This is a really special sourdough bread recipe to me. Traditionally I will look up a recipe to cook and adapt it to my tastes and make it my own, swapping ingredients for what I have on hand or what I’d prefer to use. This is the first recipe I truly developed, and it’s bread no less!
I stayed away from baking bread for far too long. Many, many years I missed out on this wonderful, and probably most favorite ‘dish’ that comes from my kitchen, all for fear of it being to complicated or difficult to make.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The basics of a good sourdough bread is simply flour, water, and salt. A couple years ago I had the gumption to give it a try when a starter was gifted to me. It changed my whole world and our family’s kitchen forever. Now, I try and make almost everything from scratch. It’s a fun challenge and you also realize just how simple it is to make even the most basic pantry staples yourself.
This bread is one I truly developed from scratch, and tweaked each time I baked it, and when shared with neighbors they exclaimed it was the very best of all my loaves. I am proud to be sharing it with you.
A friendly note.. this bread has quite a few ingredients in it. You could make it weekly, but that would get expensive rather quickly. I prefer to save this bread for special occasions like the first brisk day of fall, or even Christmas morning breakfast. I savor it all the more that way and it helps to set the occasion or make a very simple day extra special.
This recipe makes two loaves.
Sourdough Bread Recipe Ingredients:
- 100g active sourdough starter
- 730g room temperature, filtered water
- 40g whole wheat flour
- 960g bread flour
- 20g sea salt
Filling Ingredients:
- 130g dried cranberries
- 130g pecans, chopped
- 150g candied dried oranges, chopped
- 100g maple sugar
- 12g cinnamon
- 10g vanilla extract
- 200g white chocolate chips
Instructions:
Make sure you chop your fruit and nuts into small pieces so the weight of them doesn’t drag your dough down while rising.
- Soak the cranberries, oranges, and nuts in water for 1 hour before using to prevent burning while baking.
- In a large bowl, combine active sourdough starter with filtered water, whisk together to fully incorporate.
- Add wheat and bread flour to bowl of sourdough mixture, allow to sit for one hour.
- After 1 hour, add salt and vanilla extract to sourdough mixture and fold in.
- Add in the soaked nuts and dried fruit and fold them into the dough mixture.
- Cover with tea towel and allow it to rise at room temperature for 8-10 hours or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Remove dough mixture onto a lightly floured surface and let rest for ten minutes.
- Gently stretch out the dough, I use a flapping motion to incorporate air and avoid kneading. Use your fingers to grab the edges of the dough and flap against the counter to ‘stretch’ it out.
- Sprinkle cinnamon, maple sugar, and white chocolate chips all over the dough.
- Gently fold the dough into itself, flip over and shape into a round utilizing the ‘push/pull’ method.
- Cover with tea towel and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
- Line dutch oven with parchment paper. Score your dough and place into the dutch oven with lid on.
- Bake 20 minutes covered, 40 minutes uncovered.
- Remove bread and allow to cool on wire rack for 1 hour
Hope you enjoy this fantastic sourdough bread recipe. Enjoy!
