Sunday, November 22, 2009

Apple Walnut Sourdough

applewalnutbread

For some reasons, I find bread the hardest to blog about, in the sense that I usually put it off for a very, very, very long time. Maybe because the recipes are so involved? Because lets face it, most bread *does* take a little bit of time and some extra love and handling. Not much skill though - I'm a firm believer that anyone can produce great bread, especially with just a little bit of practise. And a good machine to knead it - unless you have some good arm muscles.

Anyway. I bake a lot of bread, and I have *so* many recipes to share with you. This one is from a Swedish bread blog that is very popular, and he's even written a wonderful book that I talked about a while ago. I've modified it a bit, but go to the blog for his original. (In Swedish, though.)

It's an all sourdough recipe, so you have to have a strong, lively starter.

Apple Walnut Sourdough
(printable recipe)
2 loaves

The night before: 

100 g rye sourdough starter
300 g tepid water
180 g rye flour, fine (rather than coarse)

500 g peeled apples
50 g brown sugar

200 g crushed wheat or like me, a mixture of crushed rye, wheat, barley and oats
300 g boiling water

In one bowl, combine the sourdough starter with water and flour. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature.

In your food processor, mix apples and sugar. Place in the fridge overnight.

Mix the crushed seeds with boiling water. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature.

Next morning:
500 g bread flour (preferably a strong, high-protein one)
150 g rye flour, fine rather than coarse
250 g walnuts
20 g salt

Mix everything - the sourdough, the apple mix, the seeds from last night, and both flours, walnuts and salt. Work in a machine for about 10 minutes (twice that time if you're doing it by hand.) It will be quite sticky, because of the rye. Cover with plastic and leave to rise until it's doubled in size. (Mine rose for 3-4 hours.)

Grease two bread tins with butter and divide the dough. Sprinkle some additional rye flour on top if you want to. Cover with a tea towel or with plastic wrap, and leave to rise for 1-2 hours - the dough should rise to the edge of the tin.

Preheat the oven to 250°C. When it's hot, place the bread tins in the oven and lower the temperature to 200°C. Bake for about an hour - check with a thermometer, they should have a core temperature of 98°C.

Recipe in Swedish:
Surdegsbröd med äpple och valnöt

4 comments:

Henna Bakshi said...

Apple walnut is one of my favorite breads, I actually had a Swedish neighbor who brought some over. I will try to make this myself.
I really find your blog interesting, I share a similar passion of food with you. I am a food columnist for a school newspaper and recently started blogging. I would love it if you would click by and check it out (theskilletda.blogspot.com). My most recent blog was about tea, and the apple walnut bread would go great with some Earl Gray, don't you think?

kitchen table said...

Wow! I have long been searching for an apple walnut recipe. I have been planning to bake some to give as presents this coming Christmas! Thanks!

Cedar Chests said...

Yet another fabulous recipe.
Thank You!! (o:

Ammar said...

I used to eat Apple walnut breads, and Rusks in my breakfast.