When my brother in law gave me a piece of the bread at their place in Italy, by brain got shocked as it was just so delicious. It tasted not only earthy and wild, but also very elegant and sophisticated. I don’t know how it was made, but I think this may be close…
This recipe is based on the sourdough I learned many years ago. You can find it here.
Chad Robertson’s sourdough recipe
I made this bread with the same retio but 300g flour in total.
Ingredients
80g of the starter as above you made overnight
230g of white flour
70g of wholewheat flour
210ml of water (70% of the total flour)
6g of salt (5% of the total flour)
15ml of water
1/4 cup of black sesame seeds
2 tablespoon of caraway seeds
Instruction
1. Set a dough hook on a stand mixer. Mix the starter, white flour, wholemeal flour and water about for 5 mins, until the dough forms.
2. Cover the bowl and leave it for 30 mins.
3. Add 10g of salt and 25ml of water to the dough. Try to sprinkle salt evenly, then pour the water on the salt. The water will help the salt dissolved. Run the stand mixer for 1-2 mins until the salt is mixed to the dough. Alternatively, you can mix with your hand, and it will be a damp dough.
4. Cover the bowl and leave it for 3-4 hours, or until it doubles the size. This is the first ferment. If your place is warm, occasionally check the dough as it may be ready less than 4 hours, and if your place is cold, it should take longer.
5. Stretch the dough: Slip your hand under the dough, pull it over and tuck it in. Imagine the bowl is split into four quarters and make sure you stretch each quarter. leave it for 30 mins.
6. After the 1st round of stretch and fold, roast black sesame and caraway seeds in a frypan.
7. After 30 mins of the first round of stretch and fold (6), Add sesame and caraway seeds in the dough. Try to sprinkle here and there so that the seeds go everywhere. Do this stretching again, and leave it for another 30 mins.
8. Do stretch and fold 4 times in total.
(If you want to bake the following day,cover the bowl with a wrap and keep it in a fridge after 30 mins of the fourth stretching.)
9. Leave the dough for 1-1.5hours. This is the second ferment.
10. Tip the dough on a clean surface, not floured. Sprinkle the top of the dough with flour .
11. With one hand on either side of the dough, gently tuck the loaf into itself to form a ball. Be careful not to tuck too much or the dough will tear.
12. Leave the dough for 1 hour. At this stage, heat oven at the highest, around 240C (fan bake) and put a cast iron pot with the lid into the oven.
13. Be very careful as the iron pot is very very hot! Tip the loaf into the cast iron, and score it with a sharp knife. Cover the pot with the lid.
14. Bake for 20 mins and remove the cover and bake for another 15-20 mins or until it is brown and baked through, with 10-20C lower temperature.
*If you bake the dough rest in a fridge overnight or so, you can shape it right after taking out from a fridge and bake immediately without any rest.
Some tips
- After baking, the bread should rest for a while. If cut it too soon, the inside has still too much moisture and could be mushy or gummy.
- When you want to store in a freezer, slice all, cover each slice with plastic wrap, and put in a plastic back with a zipper. If you don’t wrap each slice, they get stuck each other and it becomes hard tot separate them.