Apple Oat Bread
Having been inspired by the plentiful and varied apples available during my trip to the apple festival, I decided to make a bread reflecting the season and celebrating this special fruit.
I briefly followed the recipe here: http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.ca/2011/05/apple-and-oat-sourdough-fresh-fruit.html [1] which is supposedly from Bourke Street Bakery since I wanted to use whole apples in the dough. I modified it to use my standard 8 hour bulk ferment dough which means a much lower proportion of sourdough starter. I used one medium size spartan apple cut roughly into chunks.
And here's the result with a crumb shot featuring the lovely bits of baked apples poking out of the crumb.
Overall it was a nice bread with great oven spring (the lower hydration helped keep its shaped too). I am slightly disappointed that the apple flavour was not so pronounced. Maybe it was the type of apple used. Comparing it to a similar recipe, ie Nancy Silverton's Pear bread, I think this could do with a hint of spice or maybe a paste of mashed up apples to flavour the crumb. Texture was quite nice though, with the oats giving it a slightly softer texture.
-Tim