Super Seeded Loaf
If you love sourdough but don’t have the time (or memory to remember to feed it) then this is a delightful alternative. This delicious golden loaf is made using a preferment and takes 3 days from start to finish. Don’t be put off by the long prep time, it’s mostly waiting and hardly any ‘active’ time. This recipe makes two loaves which makes all the effort worth it as you can keep one sliced in the freezer for fresh bread whenever you like!
It has a deep crunchy crust with a moist open crumb speckled with seeds. So full of flavour and great toasted.
Ingredients - makes 2 loaves
Preferment
110g strong bread flour
110g water, room temperature
1g active dried yeast (1/4 tsp)
Seed soaker
45g each white sesame seeds, linseeds & pumpkin seeds
90g water
Dough
535g strong bread flour
330g water, room temperature
All preferment (220g)
15g sea salt
Method
Day 1 PM (making the preferment & seed soaker):
Place all the ingredients into a bowl and give it a good mix. Make sure the bowl is big enough for the mixture to double in size. Cover with clingfilm and leave at room temperature overnight. Place all the ingredients for the seed soaker into a bowl, mix, cover with clingfilm and leave at room temperature overnight.
Day 2 AM (making the dough):
Your preferment should be lovely and bubbly by now. Place the water for the dough into a large bowl followed by the preferment. Using your hands, swish the preferment into the water. Add in the flour and mix the dough until it is shaggy with no remaining dry pieces. Cover and leave to sit for 20-40 minutes. This will give the flour a chance to hydrate.
Once rested, sprinkle over the sea salt and soaked seeds. Mix these into the dough by placing your hand underneath the dough and pulling it up and over itself. This is called stretching and folding. Continue to do this until the salt/seeds have been mixed in sufficiently.
Let the dough rise for 4 hours at room temperature, stretching and folding every half an hour. To do this, use a wet hand and pull the dough up from underneath itself and back over to the other side of the dough. Work around the bowl every 90 degrees so that you do a total of four stretch and folds each time. Cover and leave to rest before repeating half an hour later.
Once your dough has been rising for four hours, you can move onto shaping. Lightly flour a worktop and tip out your dough. Cut the dough in half (I like to use a bench scraper for this) and shape into two boules. Dust two bannetons with flour (if you don’t have bannetons, you can use bowls lined with dusted cloths) and place your loaves inside. Cover with loose clingfilm and place into the fridge overnight.
Day 3 AM (Baking):
Preheat your oven to its hottest (ideally 260°C) and place your Dutch Oven inside, the lid and base separately. I like to leave my oven on for at least 25-30 minutes to make sure my Dutch Oven is sufficiently heated.
Carefully remove the Dutch Oven, place a piece of parchment into the base and gently flip the proved bread inside. Cut a slash along the top of the loaf with a very sharp knife or bread razor. Place the Dutch Oven lid on and put the whole thing back into the oven. Lower the oven to 240°C and cook the bread for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for a further 20 minutes until a dark golden brown. Leave to cool completely before cutting.
I like to eat one of these loaves fresh and slice and freeze the second so I always have lovely bread.
