After you’ve nailed the basics of baking sourdough bread, it is time to start incorporating new flavours. But be careful because it is not quite as simple as switching the type of chocolate in your cookies. To be safe, take a look at our guide to the best flavours and our top tips for each variation.

Undeniably one of the best variations, cheese and onion, garlic and cheese and jalapeno cheddar are just a few of the tantalisingly delicious sourdough variations when it comes to exploring new flavours.

• For a smoother flavour, try grating the cheese as this makes it feel more naturally blended into the bread. Alternatively, dice the cheese for pockets of gooeyness inside your loaf.
• For evenly distributed cheese, add it while mixing the initial dough. If you wait until the final fold, your cheese will be more randomly distributed, possible leaving some sections cheesier than others.

A longtime friend of bread, sweet cinnamon is one of the easiest flavours to mix into your bread.

Cinnamon can slow down the fermentation process in your dough so if you want to add cinnamon to your sourdough, add at least an extra hour to your fermentation time as well.

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Raisins, dried apple, dried cranberries and plums can be great additions to your bread.

• Add no more than 20% of your total dough weight in dried fruit. If your loaf is 500g, 100g of dried fruit will be ample.
• Soak your fruit for a few minutes before adding it to your dough so it won’t suck all of the moisture out of your final loaf.

Chopped walnuts, almonds and pecans can add a perfect nutty crunch to any chewy slice of sourdough.

• Always go for unsalted nuts for your bread. Adding the salted variety into your dough can ruin the overall flavour of your loaf.
• Add the nuts at different points to play around with the texture of your sourdough. Adding them in the initial phase will evenly distribute the nuts while adding them in later may cause them to clump towards the top of the bread.
• If you use a banneton to shape your bread, try sprinkling nuts on the top of the dough during the final rise.

If you want to make your sourdough bread zesty, peppers are a must. Jalapeno, ancho and chipotle are the most popular options for pepper infused sourdough.

• With pepper, a little goes a long way. A tablespoon of diced pepper is more than enough to add a kick to your bread without it being too much.
• If you are feeling particularly adventurous, add cheese as well as pepper as the cheese will counter the spice of the pepper.

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Easy to incorporate and packing a subtle nutty flavour, sunflower seeds are often overlooked, yet make a great addition to your sourdough.

• These seeds can really play with the texture of your loaf so make sure they are distributed evenly in your dough.
• The best time to add sunflower seeds is during the second stretch and fold.

Surprise your friends and family with a new variety of loaf each time you bake - you never know what will turn out to be their favourite.

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