Baby Steps … to Bread

It turns out that blueberry and goat cheese (or any cheese) sourdough is one of our favorite between-meal snacks. The sweet berries coupled with the slightly tangy taste of sourdough is a match made in heaven.

I actually baked this loaf to give away to our friends tonight. They just called to cancel. Their daughter-in-law was in labor. Well…that’s great news all around. They get a new addition to the family, and my wife and I get to eat more tasty bread!

I hardly ever know what I’m going to make ahead of time, and that was true this time as well. I always start with the Elaine Boddy (foodbodsourdough.com) Master Recipe, and at the last minute I decide on an inclusion, or not. In this case we had a cheese/blueberry pack in our fridge that weighed in at 127 grams…perfect for this loaf.

Recipe

• 450 Grams King Arthur Bread Flour
• 50 Grams of King Arthur Whole Wheat
• 68 Grams of stiff starter (should have been 50 but I accidentally added one too many scoops)
• 350 Grams of 90 degree bottled water
• About 12 Grams of Real Salt (two teaspoons as my scale is sketchy at these low weights)
• Two teaspoons of Diastatic Malt Powder for flavor, color and an increased oven-spring
• 127 Grams of Vermont Blueberry, Lemon, Thyme, Goat Cheese

Process

We all know the standard steps to produce a loaf of sourdough, but I performed a few extra steps to make this a success. Nothing drastic, but just a few things I’ve learned along the way. They are:

• As published by “The Sourdough Journey” website, and I believe mentioned in the updated “Tartine” book, I incorporated some early dough-development steps to help build structure. Namely, after a short fermentolyse I ran through three sets of pinch-and-folds, spaced three minutes apart. Actually, I did a slap-and-fold in place of one pinch-and-fold to help incorporate the salt and water added after the second step.
• After moving the dough to the Banneton I let it rest another two hours to fully ferment.
• I incorporated the goat cheese mix after fermentation by laminating and folding the dough.

• As I do with most of my bakes, I started with a cold oven and cold Dutch-Oven. I bake at 450 for 55 minutes. I works very well and with the slow rise in temperature I get outstanding oven-spring before the dough firms up.

Crumb Shot

Not amazing, but having inclusions will limit how open the crumb is. The dough is supporting the extra weight and the process of rolling the dough after lamination tends to leave areas where the crumb separates.

Conclusion

This loaf tasted amazing, and the crumb is so soft and supple that you just can’t resist a second piece. Butter really enhances the experience, but tomorrow I will try some soft cream cheese on top! Give this a shot and see if you can figure out a better way to incorporate the goat cheese and blueberries.