Decided to make my first adventurous sourdough an Irish one and also wanted to bring porridge into it as i haven't tried that yet. So i settled with a strong cheddar + stout/oat soaker. I was thinking the stout soaker would be a good idea as the oats would soak up the stout/alcohol and wouldnt effect my bulk dough performance as much to try make the results a bit more predictable.
My last 2 bakes have been Tartine country bread so i loosely based this recipe and process off that.
Gathered my ingredients:
Decided with the crafty brewing company Irish stout over a predictable Guinness as its more malty and sweet. The cheddar is one we normally buy, nice and mature flavoured.
| INGREDIENT | QUANTITY | BAKER’S PERCENTAGE |
| | | |
| | | |
| Water (26C) (inc leaven) | 600 grams | 55% |
| Stout | 250 grams | 23% |
| | Total liquid | 77% |
| | | |
| Leaven (100% hydration) | 200 grams | 18% |
| | | |
| Total Flour (inc oats & leaven) | 1,100 grams | 100% |
| | | |
| White Flour | 750 grams | 68% |
| | | |
| Whole Wheat Flour | 50 grams | 5% |
| | | |
| Whole Rye Flour | 50 grams | 5% |
| | | |
| Oats | 150 grams | 14% |
| | | |
| Salt | 22 grams | 2% |
| | | |
| Additional | | |
| Cheddar | 100 grams | |
At 11:00 am
Gave starter second feed of the morning.
Started autolyse by mixing all the flour (white/ ww / rye) with 500g of water. It was dryer/firmer as i withheld the stout for the soaker.
Made soaker by mixing 150g oats and 250g stout... at 11am in the morning i was tempted to finish off the other half of the bottle!!
At 12:30 my starter was lovely and bubbly so i added 200g to the dough mix. I withheld the soaker and salt as i wanted to give the dough a head start - i was afraid of possible effects from the alcohol in the stout.
At 13:00 i was ready for my first S&F so i added in the soaker, salt and cheddar.
The 100g of cheddar was just a guess amount and i cubed it rather then grate as i wanted it to be found through the bread rather then incorporated/lost.
I S&F every half hour at room temperature 23C.
It was 18:00 before i was ready to preshape - was amount 30% bigger and loads of bubbles.
During the S&F the cheddar kept breaking the surface but by the time i got to pre-shape the dough was elastic enough to hold it all in
Arounf 18:45 both loaves went into baskets and into the fridge for overnight proofing.
9:00am next morning i heated oven to max which turns out to be about 230c on the thermometer. Baking stone on the bottom rack with a pyrex bowl preheating.
Baked at 250c for 20mins with bowl and a further 25mins uncovered, I also moved the rack up to middle of oven for last 25mins.
After 20mins:
After baking it out:
The Cheddar can be found in its own pockets all over :)
Overall im delighted with this one, crust is really stouty/malt flavoured as that flavour was enhanced by the dark bake. Inside has a lovely cheddar flavour throughout. The crumb looks very irregular in the pics but i think the cheddar played its part in that.
