Baby Steps … to Bread

Sometimes, you just get lucky with Sourdough. This was one of those times. I knew that my wife liked Pecans. We already bought a bag. While looking through my ingredient-drawer I found a bag of Dried Cherries from Yoder’s Farm Market near Charlottesville, VA. Couple this with the combination of three quality flours and I think we hit a home-run! Well, at least my wife and step-son thought so!

Recipe

• 200 Grams: Central Milling Old World Artisan Wheat Flour, .8% Ash
• 200 Grams: Central Milling High Protein Bread Flour
• 600 Grams: King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour, 12.7% Protein
• 700 Grams: Deer Park Bottled Water (Water #1)
• 24 Grams: Fine Sea Salt + Additional 45 Grams of Water (#2) (Added at 2nd Pinch & Fold)
• 100 Grams: Stiff Sourdough Starter
• Approx. 100 Grams: Dried Cherries soaked in hot water and then dried
• Approx. 100 Grams: Crushed Pecans

The Process

• Autolyse Flour and Water for 1 Hour
• Add Starter & Mix to ragged appearance
• Wait 30 Minutes…the three series of dough strengthening, 3 minutes each w/3 minutes between
  • 1st: Pinch & Fold for 3 Minutes
  • Wait 3 Minutes
  • 2nd: Combine Salt & Water #2 and incorporate using Rubaud Mixing Method
  • Wait 3 Minutes
  • 3rd: Slap & Fold for 3 Minutes
• Wait 30 Minutes and then start with the normal Stretch & Folds every 30 Minutes
  • Perform 3 or 4 sets of Stretch & Folds over the course of two or three hours
  • Incorporate Cherries and Crushed Pecans during 2nd Stretch & Fold

Notes

With the Old World Artisan Flour along with the Whole Wheat Flour, this was a very stiff dough. Add the inclusions and it was like a brick! I added more water (45 grams with the salt). I knew the dough would handle it, as I had used this combination of flour before. All that said, after 7 hours of Bulk Fermentation, I had no signs that Fermentation was finished. The dough was on an eighty degree warming mat the whole time. Still, it just sat there and looked at me.

With the dough temperature after 7 hours up around seventy-nine degrees, I decided to Pre-Shape and then Shape. I then placed them in the Banneton’s and refrigerated, hoping that BF would continue. It did and the final dough looked very good.

The Bake

Picture of the final results above. I cooked the larger width loaf in my Staub Oval Bread Cocotte. I used the adjacent black KooK Dutch Oven for the smaller diameter loaf. Both came out very, very good. It’s one of the few loafs that my wife has enjoyed as she loves the fruit and nut combo. A good friend of mine gave me a very good compliment. This friend and her husband have taken classes at King Arthur Baking in Vermont. They also studied at the Culinary Institute of America in NYC.