Sourdough Mini Loaf Recipe For Gift Giving

Last Updated on November 21, 2025 by Jamie Saechao

This easy sourdough mini loaf recipe will give you the most charming edible sourdough gifts for your friends and neighbors this holiday season!

You can place these small-batch sourdough loaves in gift baskets or wrap them in bakery boxes for a festive finish, and mix in delicious inclusions to delight your loved ones.

These mini loaves are one-quarter of the size of a normal sourdough boule. They are the perfect gift idea for Christmas or Valentine’s Day.

This easy recipe for small, individual sourdough loaves is also the perfect place setting or side for Thanksgiving.

The possibilities for these cute mini loaves are almost endless… Let me show you how to bake them in a miniature Dutch oven and how to add inclusions if you choose to!

For more easy sourdough Christmas recipes, try my double chocolate bread, cinnamon roll focaccia with cream cheese, sourdough butter croissant bread, or flaky rolls.

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Supplies

I wanted to make this sourdough gift idea as easy as possible for you to pull off this season, so here are the exact supplies I used for this project:

• Mini Dutch ovens (24 oz size)
• Bakery boxes
• Coffee filters (wraps under each bread loaf)
• Ribbon-Dollar Tree
• Kitchen scale (for weighing ingredients- highly recommend)

I want to say a special thanks to professional baker Amber Meeks of The Daily Dough, who shared with me where she found supplies for this project, and streamlined some of my searching!

Ingredients

Always use the highest quality ingredients you can afford for your bread dough.

• Bread flour
• Salt
• Active sourdough starter
• Water
• Mini chocolate chips, herbs, cheese, jalapeno peppers (all optional!)

Note that you can use any of my overnight sourdough recipes, cut the dough into fourths, and bake them into mini boules to add variety, as shown in the pictures. Try jalapeno cheddar, double chocolate, herb bread, or rosemary bread!

How To Make Sourdough Mini Loaves

Mix dough: Using a scale, measure the water and sourdough starter into a large bowl and whisk well. Add the flour and salt, and mix with a dough whisk or spatula. Then cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

Stretch and folds: Grab one quarter of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it back down. Rotate the dough and repeat this motion on all four sides. Repeat stretching and folding the dough on all four sides until it tightens, then cover and let it rest for 30 minutes. Repeat 2-3 times.

Bulk ferment: Allow the dough to bulk ferment for 8-10 hours. The time needed for the bulk ferment will depend on the temperature in your home.

First shape: Dump the dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Fold each side of the dough inwards to form a ball. Flip the dough over and slowly spin it towards you to create tension on the surface. Place the dough in the fridge for 30-60 minutes.

Shape + bake: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F and put the mini Dutch ovens in for 20-30 minutes to warm up. (Preheating the Dutch ovens is optional).

Remove the dough from the fridge and divide it into four equal portions using a scale. If you are adding inclusions like mini chocolate chips, add them here.

Shape each portion into a ball using the same spinning motion as before. Lightly flour with rice flour and score.

Bake each loaf for 25 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Let the bread cool completely, then assemble by placing each loaf in a coffee filter and placing in the bread box. Decorate as desired.

Recipe Notes

I purposefully structured this recipe to be as simple as possible while still delivering great results, but feel free to tweak it as needed. I’ve also added optional changes in the notes section.

• Bulk fermentation is highly dependent on the temperature of your home. In warmer temperatures, the dough will ferment more quickly. In cooler temperatures, the dough will take longer to ferment.
• Easily speed up the bulk fermentation with this same-day bread recipe, which increases the amount of starter in the dough.
• If you prefer to shape the loaves into quarters, then place them in miniature bannetons before refrigerating, you can. I did not want to buy mini bannetons and found I could get a great shape without them.

Mini Sourdough Loaf Inclusions

The sky is the limit when creating these sourdough gift boxes! Fold in mini chocolate chips, herbs, cheddar cheese, or jalapenos during the final shaping of your mini loaves.

Bulk Baking

• To make 3 bakery boxes with 4 loaves each, prepare 3 bread loaves the night before you want to bake, then divide each loaf into quarters before baking.
• Some bakers open-bake small bread loaves; however, I could not get the shape I wanted with open baking, so I opted for mini Dutch ovens.
• To bulk bake mini loaves you can purchase multiple mini Dutch ovens and bake 4 loaves at a time. Rotate the Dutch ovens half way through the bake.
• Bulk fermentation is done when the dough has nearly doubled in size, pulls away easily from the side of the bowl, has a few bubbles on top and is slightly domed on top.

How To Freeze

Let the bread cool completely before freezing, at least 2-3 hours. Wrap each loaf tightly in plastic wrap, then place in side of a freezer-safe bag.

Faq’s