Walnut and Cranberry Sourdough Bread

The combination of the nutty walnut and tart/sweet cranberry in this sourdough bread is just amazing…delicious plain or smeared with butter.

– Why sourdough bread?

Sourdough bread completely count on wild yeast found in air and lactobacillus to leaven the dough, very different from the bread leavened by commercial packaged yeast.

– Is sourdough bread healthier than the regular bread?

Apparently, bread using sourdough starter can be somehow considered as prebiotic, therefore it might help your intestine flora with good bacteria. Because the digestion of the starches starts to breakdown during the fermentation making sourdough bread easier to digest.

– How can I control the sourness of the sourdough bread?

To make it easier to understand…the longer the dough ferments the sour the bread will turn out, with this in mind let’s consider two scenarios.

X amount of dough in a bowl + Y amount of sourdough starter
X amount of dough in a bowl + 2Y amount of sourdough starter

Dough (B) has twice amount of sourdough starter as compared to dough (A).

When both doughs are placed to proof, the dough (B) will leaven faster than dough (A) right? It will take much longer to dough (A) to reach the same level of leavened as dough (B) because started with less raising agent (sourdough starter), so dough (A) will taste sourer than dough (B).

The take home message…the less sourdough starter used the sourer the bread will turn.

Now that I really confused you…

– Should we go to the recipe now?

Ingredients:

65 g mature sourdough starter (1:1:1)
255 g water
275 g bread flour
50 g whole wheat flour
6 g salt
12 g olive oil
60 g toasted walnut (small pieces)
60 g dry cranberries

Method:

Start by mixing both flours, water, and oil together in a medium bowl. Make sure that all the flour is incorporated into the water. Cover and let flour mix rest for 1 hour (hydrolysis).

Add the sourdough starter to the dough and mix until the starter is completely mixed to the dough. Use the stretch and fold method around the bowl, approximately 50 times. There will be gluten forming.

Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Add the salt and mix again using the stretch and fold method until all the salt is totally incorporated into the dough.

Rest the dough for 45 minutes and perform stretch and fold method on the dough. You will notice gluten forming as the dough will stretch farther.

Rest the dough for 45 minutes and perform lamination.

Spray the counter with a little water and place the dough on it. Stretch the dough a much as you can, forming a rectangular shape.

Spread the walnut and cranberry on ⅔ of the sheet and fold into thirds, and again into thirds. Place the dough into a container and cover. Rest the dough for 45 minutes.

Perform sets of coil and fold and rest 45 minutes in between until the dough is somehow set, all the sides of the dough can pretty much hold itself.

When ready to pre-shape, sprinkle flour on the counter and on the top of the dough. Flip the bowl on the counter and let the dough fall on the flour surface.

Stretch the dough gently to form a rectangle, fold both side to the center and roll the dough. Seam the end of the dough.

Flour well the banneton and place the dough seam up.

Place the dough in the refrigerator overnight, uncovered.

Next morning, pre-heat oven to 475^oF with an empty tray.

In the meantime, boil water.

Flip the dough from the banneton to a floury surface. Using a soft brush, gently brush off excess of flour. Make the cut on the dough and spray with water.

Place the dough into the hot oven. Carefully add the boiling water to the empty tray to create steam. Close the oven door.

Spray more water on the dough every 3 minutes, 3 times. After 15 minutes of baking, remove the water tray and the parchment paper underneath the bread. Lower the temperature to 375^oF, bake for another 20 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a wire rack. Make sure the bread is completely cool before slicing.