapeno pepper pieces.
If you want, you can also use pickled jalapenos. Just simply substitute the same amount of pickled jalapenos as fresh. We got a fair number of jalapenos, and I pickled some in hopes to be able to enjoy this bread into the fall months from just my garden jalapenos.
Last but not Least: The Bread
TheFarmChicken Sourdough Bread is the base for this recipe and the time spent to get that recipe just right spills over into this recipe and making the perfect base for jalapenos and cheddar to be added.
If you don’t have your own sourdough starter, you can start here, and let Agnes help you learn all about the wonderful world of sourdough and how to be successful with making homemade sourdough bread along with so many other sourdough foods!

Three ways to do the inclusion of sharp cheddar cheese and jalapenos:
- Incorporate the add ins at the beginning during the kneading process. (Jalapenos at this step -shredded cheese is always during folding.)
- Incorporate the add ins when shaping the loaves.
- If you are making the jalapeno cheddar sourdough bread with cubes of cheddar cheese then you will add them during the coil folds.
I prefer to incorporate the jalapeno peppers into the dough during the kneading process but if you are wanting one plain loaf and one jalapeno cheddar loaf then you will want to do the inclusion at the shaping step.

Add Cubes Instead of Shredded Cheese: (Update)
I have recently experimented with adding cubes of cheese to the Jalapeno Cheddar Bread instead of shredded cheese. Turns out both ways are really good, and the cheese cubes are fun for something different.
Adding the Chedder Cubes:
When adding the cubes and jalapenos I just add them at the first coil fold and incorporate them this way. Just stretch and fold or coil fold the inclusions into the bread, shape and place in banneton.
Baking Schedule I like to use:

- 11:30 am feed my sourdough starter (You may want to adjust feeding your starter earlier or later based on your kitchen temperature. If the temperature is cooler than the low 70’s then you will want to feed it earlier, warmer, later.)
- 5:30 pm Mix up bread dough
- 11:00 pm put bread in fridge to proof
- Next Day:
- 6:30 am Preheat the oven to 500 degrees
- 7:30 am Bake the first loaf followed by the second loaf
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Sourdough Jalapeno Cheddar Bread: A Recipe from the Farm
- 280 g sourdough starter, active
- 550 g water, room temperature, distilled or filtered (NO CHOLORINATED WATER)
- 900 g bread flour
- 20 g kosher salt
- 100 g jalapeno peppers, fresh (diced) or pickled
- 160 g sharp cheddar cheese, grated or in 1/2″ inch cubes
- In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer; measure out the active starter and the room temperature water. Mix this together with your hand, wooden spoon, or Danish dough hook. After it has made a slurry measure in the flour.
- Next, either with the dough hook and stand mixer or by hand mix until it forms a shaggy dough about 1-2 minutes. Let the dough rest, covered for 30 minutes. (This is the Autolyse.)
- After autolyse add in the kosher salt (and diced jalapeno peppers) and knead on the lowest setting or by hand for 5-6 minutes.
- Grease a large bowl (non-metal mixing bowl) with a dash of olive oil and once the bread is done being kneaded transfer the bread dough to the prepared bowl. Let rest, covered for 30-45 minutes.
- You will now perform your first set of coil folds. If you are unsure of how to do this, please refer to above or my YouTube video. When you are working with the dough it can be sticky. If you are having issues with it sticking to your hands, get a little bowl with some water in it and wet your hands as needed to help prevent sticking. Your wet hands are almost like floured hands without having to use flour which we want to avoid.
Then… coil folds:
- coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, shape
- Before you shape your bread, you are going to want to shred your cheese and dice the jalapeño peppers if you haven’t already added them to your bread.
- Next, remove the dough from the bowl onto a clean work surface with NO flour. (If the dough is sticky use some water in a small bowl to wet your fingers.)
- Using a bench scraper or sharp knife (a chef’s knife works well for this, be careful if you use a knife). Divide the dough in half.
- Take the one half and stretch or laminate the dough by pulling it gently into a rectangle. Sprinkle in the cheddar cheese now and jalapeño peppers if you haven’t already kneaded the jalapenos in. Next fold it in thirds into the middle and roll it up from one end.
- Pull the dough ball toward you with cupped hands to create surface tension. Be sure not to overdo this step as you don’t want to rip the dough.
- Repeat this with the second loaf and let rest for 15 minutes.
- After the rest gently shape the loaves again using the same process as earlier but being gentler with the dough. It doesn’t pull out as far the second time and that is okay.
- Once they are shaped again, flour the top of the dough, and put them in floured bannetons with the seam side up. Put each loaf in a plastic bag and tie.
Bulk Ferment/ Bread Rise:
- Let the loaves sit on the counter for 30 minutes before placing them in the fridge for 8-10 hours. This is where the dough rise will happen the most.
Bake Day:
- The next day once the loaves have been in the fridge for 7 hours; preheat your oven with the Dutch oven inside to 500 degrees.
- At around 1 hour of preheating the oven it should be the correct oven temperature and the Dutch oven well preheated. For the best results you want a hot oven! A hot oven helps with oven spring as well. Take the first loaf of bread dough out of the fridge and flip it out of the banneton onto a piece of parchment paper.
- Do any designs you would like and then slash the dough with a bread lame or razor blade. Remember to do this at a slight angle and a half inch to an inch deep.
- Transfer the bread to the preheated Dutch oven using the parchment paper as a lifter. Return the covered Dutch oven to the oven, reduce the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 25 minutes.
- When the 25 minutes are over, take the lid off and bake for another 15 minutes. This helps the loaf to finish baking and become golden brown.
- Place the loaf onto a cooling wire rack and put the Dutch oven with the lid back into the oven. Preheat to 500 degrees and then repeat the process over again with the second loaf.
- Allow to cool and enjoy your sourdough loaves! It is delightful!

Sourdough Jalapeno Cheddar Bread: A Recipe from the Farm

Ingredients
- 280 g sourdough starter active
- 550 g water room temperature, distilled or filtered (NO CHOLORINATED WATER)
- 900 g bread flour
- 20 g kosher salt
- 100 g jalapeno peppers fresh(diced) or pickled**
- 150 g sharp cheddar cheese grated or in 1/2" cubes
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer; measure out the active starter and the room temperature water. Mix this together with your hand, wooden spoon, or Danish dough hook. After it has made a slurry measure in the flour.
- Next, either with the dough hook and stand mixer or by hand mix until it forms a shaggy dough about 1-2 minutes. Let the dough rest, covered for 30 minutes. (This is the Autolyse.)
- After autolyse add in the kosher salt (and jalapenos) and knead on the lowest setting or by hand for 5-6 minutes.
- Grease a large bowl (non-metal mixing bowl) with a dash of olive oil and once the bread is done being kneaded transfer the bread dough to the prepared bowl. Let rest, covered for 35 minutes.
- You will now perform your first set of coil folds. If you are unsure of how to do this, please refer to above or my YouTube video. When you are working with the dough it can be sticky. If you are having issues with it sticking to your hands get a little bowl with some water in it and wet your hands as needed to help prevent sticking. Your wet hands are almost like floured hands without having to use flour which we want to avoid.
- Then…
- coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, coil fold
- 30 min rest, shape
- Before you shape your bread, you are going to want to shred your cheese and dice the jalapeño peppers if you haven’t already added them to your bread.
- Next, remove the dough from the bowl onto a clean work surface with NO flour. (If the dough is sticky use some water in a small bowl to wet your fingers.)
- Using a bench scraper or sharp knife (a chef’s knife works well for this, be careful if you use a knife). Divide the dough in half.
- Take the one half and stretch or laminate the dough by pulling it gently into a rectangle. Sprinkle in the cheddar cheese now and jalapeño peppers if you haven’t already kneaded the jalapenos in. Next fold it in thirds into the middle and roll it up from one end.
- Pull the dough ball toward you with cupped hands to create surface tension. Be sure not to overdo this step as you don’t want to rip the dough.
- Repeat this with the second loaf and let rest for 15 minutes.
- After the rest gently shape the loaves again using the same process as earlier but being gentler with the dough. It doesn’t pull out as far the second time and that is okay.
- Once they are shaped again, flour the top of the dough, and put them in floured bannetons with the seam side up. Put each loaf in a plastic bag and tie.
Bulk Ferment/ Bread Rise:
- Let the loaves sit on the counter for 30 minutes before placing them in the fridge for 8-10 hours. This is where the dough rise will happen the most.
Bake Day:
- The next day once the loaves have been in the fridge for 7 hours; preheat your oven with the Dutch oven inside to 500 degrees.
- At around 1 hour of preheating the oven it should be the correct oven temperature and the Dutch oven well preheated. For the best results you want a hot oven! A hot oven helps with oven spring as well. Take the first loaf of bread dough out of the fridge and flip it out of the banneton onto a piece of parchment paper.
- Do any designs you would like and then slash the dough with a bread lame or razor blade. Remember to do this at a slight angle and a half inch to an inch deep.
- Transfer the bread to the preheated Dutch oven using the parchment paper as a lifter. Return the covered Dutch oven to the oven, reduce the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 25 minutes.
- When the 25 minutes are over, take the lid off and bake for another 15 minutes. This helps the loaf to finish baking and become golden brown.
- Place the loaf onto a cooling wire rack and put the Dutch oven with the lid back into the oven. Preheat to 500 degrees and then repeat the process over again with the second loaf.
- Allow to cool and enjoy your sourdough loaves! It is delightful!
Notes
Leave a comment or question below. I would love to hear how you like this Sourdough Jalapeno Cheddar Bread: A Recipe from the Farm. Thanks for stopping by. Enjoy!
Mariah N. | TheFarmChicken
More Sourdough Recipes:
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Jalapeño and cheddar flavors go so well together… then combine with that sourdough flavor! It’s heavenly! Thank you
I just took my starter out and looking for a new recipe to try. Looks delicious!
Perfect timing! Let me know how you like it!
Yes! The combo is so good!
Wow! I can’t wait to try this! Definitely saving this one 🙂
I hope you enjoy!
This looks delicious!
Thank you! One of my favorites!
I can’t wait to try this! I have so many jalapenos in the garden! Thank you!