Bourke Street Bakery's Spiced Fruit Sourdough - love it, love it, love it

Generally, I don’t make fruit breads often. Not that I don’t like them. I just have the tendency to bake more seeds and grains breads. I have two big bags of golden raisins and dried cranberry (about 1.5 kg each) from CostCo sitting and taking room in the pantry that I so wanted to use them up. Hence, there have been and will be more fruit bread baking in the coming months.

Come to think of it, I think I should stop shopping at CostCo. We’re a family of only two moderate eaters. It would take us efforts to finish those big packs of food. Apart from two big bags of dried fruits, I also have 1.5 kg of baking chocolate chips, 250g of vanilla paste, 1 kg of cultured butter, these will take us weeks, if not months to finish them. By the way, I’m thinking about those 1-kg bags of dried blueberries. I’m wondering what it would be like in bread. Sighhhhhh…don’t’ think I will get over the CostCo addiction anytime soon.

This recipe came from Bourke Street Bakery cookbook from which I have been baking more lately. Their recipes produce wonderful baked goods and those photos were so mouth-watering to look at. I tweaked the recipe a little to suit my taste and preferences, e.g. replacing 10% bread flour with whole wheat, increasing the amount of water (hydration), using only golden raisins instead of mixture of golden raisins and currants. I also reduced the amount of raisins and didn’t soak them as suggested by the recipe.

I used the freshly ground cinnamon powder from cinnamon quill(I ran out of the cinnamon powder). Grinding spices using mortar-and-pestle must be one of the most enjoyable experiences to the senses. The aroma was simply wonderful. Pounding spices with mortar-and-pestle also brought back my childhood memories, when I helped my auntie preparing curry paste using the tool. It was usually given to the kids to help with those repetitive and simple tasks. 

This is one of the tastiest sourdough fruit bread I’ve made so far. There could be few factors contributing to the great flavour; cinnamon and mixed spices, high percentage of golden raisins and sourdough starter (I started to think that having an overall high ratio of starter improves the flavour). Comparing this recipe to Jeffrey Hamelman’s golden raisin sourdough, we liked this better. Spices and more golden raisins added wonderful flavours to the bread. We totally love it. S didn't stop eating them until the whole wheat croissants were out of the oven and he got the new baked goods interest!

Spiced Fruit Sourdough Recipe
adapted from Bourke Street Bakery: Ultimate Baking Companion [Paperback]

make 3 large loaves

INGREDIENTS

	Overall Formula	Baker’s Percentage
Bread flour	870 g	90%
Whole wheat flour	97 g	10%
Water	651 g	67%
Salt	20 g	2%
Ground Cinnamon	10 g	1%
Mixed spices	15 g	1.5%
Golden raisins	320 g	33%
Total	1.98 kg	204.5%

Final Dough
Bread flour 668 g (I used flour with 12.5% protein)

Whole wheat flour 97 g
Water 448 g

Salt 20 g

Ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons
Mix spices 3 teaspoons
Golden raisins (sultana) 320 g (or 450 g as per original recipe)

Sourdough starter 405 g (100% hydration, active starter fed 2-3 times before the final dough mixing)

METHOD

Mixing: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, except salt, raisins, cinnamon and mixed spices.  Mix until the ingredients are incorporated. Leave it to autolyze in a bowl covered with plastic bag or wrap for 15 - 30 minutes. 

Sprinkle salt over the dough surface and mix on the first speed for 3 minutes and continue mixing on second speed for further 3 – 4 minutes, until a moderate gluten development is achieved (the dough can be stretched gently until you can see the transparent membrane and dough doesn’t tear).

Incorporate raisins, cinnamon powder and mixed spices into the dough until well combined.

Bulk fermentation: - Leave the dough in a lightly oiled container and cover the bowl with plastic bag or wrap for 2-2.5 hour until doubled in size.

Do one stretch and fold after one hour.

Divide the doughs into two or three equal portions. Pre-shape the doughs into rounds and let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes under a tea towel.

Shape the doughs into oblong (batard) and place into proofing baskets/bowls. Slip the proofing basket into a large plastic bag. Retard the dough in the fridge overnight or proof at room temperature for 2 hours or until almost double in size.

Baking: If retarding, take the dough out of the fridge and leave them at room temperature for 60-90 minutes (depending on the room temperature) before baking. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature and prepare the oven steaming.

Lower temperature to 225C and bake for 40 - 50 minutes with steam. Note that the bread is brown quickly because of the sugary dried fruits. 

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