Spiced Raisin Cranberry Sourdough
This is a repeat of the Spiced Raisin Sourdough that I did a few weeks ago with a few changes, of course. ;-) I switched out half of the golden raisins for cranberries and I changed up the method quite a bit. It was a pain in the neck and made for a very long day (I started at 7:30 am and finished at 8 pm) but I think the results are worth it!
Recipe:
112 g red fife wheat berries
1000 g unbleached flour (split into 880 g and 120 g portions)
50 g freshly ground flax
179 g cranberries
179 g golden raisins
670 g water (split into 620 g + 50 g portions) plus another 10-15 g or so.
35 g kefir
2 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp mixed spice (4 tsp cinnamon, .5 tsp ginger, .5 tsp cloves, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp coriander)
22 g salt
465 g levain (building this is included in the instructions below)
- A couple of night before making the dough, mill the red fife berries and sift out the bran. Mill the bran again on a finer setting. Reserve both the bran and the sifted red fife flour for the levain. Since I need a total of 234 g for the levain, measure out 120 g from the 1000 g of unbleached flour and reserve that.
- The morning before making the dough, start building the levain as follows: Build #1: 17 starter, 33 g water, 33 g bran/sifted flour. Let rest 8-10 hours. There was not a lot of real rise or activity. Build #2: 66 g each of water and sifted flour. Let rest 8-10 hours. It rose about 75%. Build #3: 134 g each of water and sifted/unbleached flour. It was ready after 4 and half hours. This almost doubled but the activity was very evident. It was bubbling so much it looked like slow motion boiling water. You should have 465 g levain
- The night before making the dough, soak the cranberries and the golden raisins in 620 g cool water. Make the mixed spice by combining the ingredients in the brackets. Set aside. Remember you will not be using all of this, just 3 teaspoons as stated.
- A couple of hours before the levain is ready, place the 880 g of flour and the 50 g ground flax in a bucket or bowl. Pour the mixed fruit with the water into the mix and mix as well as you can. Add the 50 g of water and work into the dough until all the flour has been hydrated. This was a pain in the neck when you are making 4 batches. Keep at it though and it will hydrate. Let rest covered until the levain is ready.
- Mix in 465 g levain and incorporate well. Another pain in the neck trying to integrate liquid levain into a stiff dough. Cover and let rest in a warm place for 1 hour.
- Mix the cinnamon, mixed spice, salt into the kefir and set aside.
- After the dough has rested, spread water onto a counter and scrape the dough out of the bucket onto the counter. Spread it out into a large rectangle and spread out the kefir/spice/salt mixture onto the dough. Roll up the dough like a jelly roll and then roll it up the other way. Do a 150 French slaps and folds on the counter to distribute the salt and the spices. My hubby just loves hearing me slapping dough on the counter about a half hour with those four batches. He asked me on the fourth batch if I was done beating the dough!
- Place back in the bowl or bucket, cover and place in a warm spot to rise. Do 3 sets of stretches and folds one hour apart. I wet my hand for each fold to add a little more hydration as I felt the dough was pretty stiff. Adjust how much water you use, if any, according to what you are comfortable with. Then let rise until the dough has risen 50-60%.
- Scrape dough out gently onto a lightly floured counter and divide into portions of ~830 g. Gently fold the portion in half and round out the dough with a scraper and your hands. Let rest covered with a tea towel for an hour.
- Do a final shape by gently cinching the dough à la Trevor (gently pull one side and fold to the middle, pull the other side and fold over the first side, roll the top towards you and gently pinch into place and continue rolling until the seam is underneath). Do not deflate the dough at all.
- Place seam side down into floured bannetons, cover and put to bed in the fridge for the night (~12 hours).
- The next morning, heat the oven to 450 F with the Dutch ovens inside for at least 45 minutes. Place parchment rounds on the bottom of the pots and gently drop the boules inside seam side up. Cover and drop the temperature to 425 F, and bake for 25 minutes. Remove lids, admire the huge ears on the loaves and then bake for another 20 minutes at 400 F or until the insides measure 205 F. This is a change from my usual temperatures since the bottoms of my first batch were borderline burnt when using those.
- Cool for at least a couple of hours before cutting and enjoying!