Easy Air Fryer Sourdough Bread
Baking sourdough bread in an air fryer is a game-changer, especially when you want fresh bread without heating up the whole kitchen in the summer—or when you’re simply short on time.
Now, I’ll admit, I’m not typically one for kitchen gadgets. But the air fryer had me curious, so I decided to explore what it could do beyond the usual meat and vegetable dishes. That curiosity led me to develop an easy sourdough bread recipe specifically for the air fryer, and guess what? You can have a beautiful loaf ready in about half the time it takes to bake regular bread
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Why You Will Love This Recipe
- You can bake delicious homemade bread without creating a lot of heat in your kitchen
- You can even take your air fryer outside if you don’t want any additional heat in your kitchen
- It is easy to follow
- It is flexible
- It is fun
- You can come up with new recipes or use your own with my instructions
The ingredients
This is what you need:
- Active Sourdough Starter: If you don’t have one yet, I encourage you to check out my super simple method to make your own starter from scratch.
- Olive Oil: I love to use high-quality extra virgin cooking olive oil for my sourdough bread.
- Flour: I use a combination of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour.
- Salt: This is my favorite sea salt but whatever you have on hand will work.
- Warm Water: Not exactly an ingredient but I thought I would mention it. Using warm water will help your dough!
Useful tools and equipment
- Air fryer: Obviously, you will need an air fryer. I made my bread in the Cosori turbo blaze 6 qt air fryer and I recommend you use a similar size.
- Kitchen scale: For the best results, I recommend you use a kitchen scale instead of cup measurements. You can find affordable digital scales online.
- Grain mill: Nothing beats freshly milled flour and I do that in my Mockmill Lino 200 grain mill.
- 8-inch cake pan: I recommend you use a round spring form pan as it helps get the bread in and out and keeps it a nice round shape.
- Parchment paper: Alternatively, you can use parchment paper if you don’t have a round spring form pan that fits your air fryer.
- Thermometer: Since every air fryer model works a bit differently, I highly recommend you use a digital thermometer to check the doneness.
How long does it last?
We always love our sourdough bread best when it’s fresh. However, breads with sourdough will last longer than yeast breads and often keep for up to a week, if properly stored such as in a bread bag. There are different ways you can even use your leftover bread in various recipes.
Other sourdough recipes you might like
The Easiest Sourdough Bread Ever
Simple Whole-Grain Sourdough Loaf
How to make
1. Activate your sourdough starter:
About 4-6 hours before you would like to mix the dough, activate your sourdough starter by feeding it with equal amounts of water and flour. If you are following my sourdough method, I recommend you activate your starter right before you go to bed.
2. Make the dough:
To a large mixing bowl, add the warm water and sourdough starter. Mix well. Then add the remaining ingredients. I like to use a Danish dough hook but you can add all the ingredients to the bowl of your stand mixer and use that for mixing.
3. Perform stretch-and-folds:
Let your dough rest at room temperature for about one hour. Perform the first set of stretch-and-folds: With wet hands, take one side of your dough lift it up and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat this process 3 more times. Cover the bowl with a beeswax wrap or plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Repeat this process 3 more times.
4. Let it rise:
After the final stretch-and-fold, let your dough ferment for one hour at room temperature.
5. Shape the dough:
Transfer your dough to a lightly floured surface. Gently stretch your dough into a rectangle. Taking the short side, fold the dough ⅓ over itself, then fold the other side over. Starting again from the small side, roll the dough into a loose roll. With lightly floured hands, place the dough ball seam side down on your work surface and gently pull it toward yourself a few times, turning it while you’re doing this. This helps create surface tension and lets the dough retain its shape.
6. Bulk fermentation:
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured proofing basket and put it in a cool place or your refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
7. Bake the bread:
Preheat your air fryer to 400˚F for four minutes. If it’s too hot in your kitchen, you can place the air fryer outside. Line your cake pan with parchment paper or brush it with a little oil. Flip your bread into the cake pan so that the seam side is down. You might like to score your bread with a lame or sharp knife. Place the bread in the springform pan in the air fryer basket, add a little water to the bottom, lower the temperature to 385˚F, and bake your bread for the first 14 minutes. Carefully remove the bread from the cake pan, flip it over, and bake it for another 14 minutes. If your bread is not quite golden brown and done, I recommend lowering the temperature to 330˚F and baking it until its internal temperature reaches 200˚F. Remove the bread from the air fryer and let it completely cool on a wire rack before cutting.
Tips for success:
My air fryer has a proofing mode. Can I also proof my sourdough bread in it?
Good question! While you might want to get your sourdough starter going in a warm environment, I actually recommend you cold-proof your bread dough. It allows the complex sourdough flavors to develop and I find I get a better rise if I bake my bread immediately after I take the dough out of the refrigerator.
Can I bake any size of bread in the air fryer?
I recommend you stick to this recipe or make breads that are even smaller. At least in the air fryer model I used, the heating element is pretty much right above the air fryer basket. If the bread rises too much it will get burnt on the coils.
How do I know if my air fryer sourdough bread is done?
Since every air fryer model is a bit different, I recommend you start with the cooking time in this recipe. The internal temperature should be around 200˚F which you can measure with a thermometer. Otherwise, your bread should sound hollow when you tap the underside of the bread.
Is an air fryer sourdough bread as good as regular (Dutch oven) sourdough loaf?
I really love being able to bake bread during the hot summer months and not having to deal with a very hot oven in our already toasty kitchen. This air fryer bread recipe makes a delicious loaf of bread with a soft airy crumb. However, I will not replace my traditional oven and will continue to bake bread in it when the temperatures drop.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments!
Air Fryer Sourdough Bread
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 125 g active sourdough starter
- 40 g olive oil
- 300 g warm water
- 200 g AP flour
- 240 g whole grain flour
- 10 g sea salt
Instructions
Activate sourdough starter:
- Be sure to activate your sourdough starter at least 4 hours before starting this recipe.
Make the dough:
- In a large bowl, combine warm water with sourdough starter. Mix well. Add the remaining ingredients and knead by hand or in a stand mixer.
Stretch and fold:
- Let dough rest at room temperature for about 1 hour. Do the first set of stretch-and-folds: With wet hands, take one side of your dough lift it up and fold it over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat this process 3 more times. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Repeat this process 3 more times.
Let it rise:
- After the final stretch-and-fold, let the dough ferment for 1 hour at room temperature.
Shape the dough:
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface. Gently stretch it into a rectangle. Taking the short side, fold the dough ⅓ over itself, then fold the other side over. Starting again from the small side, roll the dough into a loose roll. With lightly floured hands, place the dough ball seam side down on your work surface and gently pull it toward yourself a few times, turning it while you’re doing this.
Bulk fermentation:
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured proofing basket and put it in a cool place or your refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
Bake the bread:
- Preheat the air fryer to 400˚F for four minutes. Line a cake pan with parchment paper or brush it with oil. Flip the bread into the cake pan, seam-side down. You can score the top of the bread. Place the bread in the springform pan in the air fryer basket, add a little water to the bottom, lower the temperature to 385˚F, and bake the bread for the first 14 minutes. Carefully remove the bread from the cake pan, flip it over, and bake it for another 14 minutes. If your bread is not quite golden brown and done, lower the temperature to 330˚F and baking it until its internal temperature reaches 200˚F. Remove the bread from the air fryer and let it completely cool on a wire rack before cutting.