Inspired by Danni - WRSwC in RWC

I haven’t posted up any of my bakes in a while, as I generally tend to do the same recipe every week with minor tweaks to the flour blend here and there.  I wanted to do something a little different with this week’s bake, so when Danni’s lovely Wild Rice Sourdough with Cranberries bake popped up, I decided that would be my change of pace.  I don’t have the same flours on hand that Danni used in her original, so I just took my usual weekly formula and added in the rice/cranberries/honey to change things up.  I omitted the yogurt, as Danni has mentioned that is an addition she uses to soften the crust a bit (and I like my crusty bread!)

I don’t have a ton of experience with additions to my bread dough, so I was a bit concerned that I might not get the rice and cranberries thoroughly mixed.  I used the pinch method, adding salt, rice and cranberries after a 30 minute fermentolyse, and it worked out just fine.  I also reduce the hydration to 70%, though it may have been a bit lower as I wasn’t sure how to treat the honey in my hydration calculation……so, I just counted it as 100% liquid.  The dough was easy to work with, felt fantastic, and performed pretty much the same as my usual weekly bake.

Here are the details:

700g AP flour (Gold Medal)

200g WW flour (freshly milled hard red spring)

60g Semolina flour

60g Dark Rye flour

250g Starter (young, 100% hydration)

650g Water

30g Honey (spun)

26g Salt

90g Wild Rice Mix (measured dry, simmered about 65 minutes until tender, then drained/cooled)

150g Dried Cranberries (sweetened)

Mix flours, starter, water and honey, let rest 30 minutes @ 75F

Add in salt, rice and cranberries using pinch method, 30x slap and fold, let rest 30 minutes @ 75F

20x gentle slap/fold, let rest 30 minutes @ 75F

4x gentle stretch/fold, proof/ferment 90 minutes @ 75F

Divide dough, pre-shape, let rest 15 minutes @ RT

Final shape, place in towel lined bannetons, proof for 45 minutes @ 75F

Place in fridge for 13 hours (my minimum when final proofing in fridge is 3 hours, this on was 13 just because it was….) :)

Bake covered @ 450F for 25 minutes, uncovered 20 minutes

Cool, slice, eat

Everything on this bake went just as I had hoped. I expected a little less rise on these loaves due to the additives, but they were pretty much the same as normal.  The smell while this formula was baking was intoxicating!  The loaves are still cooling, so I have crumb inspection and tasting to do later, but I’m very happy so far with how these turned out.

Thanks for the inspiration, Danni!!

Rich