The Fresh Loaf

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Mediterranean Dried Tomatoes Sourdough Bread

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

Mediterranean Dried Tomatoes Sourdough Bread

So it's been a while... with all the chaos around the world I didn't have time to pop by this forum, I know, and even dough (I know) I've been baking a lot while quarantined and doing so experiments... but this community is very important to me, I learn everything I know here so I'm back to share with you this amazing loaf of bread I kinda came up with, nothing ingenious or anything, I'm not an experienced baker but I'm a fast learner and I like sharing my insights to help others like me, beginners who what to learn and sharpen their skills.

So, Mediterranean... living in the middle east on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, I wanted to incorporate the tastes and scents of the region into a puffy loaf of bread, I wanted something spicy but not hot, very aromatic and bursting with flavors. 

Dough (one loaf)

326g White Bread Flour (74.1%)
50g Whole Spelt Flour (11.4%)
60g Whole Wheat Flour (13.6%)
4g Sweet Paprika (0.9%)
2g Ground Black Pepper (0.5%)
13g Salt (2.8%)
150g Starter (100% hydration) (34.1%)
335g Water (76.1%)

Extras

75g Dried Tomatoes (Chopped) (17.0%)
4g Dried Oregano (0.9%) 
20g Extra Virgin Olive Oil (4.5%)
5g Dried Garlic (crushed) (1.1%)

(You can see and play with the formula here: https://fgbc.dk/a5c)

I started with 2 hours of what I call "autolyse plus". I know that traditionally, an autolyse is Flour+Water, that's it, but from what I've seen on some videos (and tested for myself) including the salt makes no real difference and it make it easier (for me at least) to add the starter later. I know I might get stoned to death after the last sentence but again, I'm learning, I didn't invent this theory and I know this is a topic for debates among the baking community, just like iPhone/Android among techies.

Now where were we? - Uhh yeah, "autolyse plus", so flour, water, salt and I added the paprika and black pepper too since they too observe water and need to hydrate, plus it's hard to add dry spices to the dough after the autolyse. I did not add the oil though, and you'll soon learn why.
Autolysed, then added the starter and combined everything.

I chopped the tomatoes to small pieces, around 0.5-1.0cm (1/4-1/3 inch) each, more or less, since I wanted little bites inside the crumb, and soaked them in the olive oil with the oregano and garlic. I didn't use fresh garlic or garlic powder, I bought dried slices of garlic and I crushed them by hand a little, into the mix. the oil will soften them a bit.
I didn't take a picture of the garlic but this is what I'm talking about:

Click to close

I added the mixture of oil, tomatoes, oregano, and garlic to the dough and folded it in, did 3 sets of stretch and fold and bulk fermented for a few hours until the dough rose about 30%, pre-shaped, shaped and retarded overnight.

I believe you know what happens next and the results are amazing, the bread is soft, super aromatic, the color is great thanks to the spelt and whole wheat flours, and of course, the red Paprika, and each bite is guaranteed to contain a sweet-sour chunk of dried tomato.


I hope you'll like it, I do and again, this is my learning and trying stuff so if you have any suggestions or tip on how to improve this recipe, by all means, let me know.

Have a great week and stay safe.
Guy.


 

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks for your recipe!  I really want to bake this.  One question through, how long did you infuse the dried tomatoes in the oil and garlic?  By the way 20 gr of oil for 75 gr of tomatoes looks like too little oil?  Thanks again for sharing and it indeed looks great and must taste even better.  Cheers!

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

I soaked the tomatoes for the duration of the autolyse, so about 2 hours.

I didn't want a pool of oil so 20g (around 3-4tbsp) were just right, it coated the tomatoes and garlic well and I could tell that the dried garlic was much softer after 2 hours, but you can absolutely add more, and even strain it to use only part of the oil in the actual bread. I know you can buy sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil in a jar so I guess that can work too, as long as it's not a paste and it has some nice chunks in it, you're good.

For example, this brand here, chop it, use some of the oil too, add the other stuff, and send me a piece!
עגבניות מיובשות בשמן זית 340 גרם - רולנד

drainaps's picture
drainaps

Thanks a lot for your answer. I'll be happy to follow your directions and revert once it's done. Thanks again. 

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

I hope you'll like it.

Benito's picture
Benito

That looks and sounds delicious, great bake.

Benny

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

Next challenge: Sourdough Pizza!

Benito's picture
Benito

The challenge for me at least was finding the right set up in terms of how to use my skillet, on which rack, at which temperature, oil or no oil on the skillet, shaping/stretching the dough and then getting it into the skillet without making a mess of it.  The making of the dough was easy.  The results can be so delicious.

Benny

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

I have a pizza stone that I use to make nice "regular" pizzas so hopefully it'll do the work here too, I actually so no reason why not, am I right?

I saw this wonder called BROVN, it's a cool glass dome for bread baking, I've wanted to buy a pizza-steel for a while now and this one has both a steel base that can be used individually and a cover for bread that provides the same benefits of a dutch oven, unfortunately, they don't ship to Israel.

Benito's picture
Benito

At least you’ve made regular pizza before, so the stretching and the transferring and baking should be less of a challenge for you!

I’ve been seeing some YouTube videos of oven spring and wondered what those glass domes were.  Is there some sort of handle on them to allow you to lift it off and put it down easily?  Otherwise I would think that they would be hard and dangerous to handle when hot.

It would be nice to watch the oven spring happening.

Benny

Crumb Control's picture
Crumb Control

Look at their website, the dome has what looks like a ring on the top, for lifting it up and from what they say it can withstand up to 300c.