Gooey melty cheese and slightly sour and spicy chilies are a match made in heaven. Place them in a bread and you have something as close to perfection as is humanly possible. It’s just so freakin’ good. This is my recipe for cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread.
If you’ve been following me for a while you’ve probably seen my sourdough bread with cheddar, smoked paprika and oregano.
It’s a wonderful bread and everybody loves it, and it really came to life as a variation of this bread. Mainly because I am in a house hold with people that have a hard time with spicy things, but now I couldn’t wait any longer. I wanted to make my version of this bread.
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Jump to RecipeThe dough in this cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread recipe
Vitals
Total weight | 1400 grams |
Prefermented flour | 9.0% |
Hydration | 80.0% |
Yield | 2 small boules |
The dough
The dough for this bread is made of mainly bread flour with 20% whole grain spelt flour for some more robustness. The idea was to not have the taste of the cheese and chilies be overpowered as it would be with whole grain wheat or whole grain rye.
The breads are relatively small, but I like my bread this way, since we are not that many at home any more. My one kid moved out, and the second one is on the way and my girlfriend doesn’t live with us.
You can easily scale the bread up to your prefered size.

The hydration is 80% for a nice and moist crumb and a longer shelf life. Make sure you use a thirsty bread flour. If your flour cannot take as much water, take it down to whatever hydration is appropriate for your flour.
The inoculation is 20% which is perfect for a bulk fermentation of around 4.5 hours in all at 30°C/86°F. If it’s much cooler than that in your kitchen and you don’t have a proofer, scale it up to around 30%. If it’s really warm you may want to take it down a bit to 10% or 15%.
Weight | Ingredient | Baker's Percentage |
---|---|---|
471g | bread flour | 80.0% |
118g | whole grain spelt flour | 20.0% |
459g | water | 77.9% |
14g | salt | 2.4% |
117g | starter (100% hydration) | 19.9% |
57g | pickled jalapeños | 9.7% |
160g | cubed cheddar | 27.2% |
4g | chives | 0.7% |
As always, if you want to play around with the formula, scale it, change the number of breads, those things can be done in my Bread Calculator here.
The conclusion of this cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread recipe
This bread has everything that I really love. Cheese, chili and delicious bread.
The bread is crusty. The crumb is nice and moist and somewhat chewy. The spelt flour gives it some heft and a delicious taste.

If you are not crazy about the taste of whole grain wheat flour, because it’s a bit overwhelming, then spelt is your friend. More bready flavors, but not of the bitterness that you probably know from whole grain wheat.
Since the cheddar was cubed, there’s these dots of melted cheese throughout the crumb. The jalapenos gives it a good spiciness, not too much. Enough to get a tingle on your tongue.

The added chives, gives it a wonderful oniony and fresh green note. If you like chives, you can easily double the amount without a problem.
This is a snack bread. You tear off a piece and eat it with glee.
Please share this recipe for cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread on social media
This is my recipe for cheddar jalapeno sourdough bread. If you like the recipe please consider sharing it with like-minded bread lovers on social media.
If you make it and post it on Instagram, please tag me as @foodgeek.dk so I can see it. That would make me very happy.

Cheddar jalapeño sourdough bread
Ingredients
Dough
- 471 g bread flour
- 118 g whole-grain spelt flour Any whole-grain flour will work
- 459 g water
- 14 g salt
- 117 g sourdough starter
Additions
- 57 g pickled jalapeños
- 160 g cheddar, cubed
- 4 g chives
Instructions
Mix dough
- Add 471g bread flour, 118g whole-grain spelt flour, 14g salt to a bowl.
- Mix the ingredients with your hand until they are all incorporated.
- Add 459g water and 117g mature sourdough starter to the bowl.
- Mix the dough until there is no dry flour left.
- Let the dough rest for 1 hour to let the gluten network start forming.
Bulk fermentation
- Perform a set of stretch and folds. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Perform a set of strech and folds. Before each fold add ¼ of the cheddar, jalapeños and chives. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
- Perform a set of stretch and folds. After perform a windowpane test and see if the gluten is well developed. If it is move the dough to a see-through bulking container, where you can monitor the growth and let the dough grow 25%. If not, add more sets of stretch and folds until it passes the windowpane.
Divide and preshape
- Divide the dough into two equally sized pieces.
- Preshape both pieces of dough into balls. Let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
Final shape
- Shape the two balls into batards and put them in oval rice flour dusted proofing baskets.
- Put the proofing baskets in each their bag and put them in the fridge to retard.
- Let me retard for at least 8 hours, up to 48 hours.
Bake
- Preheat your oven to 230°C/450°F including your favorite baking vessel (cast iron pot, pyrex dish or whatever). and a baking steel/stone. Let it heat for at least 30 minutes after it hits the temperature. You can use fan or no fan. Makes to difference.
- Take out one of the doughs and sprinkle rice flour on the bottom of the dough.
- Flip the dough out onto your peel.
- Using a brush or your hands, remove any rice flour left on the top of the dough.
- Score the dough with whatever pattern you'd like.
- Add the dough to the oven and put the baking vessel over top.
- Bake for 20 minutes.
- Open the oven and remove the vessel.
- Bake until the bread is done. This takes 20 minutes in my oven, but may take longer or shorter in yours.
- Bake the other bread the same way and let them cool off completely before using.
Video

I am crazy about food, cakes, snacks and everything in between. I love to do tons of experiments to find the best recipe, so that you don’t have to.
Love, Love, Love
Thank you <3
Hi Sune, is it possible to use fresh Jalepenos instead of pickled? Planning to try this tomorrow! Love your work!
Absolutely. I just didn’t have any, and for some reason they are pretty hard to get here in Denmark 🙂
Is there any reason i couldn’t make this a boule instead of a Batard? I don’t yet have a suitable banneton for Batards.
Nah, make a boule if you’d like 🙂
I’ve made it today but with mixing in cheddar, jalapeno and olives to your ‘world easiest’ recipe. It’s amazing, thanks.
That works too 😀 Sounds like a wonderful bread 🙂
Made this yesterday. It is amazong! Family devoured it.Thanks, Sune!
Awesome 😀 Wonderful feedback <3
Hi Sune. I just started watching your videos to learn more on improving my sourdough techniques and want to tell you that I enjoy all your experiments and videos. I made your Jalapeño cheddar recipe today and it turned out perfectly and is so delicious. Thank you so much for all the wonderful recipes and posts! It has helped me on my sourdough journey! Absolutely delicious!
You are welcome <3