Honey Walnut Loaf

Honey Walnut Loaf

Makes: 1 loaf

Total time: ~1.5 day

Measuring	Weight (g)	Weight (oz)	Ingredient
--	100 g	3.52   oz	Walnuts, toasted on stovetop or in oven
1 tsp	--	--	Cinnamon
--	53   g	1.86   oz	Sourdough starter, at peak
--	380 g	13.40 oz	Water, room temp
--	30   g	1.05   oz	Honey
--	360 g	12.59 oz	Bread flour
--	90   g	3.17   oz	All purpose flour
--	50   g	1.76   oz	Whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp	9     g	0.31   oz	Sea salt

1. Toast walnuts: Preheat oven to 350F. Spread walnuts on a cookie sheet & bake for 6 minutes (until just fragrant). You can also do this on the stovetop if you prefer. Remove, toss w/cinnamon, let cool. 

2. Mix: In large bowl, combine starter, water, honey. Add flours, salt, stirring with fork to combine. Use hands until dough is shaggy & flour worked into dough. Cover with damp cloth & let rest for 1hr. 

3. Stretch/fold: Perform two stretch & folds, 30 minutes apart. Wait another 30 minutes, gently stretch and fold walnuts into dough. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until doubled, about 7-8 hours at 70F temperature.

4. Shape: Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and let rest for 20 minutes. Then gently fold shape into a circle, pulling the dough towards you to create tension. Place into lined banneton, seam side up. 

5. Rise: Second rise can happen on the counter (90min), or overnight in the refrigerator. Dough should be slightly risen & a bit jiggly.

6. Prep: If in fridge, remove it in the morning. Gently turn dough out on parchment paper, score fairly shallow, as to not disturb the walnuts inside. Place loaf into dutch oven and cover.

7. Bake: Place cold dutch oven+bread in oven. Preheat to 450F. Bake for 15 minutes once preheated (475, 20). (450) Remove cover and bake for another 20 minutes.

8. Remove loaf from oven and place on a cooling rack. Slice and enjoy once fully cooled, at least 1 hour after removing from oven. 

Sourdough Focaccia Recipe

Adapted From: https://heartbeetkitchen.com/2018/recipes/how-to-make-sourdough-focaccia/

Makes: 1 9x13 pan

Total time: ~1 day

Measuring	Weight (g)	Weight (oz)	Ingredient
¾ cup	170 g	6        oz	Active starter, at its peak
¾ cup	305 g	10.75 oz	Water, room temp
1 tbsp	22   g	0.77   oz	Honey
1.5 tsp	8     g	0.3     oz	Fine sea salt
1 tbsp			Olive oil
3 cups	460 g	16.22 oz	All purpose flour
2.5 tbsp			Melted butter
2			Tomatoes, thinly sliced (optional)
2 cloves			Garlic, minced (optional)
2 tbsp			Oregano (optional)

1. Mix: In large bowl, mix starter, water, honey, salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil.

2. Knead: Add flour. Knead by hand for 12-15 minutes, until you feel the dough tighten and acquire resistance, pulling away from the sides of the bowl as you work with it.

3. Bulk fermentation: Cover the bowl with a very damp cloth and set in a place ideally around 75 degrees. Let rise for about 5-6 hours, dough will have risen some and be puffy, showing a few bubbles on the surface.

4. Stretch/fold: Stretch and fold four “corners” of the dough, basically on top of itself. Cover again and let rest several hours at room temperature until dough has a few bubbles on top, has a glossy finish and has doubled. You can also put it in refrigerator and do this step overnight.

5. Transfer: Brush a 9x13 cake pan liberally with olive oil, distributing all the way to sides of pan. Using lightly oiled hands, gently scrape dough out into your cake pan. Using your hands pull the edges out to gently stretch them. Leave dough alone when it's about 1 1/2 - 2 inches tall. Let rise in a warm spot, covered with another sheet pan that’s upside down (so it has room to rise) for 2-3 hours until it is puffy and super bubbly.

6. Prep: At this point the dough should have visible bubbles in it. If not, let it rise more. Preheat oven to 400F. Drizzle 2-3 tablespoons olive oil (don't be shy) onto the bread, and press your fingertips using your whole hand into the risen dough. Your fingertips should go all the way down through the dough, hitting the pan. Then drizzle melted butter over the dough, brushing with a pastry brush, and then sprinkle 2 cloves minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon dried oregano to top of bread.

7. Bake: Put pan in oven on middle rack and bake for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F and bake for another 12 minutes, until crust is golden brown and bounces back slightly when you press down on it. Let cool for 15 minutes and eat.

How do I feed my starter?

I get a lot of questions about how I feed Arnold. Some people treat it like an exact science. I don’t. Which is ironic given I’m a perfectionist/engineer. Not everything in life can be an exact science. This is where I get balance.

I’ve read a lot about discarding half and feeding with equal parts water and flour by weight. I kind of do that. The main difference being that I use the term “discard” and "half" loosely.

I’ll always feed Arnold equal weights of water and flour so his hydration stays consistent at 100% (and to reduce unnecessary cognitive overhead). But I’ll frequently feed him without removing any existing starter.

And I never straight up throw anything away. I always bake it in to something else. Food waste isn’t my thing. (Maybe it’s because I’m an environmental engineer. Maybe it’s because I grew up in a family that said every rice left in the bowl was a pimple on your face. But I digress.)

Here’s my schedule-ish:

Thursday, Friday, or Saturday

1. Assess how much Arnold I have.
• I usually try to maintain Arnold at 2-8oz. Based on how much starter I currently have, I'll choose a recipe where I'll end up in that comfortable range, once I remove what I need to for my recipe.
2. Choose a recipe (either using discard or requiring peak starter). Based on that, feed Arnold. For example:
• If I want to make a discard-based recipe, I'll remove what I need, prep, bake, and sometime in there feed non-recipe Arnold.
• If I want to make a peak-starter-based recipe, I'll feed first then remove what I need once Arnold has peaked.
• Note: The exact amount I feed varies (but is always equal parts water & flour by weight). Generally I'll feed him 1-2oz of water & flour each week.
3. Fridge Arnold after he's peaked & fallen. Timing here is based on starter type used in my recipe for the week. For example:
• If I am doing a discard-based recipe, I likely just fed Arnold. So I'll leave him for ~12-18 hrs on the kitchen counter before sticking him in the fridge.
• If I am doing a peak-starter-based recipe, I'll stick him in the fridge soon (~immediately-1hr) after removing what I'm using for my recipe.

That's it! Not an exact science 🤷. Hope it's helpful.

Sourdough Challah Recipe

 

Challah is one of those words that I always yell with joy. Not only is it bread (which I love & brings me joy in itself), but it's also this pretty, braided, delicious, eggy-bread that I was introduced to in grad school. It was also associated with wine. 😁 CHALLAH! 

Adapted From: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/4200/sourdough-challah-photos-recipe

Makes:

• 2 loaves challahs: 1-pound (450-gram) or

• 1 loaf challah: 1.5-pound (680-gram) + three rolls or

• 16 rolls: 2-ounce (60-gram)

Total time: ~2 days

Levain:

Measuring	Original Weight (g)	Original Weight (oz)	Adjusted Weight (oz)	Ingredient
2 tbsp --	35   g 53   g	1.2 oz 1.9 oz	1.4 oz	Very active starter @ 50% hydration OR Very active start @ 100% hydration
⅓ cup	80   g	2.8 oz	2.1 oz	Warm water
1 cup	135 g	4.8 oz	3.5 oz	Bread flour

Night before baking:

1. Mix starter into the water until partially dissolved. Then stir in flour.

2. Knead this firm dough until smooth.

3. Remove 1 cup (200 grams/7 ounces) of the levain to use in the final dough and place in a sealed container at least four times its volume. (Place remaining starter in sealed container & refrigerate to use in next bake).

4. Let levain ferment until it has tripled in size, about 8-12 hours.

Final Dough:

Measuring	Weight (g)	Weight (oz)	Ingredient
¼ cup	60   g	2    oz	Warm water
3	--	--	Large eggs (+1 additional for glazing)
1.5 tsp	8     g	0.3 oz	Salt
¼ cup	55   g	1.9 oz	Vegetable oil
3 tbsp ⅓ cup	65   g 60   g	2.3 oz 2.1 oz	Honey OR Sugar
~3 cups	400 g	14  oz	Bread flour
--	200 g	7    oz	Fully fermented sourdough starter

Baking day:

Mix the dough:

5. In a large bowl, beat together the water, 3 eggs, salt, oil, and honey (or sugar) until the salt is dissolved and the mixture is fairly well combined. Oil before honey makes honey slide out easier.

6. With your hands or a wooden spoon, mix the bread flour in all at once.

7. When the mixture is a shaggy ball, scrape it out onto your work surface, add the levain starter from the night before, and knead until the dough is smooth (no more than 10 minutes).

1. The dough will be very firm and should feel almost like modeling clay. If the dough is too firm to knead easily, add a TBSP or two of water to it, if it seems too wet, add a few TBSP of flour.

2. Dough should feel smooth & very firm, but easy to knead.

Ferment the dough:

8. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.

9. Let the dough ferment for about 2 hours – it will probably rise not much, if at all.

Shape & proof the dough:

10. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

11. Divide the dough

1. 2 loaves: 1-pound (450-gram) portions for loaves or

2. 1 loaf: 1.5 pound (680-gram) portion for a large loaf and three small pieces for rolls (the easiest way to do this without a scale is to divide the dough into quarters and use one quarter for the rolls and the rest for the large loaf) or

3. 16 rolls: 2-ounce (60-gram) portions for rolls

12. Braid/shape as desired

13. Cover well with plastic wrap and let it proof until tripled in size, about 5 hours.

14. Meanwhile, 30 minutes before baking time, arrange the oven racks in the upper third position and remove any racks above it.

15. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Bake the loaves:

16. When loaves have tripled & do not push back when gently pressed, but remain indented. Beat the remaining egg with a pinch of salt for glazing the bread.

17. Brush the loaf with the egg glaze.

18. Bake until well browned

1. 2 loaves: 1-pound (450-gram) loaves for 25 to 35 minutes

2. 1 loaf: 1.5-pound (680-gram) loaf for 35 to 45 minutes

3. 16 rolls: for 15 to 20 minutes

19. After the first 20 minutes of baking, rotate the loaf around so it bakes evenly. IF the loaf is browning too fast, tent with foil.

20. When bread is done, remove from pan and let it cool on a rack.