Sourdough Sweet Bread

Total Preparation Time

• 15min preparation
• 20min resting the dough
• 10min kneading in fruit and nuts
• overnight or all day resting on the counter.
• 120min final rise
• 10min pre-heating the oven
• 35min baking
• 15min cooling

Ingredients

• 580g water
• ~480g starter (a 50% water-flour mixture)
• 1200g bread flour
• 56g honey (or ~75g sugar)
• 23g salt
• 200g nuts/seeds (For example: 40g flax seeds, 30g sunflower seeds, and 130g pumpkin seeds)
• 300g fruit (I use dried and sweetened cranberries)

Equipment

• A scale with SI units
• A bread mixer is nice
• A large glass or plastic bowl for proofing
• A few bannetons or linen couche are nice but not absolutely necessary.
• A large kitchen trash bag
• 2 cookie pans and some parchment paper
• A baking brush or some way to coat the bread with water
• A razor blade

Method

I've gotten lazy about preparing this bread. The old method required working the dough every 50 minutes but I get good results just letting it sit out all day or overnight. The main thing is to keep it warm during the final rise (ideally 100F/38C).

1. Measure the water and heat it in the microwave for 60 seconds to make it warm
2. Add the water to the bowl of the stand mixer
3. Add the starter
4. Add the flour
5. Add the honey or sugar
6. Mix this together until the ingredients have just combined then cover the bowl with a towel and let the dough rest for 20min
7. Mix in the salt
8. Knead in the fruits and nuts
9. Form the dough into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, turn it over once and cover it.
10. Let the dough sit overnight or while you're at work.
11. Warm the oven until the sides are warm to the touch.
12. Flour the couche or bannetons
13. Cut the dough into quarters
14. Flatten each piece of dough, fold them into the shape of baguettes, and put them into the prepared container to rise.
15. Put it into a sealed plastic trash bag. (I inflate the bag slightly so it doesn't touch the surface of the bread. If you think it will touch the surface, sprinkle flour on top first)
16. Let the bread rise for 120-150min
17. Carefully remove the bread from the oven and the bag.
18. Preheat the oven at 420 degrees (215C) for 10min
19. Put parchment paper on the cookie sheets and carefully turn the bread out onto the sheets.
20. Brush away any excess flour and coat the surface with hot water.
21. Dip the razor blade into the water and make 5 quick diagonal cuts on each loaf of bread.
22. Put both cookie sheets into the oven. Push the top sheet to the back of the stove and keep the bottom sheet as close to the door as possible. (This is to expose as much of the bread as possible to the upper heating element)
23. Cook for 25min
24. Swap racks - move the cookie sheet from the top to the bottom and the bottom to the top.
25. Cook for 5min
26. Prop open the oven door
27. Cook for 5min
28. Take the bread out and let it cool for 15min
29. Turn the bread over onto a cooling rack
30. Eat so much it makes you ill

Tips

• Measuring the flour and water on a scale is best for consistency. There is a dramatic difference between 1 cup of packed flour and 1 cup of sifted flour.
• Keeping the dough warm is crucial to the getting a sourdough bread to rise. My yeast is pretty healthy and it still takes about twice as long as supermarket yeast.
• Substituting bakers yeast for sourdough starter is possible but the bread won't taste as good. If you do this keep the final rise down to one hour to avoid having the bread collapse.
• It's ok to let the bread rise on a flat pan - it will just come out a little flatter (I would try cutting the water by 20g to make the dough firmer) and you'll have to devise some other method of keeping the surface moist enough to rise.
• I put my bread into a plastic bag while it rises to keep it moist. I've tried a few other techniques but this seems to work best. Just make sure you don't touch the heating element with the plastic bag! Apart from ruining the bag, all your bread will taste like burnt plastic.
• When folding the dough into baguette shape I use the french method: Flatten the dough into a rectangle, fold top and bottom to the middle line, do this again, then fold into a baguette shape. I think this helps introduce more air into the dough than just rolling or pulling it into shape.
• A lot of recipes call for putting water into a hot pan in the oven just before baking or putting a pan of water beside the bread. I've tried these but I seem to get the best results by brushing water directly on the bread. When you do this, make sure to coat the entire surface. I use liberal amounts of water and there are often small puddles beside the bread as it's going into the oven. This will give you a crispy crust.
• The type of oven you've got can make a huge difference. For this recipe, I stagger the cookie sheets to expose as much bread as possible to the upper heating element (browning the surface crust) and I switch racks near the end to brown the bread that was on the bottom rack. My mother has a gas oven with the heater on the bottom and it's very difficult to get good surface browning (maybe you could do two loaves at a time and keep a baking stone on the top rack?)
• I prop open the oven door with a piece of wadded up aluminum foil. This is to help vent excess moisture from the oven.
• Freeze any bread you can't eat sitting on the floor like an animal and it will keep a long time. Don't put it in the refrigerator. The bread will be 100% just out of the oven, 70-80% from the freezer, but will become a horrible crumbly mess in the fridge. Leave it on the counter or put it in the freezer.

Like I said, I worked on this recipe over the course of several months and the instructions above are perfect for my equipment. I'm curious how well it will work for others. I suspect the starter and oven would make the biggest difference but there's also the type of flour you use and differences in types of fruit.

Let me know and I'll add the info to this page.