Sourdough Cinnamon Pecan Cherry Cranberry Bread
Have you ever seen one of those little pouches of salad toppings and wondered what they'd be like in a loaf of bread?
I did. So today I tried it. I used my favorite sourdough sweet bread recipe, added two tablespoons of cinnamon, two teaspoons of vanilla, and the entire contents of the pouch to my sweet starter (the pouch is 3.75 ounces or almost a full cup) and went on like normal from there. I didn't presoak the fruit and nuts, just tossed them in before I started adding the flour.
Shaped it into a boule, baked it on a stone with steam, surrounded with a spring form collar, at 10 minutes I gave it another egg wash and sprinkled on some more cinnamon powder and turbinado sugar. Reduced the heat and baked it until it was done.
I didn't make my scores deep enough (I was compensating for cutting them too deep last time). The crust is wonderful, evenly colored top, sides and bottoms. Flavor is outstanding. A little denser than I would have liked, but the taste more than made up for it!
Comments
like it came out great buit I don't know what a sweet starter is? This had to taste great and plenty sweet and seasoned enough for a fine French toast!
Whenever I make a sweet bread or rolls, I feed my starter as usual the night before. In the morning, I put the starter in my mixing bowl (about 2 cups regular loaf, this was three), to that I added about 3/4 cups turbinado sugar, a cup of cooled scalded milk with 2 TBS butter melted in it. I normally call this my sweet starter. I mix it all up and let it sit until it starts to bubble good (so that if my sourdough is "tired" I still have the time to add some instant yeast) takes maybe 15 minutes if it's a very active starter. If it's going good I proceed from there.