Walnut Boule Bread Recipe

Recently, this post over at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial made all the 11 bread recipes on my “to make soon list” run away in a panic, as Celia’s sourdough demanded to be baked right away!   Walnuts, spelt flour, plus a very active sourdough starter.  I simply could not wait to try it. Celia is such an accomplished baker that she throws a recipe together as if it’s nothing, and her breads turn out spectacular every single time.  I am a lot more insecure, so I asked her to virtually hold my hand and guide me through my take on her method.  Success! We loved the bread, it is rich, dense but not to the point of feeling heavy.  Outstanding with Roquefort cheese,   confirming the magical combination of walnuts with blue type cheeses. Unbeatable! And, let’s not forget the many benefits of walnuts… read a nice article about it here.

Place the water in a bowl, add the sourdough starter and mix to dissolve.  Add the flours, mix to form a shaggy mass, and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.  Add the salt and knead the dough in the bowl a few times to incorporate it.  Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, add the walnuts and incorporate them in the dough by gently kneading it.   Let the dough rise for 2 more hours, folding twice at 45 and 90 minutes.   Thirty minutes after the last folding cycle, form the bread in the shape of your choice, place in a floured banetton or other appropriate container, and let it rise for 3 to 4 hours at room temperature, depending on how active your sourdough starter is.  The dough is ready to bake when it is not quite doubled in size, but feels airy when you gently poke the surface.

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Invert the dough on parchment paper, score the surface with a sharp blade, and place in a 450F oven to bake with initial steam.  Total baking time will be about 40 minutes, I baked my loaf under an inverted roasting pan previously filled with water and emptied, so that some water stays clinging to its sides.  I removed the roasting pan after 25 minutes, and bake the loaf uncovered until done.    Internal temperature should be higher than 200 F.

Overnight Artisan Walnut Bread • The Curious Chickpea

Comments:  In typical Sally-fashion, what I thought was a bag of spelt flour in my freezer turned out to be teff flour.  After frantically inspecting every single spot of the two freezers we own, I gave up and modified the recipe to use regular whole-wheat flour instead (triple sigh).  If you have spelt, use it 50/50 with the regular flour (for the amount of this recipe, that would be 250 g of each flour).

The 166% hydration might sound strange, but  keep in mind that it’s the hydration you obtain when feeding your starter by volume instead of weight and using equal amounts of flour and water (for instance 1 cup of each).  Very convenient, many bakers adapt their recipes to this level of hydration because it makes it a lot easier to keep the starter, no  need to use a scale. I was more of a 100% hydration lady, but must say I loved the way the more liquid starter performed and was so easy to mix with the dough.

For this type of bread, I don’t like to cut the walnuts too small, but if you prefer them to be less obvious in the crumb, go ahead and finely dice them.   Toasting before incorporating in the dough is optional, but I usually go for it.

Recipe: Walnut Raisin Sourdough Bread (pane Al Lievito Naturale Con Uvetta E Noci)

Celia, thanks for yet another inspiring recipe, and for your help with the method.   I am counting on you to hold my hand again as I take a walk on the dark side (aka cake baking ;-)). Crunchy crust and an airy open crumb this walnut and raisin sourdough bread will exceed your expectations for what a proper loaf could be! Let me introduce you to a grown up version of cinnamon raisin toast!

Enjoy a slice of this sourdough bread with our homemade Maple Peanut Butter or Honey Cinnamon Cashew Butter. A match made in heaven!

If you’ve been on a similar sourdough journey for the last year, you are no doubt ready to move past the basic plain bread into the area of experimentation. The first experiment for me was to explore sourdough pizza, which my kids loved!

Best Banana Walnut Bread

Sourdough bread with its tangy taste and and incredibly delicious crust is also just a blank canvas begging to be played with. Let’s take a basic sourdough and turn it into an artisanal bread we usually only admire on the shelves of professional bakeries.

WALNUT

My way of doing so is studding the airy interior of the loaf with walnuts and raisins. A very easy yet a delicious variation on the classic, which is delicious with sweet or savoury toppings!

If you’ve mastered the basics of the sourdough, you will be very happy to know that this bread is really no different. For those of you coming here with no prior knowledge, I suggest reading my in depth article Sourdough Bread for Beginners.

Walnut Sourdough Bread

There you can learn everything you need to know from how to build a sourdough starter to the purpose of stretch and folds. You can also watch a short video on how to shape a simple boule ( a round loaf).

Essentially all you will need for the walnut and raisin bread is a good quality bread flour, water, salt, walnuts and raisins. I am assuming you’ve got your starter at the ready!

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Although not necessary, I like to feed my starter with whole wheat flour and use all white flour for the rest of the loaf. I like a little bit of texture and fibre the whole wheat starter brings to my bread.

Chunky Walnut Bread

It’s very important to remember to soak your raisins in hot water for at least 1 hour before adding them to the sourdough. They need to rehydrate, otherwise they will absorb the moisture from the dough and make it very, very stiff.

Even with soaking, the raisins continue to draw the moisture out and your dough will be slightly firmer than usual. However it doesn’t seem to affect the texture and makes it easier to score a pretty design!

Crunchy crust and an airy open crumb this walnut and raisin sourdough bread will exceed your expectations for what a proper loaf could be!

Walnut

Whole Grain Walnut Sourdough Bread

Calories: 159 kcal Carbohydrates: 30 g Protein: 4 g Fat: 3 g Saturated Fat: 1 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 2 g Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g Sodium: 80 mg Potassium: 78 mg Fiber: 1 g Sugar: 1 g Vitamin A: 1 IU Vitamin C: 1 mg Calcium: 10 mg Iron: 2 mg

Julia Frey is a London based recipe developer and photographer. Julia founded in 2012 with the main mission to provide her readers with delicious and accessible everyday recipes, which could be enjoyed by everyone.I’m obsessed with bread. Everything about it, from the yeasty smell as it bakes to the soft, squishy, pillowy interior. The crackly crust that shatters so perfectly on a freshly baked loaf. Even making the dough. There’s something so relaxing about the process, feeling the dough as it develops in your hands. Gainingelasticity and structure simultaneously. Whether I’m making bagels, sourdough, slow-rise boules with commercial yeast, pre-fermented bread such as baguettes, rolls or buns. I love it all. So when it came to sharing a bread recipe with you guys, I didn’t know where to start. So I went with the beginning. The bread that started my love of baking bread. Well, sort of.

While I had dabbled in bread baking since high school, I first fell in love with baking bread when I started making sourdough in graduate school. Myfirst loaves were flat and a bit misshapen, but still yeasty and sour and delicious. I started devouring all the information I could find on baking bread, in books and the internet. I reached areal turning point when I discovered Ken Forkish’s book Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. While I had found the samesort of information in other places, I love the straight forward and semi-scientific approach he has to baking. It was certainly a game changer for me. Within months I went from my amateurish looking loaves, to feeling like I could probably sell this stuff for $8/pop.

Angie's Recipes . Taste Of Home: Walnut Boule With Wild Yeast Water

As with many things, when you begin to learn techniques, you want to do it with the simplest format possible. For me, this means starting with a commercial yeast bread. The same principles apply as with sourdough, but you don’t have to mess with creating and maintaining a sourdough starter, and you end up with a gorgeous and delicious loaf.

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Once you have everything you need (which you’ll notice is probably stuff you already have mostly!), picka relaxed evening or afternoon you’ll be at home for several hours for, and make sure you have some space in your refrigerator for an overnight rise. While this recipe doesn’t require a lot of hands on time, it does require semi-frequent short bouts of attention.

This recipe makes

Gluten Free Sourdough Boule