Normandy Apple Bread… Tweaked

Since the family loved the apple bread so much, I decided to try again with a few tweaks. As suggested by dabrownman and Reynard in my last blog, I soaked my dehydrated apples in the cider. I also decided to forgo the instant yeast and rely on my levain to do all the rising of the bread. So this is how I went about it:

• Soaked dehydrated apples in apple cider.
• Combined flour with water and cider. Autolyzed for 30 minutes.
• Put autolyzed flour, salt and levain in bread machine and kneaded until it started to window pane. Added in apple pieces to incorporate.
• Turned out of machine and lightly kneaded it and set in oiled container to bulk rise for 3 1/2 hours. Did stretch and folds once every hour. I intended to bulk rise for 4 hours, but it was looking nice and puffy at 3 1/2 hours.
• Preshape and rest for 10 minutes. Shaped and put in banneton for a final rise of 2 hours.
• Baked in dutch oven. Pre-heated oven at 450F, and once bread was in the oven I turned the temp down to 425F. Baked for 25 minutes covered, 15 minutes (at 400F) uncovered.

The result was, IMO, much improved. Since the dough wasn't dried out by the apple pieces, I had better hydration and a more moist and open crumb. And the longer rise with the sourdough starter gave me a much more flavorful bread. Amazing how much difference that makes.

Interesting that the crust was soft just like last time. Not that I'm complaining as I like it a lot, but wonder what contributes to the change in texture. Must be the apple cider. I have made fruit breads before and the crust was more in line with what one expects from sourdough bread.

And here is the crumb shot: