New Sourdough Variations -- Walnut, Berry, Olive
I experimented with some levain bread variations this past weekend, inspired by Maurizio's beautiful blog (Food,Travel, Thought -- so well done). I made a double batch of Tartine-esque dough, adding walnuts and various dried berries to one half, and mixed olives and lemon zest to the other.
The results were delicious. From a flavor perspective, the Walnut Berry loaf is top 3 of levain experiments to date (not that I really have a forced rank list...though I should). Both had a soft, relatively open crumb, subtle sour flavor, and great complement of the added nuts, berries and olives.
Though the flavor was great, they did not produce the oven spring or total volume/height I expected, however, which I speculate may be due in part to any/all of the following three things:1) inevitable flattening from the high hydration % (with the liquid levain I use, the dough was nearly 90% hydration), 2) insufficient tension created when I shaped the loaves prior to retarding the dough in the fridge (it was pretty loose/sticky), and/or 3) letting the dough bulk ferment too long before shaping. To that last point, I didn't measure the volume increase during bulk as I should have, but it seems like it very likely exceeded the 20 to 30% guidance given in Tartine, albeit in only 3.5 hrs in my 70 degree kitchen.
Also, got a new non-bread toy this weekend, a refurbished Vitamix, which I've been using nonstop. While the loaves were proofing, I made a couple different versions of habanero hot sauce, which is now mellowing/melding in my basement for 3 days before we dare try it/bottle it up.
Cheers,
DSS
Comments
I like that you fill them up chock full of fillings The olive bread looks best since I never get to make any and olives are hated by the resident girl. It all looks so delicious and the hot sauce should bottle up well enough once it has some time to mellow:-)
Happy Baking
Thanks Dan!
Everything looks great. I could go for some of that habanero sauce right now. Since your dough is 90% hydration, do you have trouble with the dough sticking to the brotforms?
-Mary
Hi Mary -- thank you! Any no real issue sticking -- I flour the brotforms pretty liberally with a rice/wheat flour mix and give them a good, firm flip when I transfer to the peel, and by and large the loaves released without too much trouble
DSS - I use 100% rice flour on my new brotform. Maybe I need to wait for it to become "well seasoned" from multiple uses before the high hydration loaves will release without sticking. On a side note, I recently tried a salsa made with Trinidad scorpion peppers. Amazingly hot, but oh so good.
DSS:
What sort of flour did you use for the breads?
Regarding your habanero sauce ... looks great. How does it compare to Sriracha Sauce?
Cheers-
Dave
Hi Dave - the flour is a local northwest brand called Stone Buhr (they also call it Shepard's Grain for food service). I've come to really love it and have converted almost entirely from KA flours. The hot sauce is more of a traditional hot sauce than sriracha -- fewer ingredients/spices, but also way hotter!
Lovely loaves. Great job.
Do you roast the walnuts before baking, as suggested in Tartine Bread? I only made the walnut loaf once and thought it spectacular. Not a favorite with the resident female, and I prefer her over the bread, so I will only make it for others, maybe for Thanksgiving.
I do roast the walnuts for about 10 minutes, and think that makes a big difference in the final flavor