Learning Objective
To learn how to incorporate muesli porridge into your dough.
Makes: | 2 x 1kg boules |
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Level: | Advanced |
Created Over: | Mix and bake immediately |
Kind of Bake: | Retarded overnight – San Francisco Style – mixed in the morning, retarded in the fridge overnight, baked at any point the next day |
Let me start by saying not to make this muesli sourdough bread unless you have totally rocked the 20% retarded boule. It is an advanced technique and you really must develop the gluten before you add the muesli porridge. This is one of the few breads I recommend using a stand mixer for.
When choosing flour for this loaf, remember that it needs to be strong enough to act as a scaffolding and support for the porridge, so I recommend selecting a flour that contains 13–13.5% protein. And for the overall ratio, I suggest about 20–25% of the weight of the flour in cooked porridge. So, for 1kg flour, I'd aim to include 200–250g cooked porridge.
This is a more challenging bake, and I wouldn't recommend trying to make a porridge loaf until you've been baking for a minimum of 3–4 months. You really need to be confident with the classic doughs and gluten development to have the experience needed for this loaf.
Another thing to note is that this loaf is heavier that the classic loaves you will be used to baking. It holds the water, so when you first take it out of the oven, the weight might make you think that it's under-baked, but it's not.
You'll notice that this muesli sourdough loaf has a longer shelf life than other sourdoughs. The moisture in the fruit and the oils in the nuts will extend the life of your bread by an extra 2–3 days.
This muesli sourdough bread is delicious sliced and spread with butter, but for extra nutritional value, we recommend serving it with cultured butter and a big spoonful of blackcurrant jam.
You might also like to bake our Seeds for Solidarity Porridge Recipe, which uses the same technique and was developed as a Bake for Peace loaf to support Ukraine.
Equipment
- Small saucepan
- Wooden spoon
- Medium bowl, for mixing leaven
- Clean tea towel or wax cloth
- Large mixing bowl
- Spatula
- Dough scraper
- 2 x 1kg bannetons
- Lame
- Baking cloche
Suggested Starter
Any, though rye will give a great base flavour
Status of Starter
bubbly, lively first-build starter
DDT
18°C (64°F)
To Ferment Your Dough
For The Dough
- FOR THE MUESLI PORRIDGE (makes about 230–250g porridge)
- 60g dried muesli porridge
- 200–240g water (different brands will take different amounts of water)
- FOR THE DOUGH
- 750g water
- 300g Botanical Blend no. 2 or stoneground wholegrain flour
- 700g strong white flour (at least 13.5% protein)
- 200g fast leaven (see above)
- 20g fine sea salt
Baking Time
1 hour in a cloche or Dutch oven, then 5–10 minutes uncovered
Preheat Oven To
220°C/200°C fan/425°F/gas mark 7
Bake At
220°C/200°C fan/425°F/gas mark 7
Tutorials
Step | Timings |
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Refresh your starter (first build). | Day 1, 10am |
Make your porridge. | Day 1, 9.30pm |
Refresh your starter (second build). | Day 1, 10pm |
Plan your bake. | Day 2, 9am |
Make a fast leaven using your lively, bubbly starter. | Day 2,10am |
Mix together the flours and 650g water and leave to rest. | Day 2, 12pm |
Autolyse with the leaven. | Day 2, 12.30pm |
Bassinage with 100g water, adding it 25g at a time. Rest for another 10 minutes. | Day 2, 1-1.15pm |
Add the porridge. | Day 2, 1.25pm |
Add salt and start bulk. | Day 2, 2.10pm |
Stretch and fold. | Day 2, 2.30pm |
Bulk ends. Preshape the dough. | Day 2, 4pm |
Final shaping. | Day 2, 5pm |
Place in the fridge at 5°C (41°F) | Day 2, 5.30pm |
Preheat the oven and bake for 1 hour in a cloche or Dutch oven, then 5–10 minutes uncovered. | Day 3, anytime from 8am–4pm |
Analyse and recalibrate | On eating. |
Guidance, tips & techniques
In this lesson, you will learn how adding a muesli with a wide range of ingredients to your loaves is an easy way to bake some incredibly diverse bread. I like to use muesli from Rude Health, a company that sources the best-quality ingredients possible. If you combine it with a Botanical Blend, you can get a diversity score in the high thirties. It’s a great and easy opportunity to add in all the things that are nourishing for gut microbes – flavonoids, polyphenols, beta-glucans from the oats, and more.
And not only is it good for us – muesli sourdough loaves have a deliciously chewy, slightly gelatinous texture to them. The key to getting this texture right is all about the point at which you add the muesli porridge to the dough. I add mine at the latest possible moment, stirring it in just before the salt at the end of mixing. Remember that you need to rest the dough before that final mix, so stand back and leave your dough for 10 minutes, then mix in your porridge after the gluten has developed. This will make for a really good texture.
No two mueslis are going to be the same, so you must take this into account when you make your muesli porridge. Make it the night before you plan to make your dough, and really cook it down to make sure the porridge is fully hydrated. If not, it can steal water from the gluten when you are mixing the dough, resulting in a tight crumb structure. The porridge should be at room temperature when you add it to the dough, so leave it on the kitchen side overnight.
![](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20-09-Sourdough-School-020-330x413.jpg)
![](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Muesli-Sourdough-330x495.jpg)
![muesli sourdough](https://thesourdoughschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Muesli-Sourdough-1-330x495.jpg)
Learning Outcome
The benefits of learning this technique with regard to your baking skills and increasing the diversity of your loaf.