Sourdough is a fun bread. It has a decidedly different flavor than a traditional white or wheat bread, with — as the name suggests — just a bit of sour flavor. It’s a versatile bread, as it can be used for any meal, whether it’s toasted for breakfast, made as part of a lunch sandwich or used to sop up the remains of a broccoli cheddar soup.
Most big grocers carry sourdough. The good news is Aldi does, too.
Specially Selected Sourdough Loaves are a Regular Buy, meaning you can get them in stores all times of the year. At the time of this post, Aldi offers two varieties, square and round. The square is $2.89, while round is $2.99. Both are 24 ounces, so we’re not sure why the round is 10 cents more. We decided to test the square, although we assume they pretty much taste the same.
The fine print doesn’t say much about who makes the bread, although it does caution that it is manufactured in a factory that also handles milk, soy, and egg. The package states that the bread should be stored at room temperature until the expiration date sticker, but it can be frozen for up to three months if you’re not using it right away.
Ingredients and nutrition information.
It’s a tasty bread. It’s easy to handle, holds together very well, and tastes great no matter how it’s prepared. I’ve eaten it toasted with jam, as part of a ham and cheese sandwich, and served it with butter alongside a dinner entree. It passed with flying colors each time. One small drawback is that each piece of bread is wide and large, but it’s easy to chop a slice of bread in half for, say, sandwich purposes.
The Verdict:
Aldi’s sourdough loaf is a quality sourdough, with the taste and texture I’d expect. The bread holds together well and works for a number of different meals. Recommended.
The round sourdough is my favorite and hands down beats any other in my area!!!! I love this bread but it’s getting harder to find-selling out quickly!
The sourdough bread is a favorite at our house as well & once it has been opened it does not last long. We just love the flavour & taste it’s the best!!
I love this bread for french toast.
True sourdough bread is made without yeast, if I understand correctly. It needs a sourdough starter and a longer rise in which the fermentation raises their bread. I was disappointed that it’s a yeast bread. I wonder why they call it sourdough??
It looks like yeast is a component of commercial sourdough bread:
https://www.pepperidgefarm.com/product/farmhouse-sourdough-bread/
If it has added yeast, it isn’t a true sourdough. Sourdough is made through natural fermentation that eliminates the need for added yeast and creates the delicious sour taste. The sour taste in this yeast-added bread comes from ascorbic acid.
Unfortunately That’s not the real sourdough at tall – I am on low fodmap diet and after testing it for 2 days, my stomach reacted strongly and caused serious bloating n diarrhoea within minutes after eating it. I was stupid that didn’t read the label carefully. We are the people who suffer from IBS and hope you can understand our difficulties. Once yeast and other commercial way to speed up the process are used, that’s not the real thing since the content will be too high on gluten for us to consume.
Read the book, Fiber Fueled
You’re right about the square loaf. It is not a true sourdough. But the new SMALL BATCH SOURDOUGH ROUND LOAF is a different recipe with only three main ingredients and starter. ( no bakers yeast or citric acid. You can see the difference in the texture also. It seems to be a real sourdough. You may want to try it.
It’s a minefield trying to understand this. My husband has just gone onto the Fodmap diet for his prostate cancer and thank you, your post has helped tremendously.
When containing yeast it is not real sourdough. If you are buying sourdough bread for the nutritional purpose you wont get it with yeast. In that case be sure to call it sourdough “flavored” bread. Often people like myself need real sourdough for tummy issues and it is just flavored that wont help. Aldi does carry a real sourdough without yeast, but it is hard to get most often.
Thank you for that. If yeast is an ingredient, it isn’t true sourdough.
Not a true leavened sourdough bread.
I agree that this bread is one of Aldi’s better breads. However as stated above, it is not a true sourdough bread. There is no legal definition of “sourdough”. Could the slightly sour taste be coming from the ascorbic acid? Who knows.
It would seem more like regular bread with sour flavoring added. I wonder if the fumaric acid is what makes it sour. Sure-Jell fruit pectin says it has fumaric acid for tartness, and this bread is certainly tart.
I was wondering whether or not this bread is made with brominated flour? Who can I call to find out?
I would like to know, too.
me too
Just bought the new 3 ingredient version of Specialty Sourdough Round called “Small Batch”. It is nothing like the previous round
It’s dry, dense & doesn’t toast well at all.
Wonder why they changed the recipe when the other was such a good seller. I guess I’ll be searching for a new sourdough.
Just bought this for the first time–the loaf I got is extremely good, but absolutely does NOT taste like sourdough whatsoever. Honestly, one of the best cheap breads I’ve ever bought, toasts extremely well. But close to 0 sourdough taste.
I am addicted to their multigrain sour dough… cannot get enough.. For me I like Peanut Butter or Butter and Honey. Great for a toasted sandwich too,
Every time at my Aldi store the sourdough is still nearly frozen. And a few of the other types.
Tastes fine and toasts well. I’m diabetic and need low glycemic index foods, this bread fits the bill. I also have early kidney worries, the sodium and potassium allowance per slice works with my diet.
The last few loaves of the Sourdough Round have been mostly air bubbles. There are more holes than bread and I won’t be buying it again though I did notice that the round loaves are no longer appearing on the Aldi website. Excellent bread; my favorite! But try and spread butter or jam or anything else on air holes? No. More ends up on the plate than on the rest of the slice that is not missing.
The square and the round taste very different and even have a different texture. The round has a lot more flavor. Unfortunately aldi seems to have stopped carrying the round ☹️
I agree totally. It is getting harder to find the round, when I find it I grab several and freeze them!
The Round was excellent. I sure hope it comes back.
This is not real sourdough bread made with a sourdough bread starter. If it was it would say so on the ingredients. And the fact that it says yeast tells you immediately that it is not made from starter. This is common in almost all the sourdough breads found in this country, although it’s easier to find real sourdough bread made from sourdough starter out west especially in California.
Yes indeed to West Coast bread! I miss Boudin Bakery!!
Actually, I’ve found it very easy to find real soughdough just by avoiding supermarkets and chain bakeries. In fact I’m blessed with having an actual bakery just 2 minutes from where I live that focuses on soughdough and another bakers shop almost as close that gets their bread from a bakery a mile or so away.
The bread at the two places are entirely different. One uses a Swedish recipe (with or without rye) and the other resembles more of a San Francisco style loaf. I know of two other bakeries I could make a trip to if for whatever reason my locals ran out (which they do).
Neither of them taste (or more importantly feel) anything like supermarket fake sourdough which is usually a doughy leaden lump with very too-even small holes.
I’m sorry but if jam spreading is easy and even on Sourdough, then it’s probably not sourdough. All the best sourdough I’ve ever eaten can be very awkward to spread things on. The more uniform it is, the more likely it’s made in a factory.
I wish they’d stop calling it sourdough. As several others pointed out sourdough bread is made with a starter, not yeast. This is how bread has been made since the dawn of civilization. Yeast is a modern invention that speeds up the bread manufacturing process which unfortunately results in a not so healthy bread. Calling it sourdough when it’s clearly not is false advertising and misleading.
Was significantly moldy 2 days after sell by date (4 days after buying).
Flavor was fine, but compared to a regular name brand loaf that lasts 2 weeks after being bought, this insanely low shelf life is pretty unacceptable
Great bread but too many holes in it!!!
I’ve not bought the sourdough in quite some time because of all the air holes, but when it was something I regularly kept I stored it in the refrigerator and it lasted long enough for me, being a single guy. Loved it, but have replaced it with their organic seed bread (larger loaf).
We love Aldi’s sourdough bread. We always buy the square because the size is consistent for sandwiches. The round has small on the ends and larger in the middle.
The last time we were shopping they only had round. It is now our new favorite. While both are delicious the round is tangier.
My husband is glucose sensitive and this bread works for him. I’m disappointed that it uses yeast but apparently it still has a low glucose index.
I would LOVE it if they would eliminate the yeast and make it organic with no bromated flour!
The Bakers Life sourdough available in Aldi here in Perth does not mention yeast in the ingredient list. It is 24 hours fermentation, stone baked and tastes like a local sourdough we have been purchasing from IGA and Coles stores. These are produced by a local Turkish bakery and we are wondering if they are supplying Aldi here in the West. The packaging and shape of the loaves is similar. And the bread tastes great!
Aldi sourdough is an awful tasting FAKE. Additives lactic acid and fumaric acid are NOT legitimate. Lactic acid forms naturally in sourdough starter but no starter or culture is mentioned. If you think you are eating sourdough bread from Aldi, I suggest making your own…it will be YUMMY. It would not be possible making sourdough bread on the scale that Aldi would require thus the imitation. It is AWFUL! I’m going to throw out what’s left.
I actually liked the sourdough bread and used it in every way. I’m certainly not a connoisseur, so my comment is not about the flavor, texture, baking instructions, ingredients, etc. The reason I stopped buying it several months ago? Because the majority of loaves had huge holes in it where bubbles had been baked into it. It became fairly useless for toasting or for making a sandwich and I finally gave it up for better toast and sandwich slices. Now their organic high-grain, seed-full selection is suffering the same situation. The last two loaves have been simply unacceptable because of the huge holes.
What has changed on Aldi’s Specially Selected Sourdough Round bread?
This use to be my favorite bread and would make a special trip to get it. The last 3 of 4 purchased have been very dry, hard in places, and 2 of the loaves have turned moldy before or one day after the date. These have been purchased at the O’Fallon or St. Peters MO locations.