I Replaced The Water With Coffee and I Have Zero Regrets.
I just wanted to see what would happen. I keep seeing these posts with people replacing the water in their loaves with sauce or beer or other weird things. I wanted to try it too, but I wanted to make something that was actually good.
That’s genuinely the whole origin story of this loaf. No grand plan, no carefully researched technique, no Pinterest inspiration board. Just me standing at my counter looking at my sourdough setup and thinking — what if the water wasn’t water. What if it was coffee.
So I made it coffee.
And then I added toasted walnuts and brown sugar at lamination because I was already committed to the chaos and there was really no reason to stop there. And then the loaf came out and it was fantastic and also it needed something. So I made a coffee glaze and drizzled it over the top and that was the moment this went from a really good experimental loaf to something I will absolutely be making on repeat.
Fair warning before we go any further. This loaf has caffeine. A meaningful amount of caffeine. It is an adults only situation and I say that with full sincerity. Plan your bake day accordingly.
What replacing the water with coffee actually does.
The coffee doesn’t make your sourdough taste like a coffee shop drink. It’s more subtle and more interesting than that. What it does is add this deep, slightly bitter, roasted undertone that runs underneath everything else in the loaf. It makes the whole thing taste more complex. More grown up. Like regular sourdough went on a trip somewhere and came back with a personality.
The fermentation process actually mellows the coffee flavour slightly during bulk which means the final loaf is rich and nuanced rather than aggressively caffeinated tasting. The walnuts and brown sugar at lamination do the rest of the work — the sugar caramelises slightly during baking and the toasted walnuts add this buttery, earthy crunch that is completely at home next to the coffee dough.
If you have ever eaten English coffee walnut cake — the classic British layered sponge with coffee buttercream and walnuts — this loaf is that energy translated into sourdough form. Nostalgic and deeply satisfying and the kind of thing that makes people close their eyes when they take the first bite.
On the glaze.
The loaf was fantastic without it. I want to be honest about that. But it needed something and I knew what that something was before I even finished the thought. Powdered sugar, instant coffee, a splash of milk and vanilla extract. Whisked until smooth and drizzled over the completely cooled loaf in that slow, dramatic way that makes for a very good video.
The glaze sets into this thin, slightly crisp coffee shell on top of the crust that is genuinely one of the better things I have put on a loaf of bread. It concentrates the coffee flavour right at the surface so you get that hit immediately before the more subtle notes in the crumb follow behind. It takes five ingredients and about ninety seconds and it is the difference between a great loaf and an exceptional one.
The Recipe
Coffee Walnut Sourdough
9×5 pan loaf — straight starter method
The Dough
300g bread flour
100g whole wheat flour
315g strongly brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature (replace water entirely)
80g active starter
30g brown sugar
20g neutral oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
9g salt
The Inclusions (added at lamination)
100g toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
30g brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon (optional but recommended)
The Coffee Glaze
80g powdered sugar
2 tbsp strongly brewed espresso or 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved
1 tbsp milk
Pinch of salt
The Method
Brew your coffee strong and let it cool completely to room temperature before it goes anywhere near your starter — hot liquid will kill it
Mix all dough ingredients until no dry flour remains. Rest 45 min
4 x stretch & fold every 30 min
Bulk until domed and jiggly — roughly 8-12 hrs
Lamination — stretch dough flat, scatter toasted walnuts, brown sugar and cinnamon evenly across the surface, fold back in
Shape into tight cylinder, place in greased 9×5 pan
Cold proof overnight in the fridge
Bake at 425°F — 20 min tented with foil, 18–20 min uncovered
Pull at internal temp 200–205°F
Cool completely before glazing
Whisk glaze ingredients until smooth, drizzle over cooled loaf and let set before slicing ☕(Bonus points for extra toasted nuts on top)
A few things worth knowing.
Cool your coffee completely before it goes into the dough. I cannot stress this enough. Hot or even warm liquid added to a dough with active starter will damage the fermentation and you will end up with a flat, sad loaf that tastes like regret. Brew it the night before if you want to be safe. Room temperature only.
Toast your walnuts. Four to five minutes in a dry pan over medium heat until they smell incredible. Raw walnuts inside bread taste flat and you deserve better than flat walnuts inside your very good coffee loaf.
The brown sugar at lamination will make the dough feel slightly tacky and sticky as you fold it back in. That is completely normal and not a problem. Work with confidence and it will come together.
And cool it fully before the glaze goes on. Fully. All the way. A warm loaf will swallow the glaze whole and you will lose that beautiful crisp coffee shell on top and that would be a tragedy. ☕
The honest review.
This is one of the best loaves I have made and I make a lot of loaves. The experiment worked in a way I genuinely did not see coming. One small decision — coffee instead of water — and the whole personality of the loaf changed completely.
Make it on a weekend. Glaze it properly. Eat it with salted butter and a cup of coffee and try not to vibrate out of your chair.
Adults only. You’ve been warned. ☕🥖
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