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.

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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.

Whole Grain Spelt

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!

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