Sourdough was supposed to fade like banana bread and dalgona coffee once pandemic boredom passed. Instead, five years later, bakers are still feeding the same starters they built in 2020, and bread turned out to be just the opening act.
These bakers track hydration percentages the way some people track fantasy football stats, and they swap starter genealogies like family trees in online forums. Showing up to work with a loaf tucked under one arm has become a normal Tuesday for a lot of people. What started as a lockdown project turned into a standing weekend ritual, and five years in, it shows no sign of fading.
Homemade sourdough bread searches have climbed 217% over the past year, and the classic loaf is only the start. Sourdough croissant searches are up 124%, and sourdough bagels have climbed 64%. Bakers seem just as drawn to the tang and chew as they are to the control that comes from managing a living culture instead of a packet of yeast.
Cinnamon rolls got the sourdough treatment
Swapping a standard yeasted dough for a fermented sourdough base adds a tang that cuts through the sugar and butter, and it shows how far this trend has traveled beyond bread. Sourdough cinnamon roll searches have jumped 646% over the past year. Overnight fermentation helps too, letting bakers wake up to a tray that’s already proofed and ready for the oven.
Turns out sourdough was never really about the loaf so much as it was about the technique.
Sourdough pizza crust is having a moment
Pizza might be doing the most to move sourdough out of the bread aisle entirely. A naturally leavened crust behaves differently than a standard dough, with a lighter, more open crumb and deeper flavor from the longer fermentation. Searches for sourdough pizza near me have climbed 511% over the past year.
Bakers already understand the patience fermentation takes, which makes pizza dough feel like a natural next step.
When bakers get stuck, they’re booking a class
Hobbyists who’ve struggled with a sluggish starter or a dense loaf are turning to hands-on classes instead of troubleshooting through videos, and searches for sourdough classes are up 92% over the past year. Local bakeries, flour shops and online platforms now teach everything from building a starter from scratch to shaping and scoring a loaf.
Part of this might trace back to how consumers are rethinking what counts as healthy. Separate research shows the share of consumers who define healthy food as minimally processed climbed from 20% to 28% between 2022 and 2025, while those who prioritize limited or no artificial ingredients rose from 18% to 25%. A four-ingredient loaf made from flour, water, salt and a wild culture fits right into that.
A starter this old was supposed to have died off years ago. Instead, it keeps finding new jobs, one format at a time.
If you’ve got a starter in your fridge, the next place it ends up probably won’t be a loaf pan. Might be worth feeding it and finding out.
Mandy Applegate is the creator behind Splash of Taste and seven other high-profile food and travel blogs. She’s also the co-founder of Food Drink Life Inc., a unique and highly rewarding collaborative blogger project. Her articles appear frequently on major online news sites, and she always has her eyes open to spot the next big trend.