Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough boule

For this week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe we have a delicious, crusty, seeded sourdough boule (a fancy French word for a round, slightly domed loaf).

My starter and, as a result, dough are getting quite lively in this warmer weather!

The seeds add texture and and depth of flavour, with distinctive little hits as you crunch through individual seeds. You could even lightly toast them before adding them to the dough – something which I’ll try next time.

It’s a very versatile loaf, suitable for accompanying all manner of meals and perfect for sandwiches. It makes for great toast too! We enjoyed ours liberally spread with a lovely soft goat’s cheese on day 1 – and then it was transformed into the aforementioned toast and served with poached eggs on day 2. Both fabulous!

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest

Seeded sourdough boule

2019-07-04 15:46:25

Yields 1

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Prep Time

23 hr

Cook Time

1 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

350g/12⅓oz water at 27ºC/80ºF
108g/3¾oz fresh sourdough starter (100% hydration) that has been refreshed the night before and again in the morning
400g/14oz strong white bread flour
140g/5 strong wholemeal bread flour
150g/5oz lightly toasted mixed seeds (sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, linseeds, pine nuts etc.)
6g/¼oz fine salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton

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Instructions

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/425ºF/Gas mark 7 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/375ºF/Gas mark 5 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

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Seeded sourdough loaf

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

Seeded sourdough loaf

2019-04-18 13:05:06

Yields 1

Total Time

24 hr

Total Time

24 hr

Ingredients

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

Add ingredients to shopping list

If you don’t have Buy Me a Pie! app installed you’ll see the list with ingredients right after downloading it

Instructions

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

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: 24-hour sourdough loaf

Someone over on our Instagram feed asked when I was going to share the recipe for the 24-hour sourdough loaf that I’d photographed. I forgot that I’d never actually blogged about it, so here it is!

It’s my new favourite sourdough bread recipe because it helps me plan my baking time to a tee. No more hanging around at bedtime for my bread to be ready to take out of the oven. You start at “zero hour” with a refresh of the starter and end with taking it out of the oven.

The 24-hour duration is a fairly loose timing. You can stretch or shorten the timeline to suit by warming or cooling the environment of the starter and the rising dough. I like to time it so that my final proof takes place overnight. The recipe suggests refrigerating the dough for this 8-12 hour stage however, our downstairs cloakroom gets really cold at night – and the banneton takes up a lot of space – so I do the rise in there.

It means I can get up in the morning, pre-heat the oven and La Cloche and enjoy lovely, fresh sourdough for breakfast!

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24-hour sourdough loaf

Vanessa Kimbell

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Course Bread

Cuisine British

Equipment

Reusable food cover
1.5kg round banneton
Grignette/lame for slashing dough
La Cloche baking dome

Ingredients

585 ml/20½fl oz water at 27ºC
180 g/6⅓oz 1:1 100% hydrated, fresh sourdough starter that's been refreshed the night before and again in the morning (Hour 0)
900 g/31¾oz strong white bread flour
9 g/⅓oz fine sea salt
a little rice flour for dusting your banneton I can't recommend this enough!!

Instructions

Hour 6

In a bowl, whisk the warm water and starter and mix well
Add the flour and salt (combined well) and mix until all the ingredients come together into a large ball
Cover with a reusable food cover / cling film and let the dough rest in a cool environment for 1½ hours

Hour 8½

Lift and fold your dough over, do a quarter turn of your bowl and repeat three more times. Repeat hourly 3 more times

Hour 12½

Shape your dough lightly and place into a dusted banneton
Cover with the reusable food cover or damp tea-towel and leave to prove on the side until the dough has risen by about 50%. This normally takes about 2 hours in a kitchen that is about 18-20 degrees, then transfer to the fridge for 8-12 hours

Hour 24

In the morning, preheat the oven to 220ºC for 30 minutes to 1 hour before you are ready to bake with your La Cloche in the oven. The dish or La Cloche must be very hot
Take the dish out of the oven and sprinkle a little flour over the bottom
Put your dough into the La Cloche and slash the top of your bread using a grignette (or lame) then place the lid back on top and return to the oven as quickly as possible. Bake for 45 minutes
Turn the heat down to 190ºC, remove the lid and bake for another 15-20 minutes

Keyword bread, loaf, sourdough

Cakes & Bakes: Baguettes made with a poolish

If there’s a loaf that definitely needs to be eaten on the day that it’s cooked it’s the baguette! If you’ve ever eaten a home-made baguette fresh from the oven you’ll never buy shop bought again. a) It’s the most tasty, warm, crisp delicious bread you’ll ever eat and b) It’s so easy to make! It’s great with a ploughman’s lunch, a bowl of soup or on its own slathered with good quality butter.

The recipe I use is from a book we’ve reviewed in the past, Emmanuel Hadjiandreou’s How to Make Bread. There are full-colour photographic step by step instructions so you can’t go wrong!

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest!

Baguettes made with a poolish

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Ingredients

2 g fresh yeast or 1g/¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
125 g/125ml/½ cup warm water
125 g/1 cup white/unbleached plain/all-purpose flour or French T55 flour
300 g/2½ cups white/unbleached plain/all-purpose flour or French T55 flour
5 g/1tsp salt
2 g fresh yeast or 1g/¼ teaspoon active dry yeast
140 g/140ml/½ cup plus 1tbs warm water

Instructions

In a (larger) mixing bowl, weigh out the 2g fresh yeast or equivalent. Add the 125g/125ml/½ cup water and stir until the yeast has dissolved. Add the 125g/1 cup flour and mix with a wooden spoon until a spoon paste forms. Cover the bowl and let ferment overnight at room temperature. This is the poolish (Rather than do this stage I used 250g of my white starter)
The next day, in a (smaller) mixing bowl, mix the 300g/2½ cups flour and the salt together and set aside. This is the dry mixture
In another (smaller) mixing bowl, weigh out the remaining 2g fresh yeast or equivalent. Add the 140g/140ml/½ cup plus 1tbs water and stir until the yeast has dissolved
Mix the yeast solution into the poolish, then add the dry mixture too and mix with your hands until it comes together
Cover and let stand for 10 minutes
After 10 minutes knead as instructed in photos I, J & K in the illustrated page below
Cover the bowl again and let stand for 10 minutes
Repeat steps 6 & 7 twice, then step 6 again
Cover the bowl again and let rise for 1 hour
Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Punch down the dough and transfer to the floured surface. Divide into 3 equal portions – weigh each piece and add or subtract dough until they all weight the same
Gently flatten each ball of dough into an oval. Pull both ends of the oval out, then fold them over into the middle. You will now have a roughly rectangular shape
Pull and fold the top of the rectangle one third of the way toward the middle, pressing into the dough. Swivel it 180° and repeat. Repeat until you have a neat, long loaf shape
Repeat with the remaining portions of dough. Cover the loaves (seam-side down) and let rest for 15 minutes
Turn one loaf over and flatten slightly . Fold the top right of the rectangle one third of the way toward the middle, pressing it into the dough. Repeat with the top left and repeat until rolled up
Roll the dough between your hands until you get a baguette about the length of your baking shape or the desired length. Repeat with the remaining dough
Dust the proofing linen/tea towel with flour and lay it on the baking sheet. Arrange the baguettes on the cloth, seam-side up, pulling a bit of excess cloth between each baguette to separate them
Cover with the cloth and let rise until double the size – about an hour
About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/Gas 9. Place a roasting pan at the bottom of the oven to preheat. Fill a cup of water and set aside
When the dough has finished rising, turn the baguettes over with a peel, if using, onto a paper-lined baking sheet. Dust them with flour and slash along their lengths using a lamé or serrated knife
Put in the preheated oven and pour the reserved cupful of water onto the hot roasting pan
Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. To check if baked through, tip one upside down and tap the bottom – it should sound hollow. If ready, set the loaves on a wire rack to cool

Tools: 3 graduated mixing bowls (I like to use clear glass bowls so I can keep an eye on where the rise is at)
proofing linen or clean tea/kitchen towel
baking sheet (we bought this one as it’s the exact depth of our oven so fits baguettes perfectly. It’s made of good quality, heavy gauge metal)
floured long baguette bread peel (optional)
parchment paper

_{(click on the image for an expanded view)}

Leaving the dough in the bowl, pull a portion of the dough up from the sides and press into the middle. Turn the bowl slightly and repeat this process with another portion of the dough. Repeat another 8 times. The whole process should only take about 10 seconds and the dough should start to resist.