Since I revived my sourdough starter a fortnight ago, we’ve been enjoying pancakes (for brunch on Justin’s birthday), waffles and last week’s raisin bread. This week, I made a seeded sourdough loaf.
To begin with, I used my go-to overnight sourdough recipe and simply added a selection of seeds. It’s a very good recipe for using up bits & pieces of packets of seeds you have in the cupboard. However, if you don’t use seeds that often, rather than buy a bag each of say sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and linseeds, Morrisons (and all large supermarkets, probably) do little packets of ready mixed seeds.
Also, I changed the order of cooling and proving. Vanessa Kimbell recommends proving for a couple of hours and then putting it into the fridge. To begin with, I do the final folding at night and put the loaf in its banneton straight into the fridge. Then, in the morning, I bring it out to prove while the oven preheats – that way round works better for me!
It made a delicious, crusty 1kg loaf. Sliced, it’s perfect with bowls of soup – or on its own with just a bit of butter. The good thing about home-made sourdough bread is that it can last over a week without going mouldy. After a number of days, as the loaf begins to go hard, it makes brilliant toast or bruschetta; the twice-cooked seeds impart an even nuttier taste.
If you want to try it out, click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later
- 350g water at 27ºC
- 108g fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
- 540g strong white bread flour
- 50g mixed seeds (anything like sesame, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, pine nuts or linseeds)
- 6g fine salt
- a little rice flour for dusting your banneton
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the warm water and starter to combine
- Knead in the flour, cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours
- Add the seeds and salt and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
- Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times
- Shape your dough lightly and place it into a dusted banneton
- Cover again and refrigerate (overnight) for 8-12 hours
- Remove from the fridge and allow to warm and prove until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20ºC
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC for ½-1 hour (also preheat your La Cloche or baking stone if using)
- Gently remove the loaf from the banneton, slash the top of with a lame (grignette) and put it into the oven
- Bake for 40 minutes, turn the heat down to 190ºC and bake for another 10-15 minutes depending on how brown you like the crust
- Allow the loaf to cool completely (at least an hour) on a wire rack before slicing