Seeded Sourdough Boule – I love adding seeds to my sourdough. A handful thrown in to your loaf adds not just texture and flavour but delivers significant health benefits too. I particularly. love sunflower seeds; they are sweet and nutty and an excellent source of essential fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals, and contain high levels of amino acids such as tryptophan, which is essential for growth (especially in children). 100g of sunflower seeds provide 21g of protein (which is 37% of an adult’s daily-recommended intake). Similarly pumpkin seeds are packed with fibre, minerals, and numerous health promoting antioxidants, and are a superb source of vitamins such as B-complex group of vitamins including thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B-6 and folic acid.
I have also been wanting to use some beautiful golden Italian Burrito flour for a while now; it has a creamy texture and the crumb is moist. It is milled by Mulino Marino, which is produced by the Mulino family in the Piedmont region of Italy. It’s an organic flour and they use ancient milling techniques and mill stones that have been passed through generations of the family. The stoneground flour derives its name from a traditional Italian technique of sifting the wholegrain flour through a cheese cloth or Burrato (as it is know in Italian,) giving it a wonderfully smooth texture. The bread smells delicious and so I decided to use seeds to compliment the flavours already in this flour.
I have kept the hydration a bit tighter than I usually do so the crumb is slightly tighter than usual, mainly because I like the texture of the seeds when sourdough is not overly open, but it does produce a light and airy loaf. The wonderful flavour of this flour comes from the addition of live wheat germ and I would therefore advise that this is not the kind of flour to store for an overly long time – the fresher the better as the nutritional value of the wheat germ and vitamin E, diminishes as the flour ages. In terms of ease this is a no-knead recipe and so it is essential that you adhere to the timings and temperatures. I must reiterate that the final prove is just a short 20% rise over half an hour, so it really is essential to the success of the recipe that dough is handled as lightly as possible during shaping.
I’ve had a few people recently on courses that have hot hands, so plunging your hands into cold water just prior to shaping (making sure you dry them thoroughly) can sometimes make a real difference between a successful or unsuccessful shaping.
Proving time: Overnight no-knead; 10pm – 8am
Total weight of loaf: 880g
Equipment in order of usage:
- Medium bowl
- Spoon/Scraper
- Large bowl
- Cloche or Dutch oven
- Banneton
Flour used: Burrato flour
Ingredients
For 100g levain:
- 20g sourdough starter
- 50g cold filtered
- 50g strong white organic flour
For the loaf:
- 325g freshly filtered tap water 16C
- 500g organic Burrato flour
- 10g sea salt
- 125g mixed seeds, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds
- Olive oil, for oiling
- Semolina, for dusting
Method
2pm Mix levain
Place the sourdough starter, cold water and strong white organic flour in a bowl and mix well. Ensure that you scrape the spoon down to ensure all the mixture is in the bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and leave on the side in kitchen for 8 hours.
10pm Mix
Mix together the prepared levain and water and whisk until combined. Mix the flour and salt together so salt evenly distributed and add 100g of the seeds. Mix the flour and the liquid together in a large bowl and ensure you have incorporated well, but resist any temptation to knead – it just has to be mixed.
Prove
Cover with a damp tea towel and leave in the kitchen at an ambient temperature of 18C. Leave overnight.
7-8am
Preheat your oven to 220C/428F, place your cloche or Dutch oven into the oven and prepare your banneton liberally by dusting with flour and half of the remaining seeds.
Final prove
Your dough should be pillowy and light. Put no more than tbsp. olive oil on your hands and rub into the surface on which you will turn out your dough. Using your scraper, gently turn the dough out onto the oiled surface. At this point as your turn out the dough and shape, I cannot emphasise enough that you must handle it as lightly as possible. Using light, but firm movements, shape your boule and turn it into a banneton that has been. Turn your dough into the banneton, seam-side up and scatter with the remaining seeds. Leave to prove for about 30 minutes or until it has risen by a further 10-20% (no more than this).
Score
Your cloche or Dutch oven should have reached the same temperature as your oven. Lightly dust the hot surface with semolina and turn your dough out carefully. Score using a lame, (do not worry about the seeds getting in the way.) Bake for 35 minutes, after this time reduce the oven to 180C/356F , leave covered and bake for a further 30-35 minutes.
Once baked remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.