Sourdough Starter Bread Recipes
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| Menu of Recipes: | |
| â–º Cajun Three-Pepper | â–º Whole Grain Spelt |
| â–º Tutti Fruiti |
Cajun Three-Pepper Bread (No-knead)
Big thanks to Jerry in Seattle for this great recipe adapted from Peter Reinhart’s Brother Juniper’s Bread Book. It came out very well.
3 cups bread flour
¼ cup uncooked polenta
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ cup sourdough starter
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1-1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh garlic
¼ cup finely diced red bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Place dry ingredients (flour through salt) into a large bowl and mix well. Combine starter, Tabasco sauce and water and add to the dry ingredients. Stir and add in the garlic, bell pepper.and parsley.
Cover bowl with plastic at let sit at room temperature for 18 hours
After 18 hours turn dough onto well floured surface and gently flatten enough to fold dough back onto itself a couple times to form a roundish blob.
Cover blob with plastic or an inverted bowl and let rest 15 minutes. During this rest period, line a proofing basket or bowl with Reynolds Release foil.
Gently and quickly shape blob into an approximate ball and place in proofing basket or bowl.
Cover with a towel or bowl cover and let rise for 1-2 hours depending on room temperature.
Just before baking, slash the bread top to control cracking and lift the foil and dough into a Dutch oven or ceramic (e.g. La Cloche) baker preheated to 500F degrees. Bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover and bake an additional 15 minutes at 450 degrees.
Allow bread to cool completely before slicing and eating.
This loaf has outstanding color in the crumb and is only slightly hot. Cream cheese is a better spread than butter. Would be good as a sandwich with cheese and meat.
Note: Check out Peter’s post and pics of his Cajun Three Pepper Bread.
Also, see Steve Krause’s first try at no knead baking – Cajun style.
Christina kindly contributed these no-knead gems to the repertoire. Christina resides in beautiful Fairfield, Iowa
Tutti Fruiti
To regular no-knead dough add…
- The finely grated peel of 1 orange
- 2 tsps. unrefined sugar
- And up to 1 and 1/3 cups dried fruit. (We used whole cherries, chopped pineapple, minced candied ginger, and golden raisins.)
The dough can be on the wet side as the fruit will absorb moisture. Rise and bake as usual. (Beware, the sugary fruits will caramelize if they touch the pot directly, so use a pot that cleans up easily and try to form the dough so that not too much fruit is exposed.) Makes a sort of light-hearted cousin to a stollen.
Make the dough using…
- 3 1/2 c. whole spelt flour
- 1 3/4 tsp. salt
- 1/3 c. starter
- Water to 1 2/3 c.
Stir in more flour if you can–the dough seems to gain quite a bit of moisture as it rises. Monitor the volume of the dough rather than watching the clock. I found I had to cut my rising times quite a bit.
For the final rising put it in a greased bowl that has been well dusted with rice flour. (If you leave it on a flat surface it will just ooze as it rises.)
Use a bowl that has a diameter slightly smaller than the pot you’ll be baking in. It won’t rise as much as a loaf made with refined flour, but should increase by 2/3.
Dust the top of the dough with rice flour immediately before baking so that when you (carefully) flip it out into the pot you’ll have some there to prevent sticking.
Bake as usual. Makes a flattish loaf–not as fluffy as those with some refined flour, but good texture with smallish air holes throughout and great taste.
If anyone comes up with a way to increase the fluffiness of whole grain NKB I’d love to hear about it!
{ 70 comments… read them below or add one }
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I just read the note re using only 1/4 cup of sourdough starter to make the loaf more flavorful. I have to make mine in a bread machine and my recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of starter, 3/4 c. milk, 2 1/2 tbs. butter, 2 2/3 Tbs. sugar, 1 1/3 Tbs. salt, 4 cups of bread flour, 2 1/2 tsp. yeast. How would/can I change it to use only 1/4 cup starter- so that my bread is more flavorful (tangy)?
Today I baked the sourdough no knead bread using the starter I bought from Breadtopia. The starter is great stuff!! Haven’t had a flop yet–no pun intended.
Instead of making one large loaf, I divided the dough in half after the long rise and made two small loaves. I baked one in the 3.5 qt. KitchenAid cast iron casserole and the other on my pizza stone which I covered with a terracotta flower pot. I baked both loaves in the oven together for 20 minutes at 500 F (covered) and for an additional 15 min. uncovered. The bread got a bit darker than I would have liked due to “handler error”. (I forgot to lower the temperature to 450 F after removing the lid and flower pot.) Otherwise, the bread turned out great.
I’ve attached a couple of pics of my breads. The small loaves are a nice size for a single person or small family.
[img]001a.jpg[/img][img]002a.jpg[/img][img]003.JPG[/img]
Hello Ann,
The purpose of 1/4 cup of starter instead of 1 cup is with a small about of starter it takes longer for the dough to proof so there’s more time for flavor to develop. You can use 1 cup, it will just speed things up and the bread may be more mild tasting.
Hi Aaron,
That’s can happen when it goes too long without a good feeding. Feed it well a time or two and the acidity and alcohol will be reduced significantly.
I was just wondering about the difference in starter amounts between the pancakes and bread. What would happen if I used a cup of starter for bread instead of 1/4 cup? Would it rise up and take over my kitchen or would the difference be in the taste and texture? I purchased a Danish (or rather Polish to be more accurate!) whisk yesterday and can’t wait to try it. It is certainly a heavy-duty utensil.
Hi Eric,
I have a question about my sourdough starter: It is only a couple weeks old, and i’ve baked a few loaves with it, and it has done pretty well. But this morning it had a very strong smell of paint thinner, or finger nail remover. I stirred it up and then the smell went away. But any thoughts on what it could be, or any advice?
Thanks so much!
Aaron
Hi Anna,
No, it’s not. That was about 10 favorite recipes ago and I can’t remember which one I was referring to. I know it came out of Ed Wood’s Classic Sourdoughs book. A lot of his recipes call for 2 cups of sourdough.
Hi Eric,
You said in one of your videos that your favorite sourdough recipe called for a whole cup or 2 of starter (can’t remember which). Is that recipe on your site?
Thanks,
Anna
Hi Lydia,
I guess you’ve probably found our new sourdough rye video by now?
Hi Linda,
You can use white whole wheat flour interchangeably with regular whole wheat flour and any kind of flour can be use to feed starter.
As for blending, sure you can do that. I’m not sure I’m answering your question though.
Eric, I know I read somewhere on your site about mixing whole wheat f;our in with whittle flour and the sourdough starter, but 1) I can’t find it again and 2) I just bought some unbleached white whole wheat flour and want to know how or if I can blend it with (or don’t need to blend it with) whet flour in the 2) starter or b)the actual bread? I use a bread machine as I cannot physically knead bread, so you may need to take that into account . THanks so much for your help. Linda
Eric, do you have a rye bread recipe using sourdough? I have some whole rye flour and some carraway seeds but I’m not sure about flour proportions (i.e. amounts of bread vs. rye vs. whole wheat flour). Thank you!
Hi Andrea.
Attempting to catch up on comments here. Only several weeks behind
.
I guess bread starter would be referring to sourdough starter. Not sure what else it could be. You can buy it or make it. There’s some info here on that.
Wheat gluten (you usually see “vital wheat gluten” around) is indeed used to aid in the rise of breads prone to be brick like. I’ve never used it but 2 Tbs sounds about right.
Try using some organic brown rice flour I use it at about 30% and really give it a good mixing/aerating. Also a warmish temp and kept moist whilst rising (pre cooking) approx 10 hrs between mixing and cooking.
Hi Eric,
What is bread “Starter” and what does it do?
Can I purchase it or do I have to make it?
I was looking at your Sourdough and Spelt Bread video.
Thanks,
Andrea
Also, I read online that you can add “vitality gluten” ( about 2 Tablespoons) to whole grain breads like Spelt to increase the fluffiness and rise a little more. Do you know about this?
HI folks.
I want to try the Cajun Three-Pepper bread but have one quick question.
What is Reynold Release foil??? Is that just another name for plain old Reynold aluminum foil? Is there a difference?
And why the need for the foil?
Thanks
Has anyone had GOOD success with brown rice starter and Good bread.
I have starter happening now, it’s looking great, bubbling and very alive.
I plan to give it three days, then will try brown rice flour , cooked brown rice, starter , salt and water. I will follow the long rise method, and bake it in a covered dutch oven, your method.
This is my first attempt at sour dough, does this seem like it could work?
Keep you posted.
Angela
Sourdough Happens!
When I last wrote, I was working on my first starter (of pineapple juice and KA whole wheat). It was a power potion (something to do with a few 80-degree days out on the counter, I think). It bubbled right away and soon blew the top off a Tupperware container.
Today I made my first sourdough loaf in the Romertopf, using organic bread flour. After the clay baking, next time I think I’ll give it just five or ten minutes with the lid off, as mine got a little too crispy with 15. But the bread rose nicely and looks golden and tempting (with just a little black edge that nobody will mind too much I think). I baked it at 450 degrees, but my oven is a little hot.
I had to run off to work before it cooled, so I haven’t had a slice yet, but my son promised to cut into it and let me know how it was! (He’s 12, so I might go home and find my loaf all eaten up — well, I’ll certainly make another soon.)
Thanks again for the great site. I’m having fun with it.
Thanks for the whisk endorsement, Susan. You must have received one of the last ones for a while. Unfortunately, the supplier for the US is out of the large ones until mid March. I’m keeping a list for those interested in being notified when they arrive.
Hi Eric- I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful Danish dough whisks and bowl scrapers. They arrived in 10 business days which was very fast considering I live in Alberta, Canada. They truly are a” magic wand” for us “gadget geeks”, I don’t know how I got along without them. I just made up a 1.1 kg batch of SNKB with a seeded mixture and a touch of rye flour with the whisk and WOW! it simply was amazing on how this whisk mixed the dough! Effortlessly! I truly highly recommend this amazing kitchen tool to anyone who bakes. Susan in Calgary
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