Basic White with Walnuts Variation
The really fun thing about Basic White sourdough is that you can do so many fun variations with it. Adding walnuts is one fun variation. Many people like adding walnuts without adding sugar to the dough so the bread is not too sweet. I have two variations here for you today. One is a slightly sweet walnut bread and one is a savory variety.
I found out that adding walnuts to a dough can cause the dough to have a greyish cast. To avoid that problem, I thought of encasing the walnuts in two different ways to avoid leaching of the walnut color into the dough.
SWEET:
The first variation uses sugared walnuts and the second one uses a batter/dip method. To make the slightly sweet variation I used 4 oz of walnuts and followed the direction from this site: http://www.mnn.com/food/healthy-eating-recipes/stories/candied-walnut-recipe . I did use half the amount of salt called for.
The walnuts were added to a one pound loaf of bread, so double or triple the amounts if you are planning on making several loaves. I made the candied walnuts, which were absolutely addicting by the way, and then cooled them. I folded them into the dough during shaping time.
The dough was proofed for 2.5 hours and then baked (slash and spray with water before placing on the lid) with roasting lid for 20 minutes at 450 degrees, then the lid was taken off and the oven was turned down to 425 degrees and baked for 10 minutes more.
Here are the results, a slightly sweet, delicious breakfast or gift loaf, awesome when toasted:
‘The sugared walnuts created a pocket of tasty cinnamon sugared goodness right around each nut and also caused some leakage while proofing the dough.
SAVORY:
To make a savory variation with no added sugar I did this: For one pound of dough I took 4 oz of walnuts, toasted them in a baking sheet for 5 minutes in a 375 degree oven (cool somewhat when done), then I took one large egg, added one tablespoon of water and a sprinkle of salt then beat it well.
I took the walnuts and put them into the egg mixture and stirred well to coat. Then I took out the walnuts a little at a time and dropped them into a bowl of whole wheat flour. I took them out and shook off any excess flour and then put them all spread out on a baking sheet and baked them at 375 for 5 more minutes.
Then cooled them before adding to the dough. (Bake in the same way described above) This was the savory variation. You could add different spices to the flour mixture to add your own variation. Here are the results for the savory loaf of Walnut Bread:
The Basic White sourdough bread recipe can be found here:
If you want to follow the the thread on the problem with grey crumb for walnut bread and solving the problem see the sourdough forum here: http://teresal.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=939
I will be submitting this post to Yeastspotting, if you haven’t done it yet, check it out!
Have fun baking, I know I sure do!!
