Failproof Sourdough - Whole Wheat Walnut

There’s no need to be intimidated by baking bread when you have the perfect fail-proof recipe! This “culinary algorithm” was developed by a friend who taught it to another friend who taught it to me. So, it’s been tried and tested by several people, all with varying levels of baking skill, tee hee. Also, the first thing people tell me when I share this recipe is “wow, that’s a lot of steps” but I want to assure you, the actual working time is really minimal. Try it out the next time you are relaxing at home for a couple hours, and be amazed!

This recipe is for a whole wheat walnut sourdough loaf – so yum!!! Perfect for toast in the morning, BLTs, grilled cheese, you name it. The whole wheat and nuttiness offsets the richness of your toppings in an amazing way. That said, if you’d rather go for a classic white sourdough loaf, this recipe will work for that too! Just sub the whole wheat flour for bread flour in the first step, and leave out the walnuts. Everything else is the same. Good luck, and don’t fuck it up! Just kidding, message me if you have any questions or want to troubleshoot.

Required cookware:

• Cast iron dutch oven
• 8″ proofing basket
• Kitchen scale
• Large plastic or glass bowl
• Loose fitting cover for the bowl (a large cutting board will work fine)
• Parchment paper

Ingredients:

• Happy & healthy sourdough starter
• King Arthur bread flour
• Whole wheat flour
• Salt
• Rice flour
• Walnuts

Instructions

1. Mix 150g sourdough starter and 350g warm (not hot) water in large bowl with a fork.
2. Add 400g bread flour and 100g whole wheat flour. Mix again with a fork until all dry bits are mixed in and you have a sticky dough ball. Rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
3. Sprinkle 10g salt over the top of the dough. Then drizzle 25g warm water over it to dissolve. Be careful, 25g of water is not a lot!!
4. Wet your hand, then scoop your hand around the dough to un-stick it from the sides of the bowl. Grab the dough in the middle, and pick it up out of the bowl. It will stretch down from your hand. Fold it in half back into the bowl, release, then grab again from the middle and repeat. Do this about 4-5 times, until the dough gets sticky to the touch again. Each time you pick up the dough, it will be less stretchy because of the fun things happening with the gluten. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
5. Wet your hand and repeat the pinch, stretch, fold motion 4-5 times. Cover and rest again for 30 minutes.
6. Add 70g chopped walnuts to the dough, then wet your hand and repeat the pinch, stretch, fold motion 4-5 times to stretch the dough while incorporating the nuts. Cover and rest again for 30 minutes. Getting deja vu yet?
7. Wet your hand and repeat the pinch, stretch, fold motion 4-5 times, making sure the last time ends the dough in a nice ball shape (no visible cracks on the top). Cover the bowl again and leave to rest for at least 2 hours so the dough can rise by about 2x. This rise is very important and can take longer if it’s cold out. I’ve left it overnight before and that’s been fine too. It’s not really possible to over-rise at this stage.
8. Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured work surface (recommend using wheat flour, or bread/all-purpose if you’re doing a white loaf). Lift the dough up from one side, allowing it to stretch, then fold it in half. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat until you have folded the dough from all four “sides.”
9. Tuck all loose/folded edges under the dough repeatedly while turning it to form a nice little ball, bouncy on the top. Add flour as you go if it’s sticking to your work surface.
10. Coat your proofing basket with a light dusting of rice flour. We use rice flour here so that it doesn’t absorb into the bread. Pick up the dough ball and flip it, smooth side down, into the basket. So the side you’re looking at now is all wrinkly and weird. That will be the bottom of the bread, the top is touching the basket.
11. Cover the basket with a napkin or towel and put it in the fridge for at least 8 hours as the final rise. Mine doesn’t usually rise much or at all during this step, that’s okay.
12. Open up your dutch oven and put both parts in the oven, then preheat the whole thing to 450F. While the oven is heating, rip a piece of parchment paper big enough to place over your proofing bowl. Flip it so that bread is now sitting right side up on the parchment.
13. Cut the top of the bread to allow air to escape during the baking process. A single cut works fine, but you might want to get fancy and do an X or some other fun shape. Cut should be about .25-.5 inch deep.
14. Take the hot dutch oven out of the oven once preheated – use caution, that thing is crazy hot and will burn the crap out of your arm if you accidentally touch it. Drop the parchment paper with the bread on it into the shallow half of the dutch oven. Carefully put the lid on the top so it’s nicely sealed, and put the whole thing back into the oven. Bake for 30 min.
15. Decrease the temperature of the oven to 425F and remove the dutch oven lid. You’ll get to see your bread at this point – yay! It should have now risen as much as it’s going to while baking. Bake for 20 more minutes at the lower temp, then you’re done!

Give it a try and then send me your feedback and photos of your loaves! I’d love to do a post showing everyone’s success stories and get more ideas for how to enjoy the tasty finished product.