I’ve resurrected my starter after spending 3 weeks away from home – abroad in Trinidad. Justin requested a sourdough raisin loaf, but with no added spices, so that it would be more versatile with regards to teaming it with other food and dishes.
I like to pre-soak the dried fruit that I use in baked goods as it stops them drying out and burning in the oven. Depending on what you’re making, you can soak them in strong tea, alcohol or plain old water.
On self same trip to Trinidad, the friend that I stayed with introduced me to some wonderfully useful kitchen devices – if you can call them that. They’re like shower caps for covering food… just brilliant! She bought them in a dollar store when she was visiting her sister in the USA. They come in 3 different sizes and the largest is the perfect circumference for fitting over the bowl of my vintage Kenwood mixer and 1-kilo-sized round banneton. They’re reusable and knock the socks of cling film and the plastic bags that I’ve been using. For those of you that are interested, I’ve since found them for sale in Lakeland.
I adapted a recipe by Vanessa Kimbell, baker, teacher, originator of my favourite 24-hour sourdough loaf recipe and the author of The Sourdough School: The Ground-breaking Guide to Making Gut-friendly Bread.
Click here to save my raisin sourdough loaf recipe to Pinterest
- 100g/3½oz raisins, soaked in strong tea for at least an hour
- 215g/7½oz water
- 180g/6⅓oz sourdough starter (100% hydration)
- 90g/3oz wholemeal flour
- 305g/10¾oz strong white flour
- 10g/⅓oz fine salt
- 13g/½oz cold water
- In a large bowl whisk your water and starter and mix well. Add all the flour and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
- Cover with a clean damp cloth and let the dough rest on the side in the kitchen for between 30 minutes and 2 hours – this is what bakers call the 'autolyse'
- Add the salt mixed with the water and dimple your fingers into the dough to allow the salty water and salt to distribute evenly throughout the dough. Leave for 10 minutes
- Next, lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat 3 times at 30-minute intervals with a final 15-minute rest at the end
- Shape the dough lightly into a ball then place into a round banneton dusted with flour (If you don’t have a banneton, use a clean tea towel dusted with flour inside a colander). Dust the top with flour, then cover with a damp tea-towel
- Transfer the dough in its covered banneton to the fridge and leave to prove there overnight for 8-12 hours
- Take the banneton out of the fridge to allow your dough to warm up and finish proving (it should get to 50% bigger than when it went into the fridge)
- Preheat the oven to 220°C/450ºF/Gas mark 8 for at least 30 minutes before you're ready to bake. Place your cloche, Dutch oven or baking stone in the oven and a large pan of boiling water underneath. The hydration helps form a beautiful crust
- Once the oven is up to full heat, carefully remove the cloche/Dutch oven/baking stone from the oven, taking care not to burn yourself. Dust with a fine layer of semolina or rice flour, which stops the bread sticking, then put your dough onto the baking stone and slash the top with your blade. This decides where the bread will tear as it rises. Bake for an hour
- Turn the heat down to 180°C/350ºF/Gas mark 4 (and remove the lid if you're using a cloche or Dutch oven) and bake for another 10-15 minutes. You need to choose just how dark you like your crust but I suggest that you bake until it's a dark brown - it tastes much better