Raisin Walnut sourdough bread recipe - Please help

Hi, Linda.

Welcome to TFL!

What you want to make sounds like a winner!

Do you already have an active sourdough starter? If not, you need to get or make one, if you want to make sourdough breads.

Do you have any bread cookbooks with good sections on sourdough baking?

If you already have a recipe you like for a San Francisco-style sourdough bread, you can easily add nuts and raisins to it without any other modifications. Just add them during the last minute or two of your kneading. For a 2-3 pound batch of dough, I think I would add about 3/4-1 cup of nuts and raisins, combined. You might want to pre-soak the raisins. You might want to lightly toast the nuts.

If you are really starting from scratch with this, let us know and we can provide more detailed suggestions.

David

Hi, Linda.

Well, if you want to get into sourdough baking, you are off on an adventure! You will find there is a lot to learn, but also that there is lots of excellent support and information within the TFL community and the wider sourdough baking community. Let me be the first to welcome you! (I seldom bake other than sourdough breads, myself.)

My advice is to start here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/lessons/sourdough

Follow Floyd's links, too.

Another great source of information is Mike Avery's "Sourdough Home" web site here:

http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.html

If you do not already have bread cookbooks that provide good coverage of sourdough issues, I would recommend you get one or more. Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" is an excellent starting point. If you are a more experienced baker already, you might go directly to Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread," but it may be daunting, if you are a relative beginner.

If you don't want to bother building your own starter, you can purchase good sourdough starters from a number of sources, including King Arthur Flour (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/detail.jsp?select=C74&byCategory=C89&id=1522) or get one for the cost of postage here: http://home.att.net/~carlsfriends/source.html.

There are numerous wonderful recipes for many varieties of sourdough breads right here on TFL. Search for "sourdough bread" and read the topics that pop up (for the next month!). You will be inspired!

Come back with your questions. Most all of us are home bakers, and most are new enough at it to remember when we were just beginning to explore bread baking and sourdough ourselves. We love to help others get started.

Bon voyage!

David