Blueberry Lemon Sourdough Bread Recipe - it's wonderful | Foodgeek (2024)

FAQs

Can I use frozen blueberries in sourdough? ›

If you use frozen blueberries, theres no need to thaw them first. Just remember frozen berries will make your batter purple. Sprinkle a little flour into the blueberries to help prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the loaf. The time it takes for your loaf to bake will vary based on your oven.

There are two main acids produced in a sourdough culture: lactic acid and acetic acid. Acetic acid, or vinegar, is the acid that gives sourdough much of its tang. Giving acetic acid-producing organisms optimal conditions to thrive and multiply will produce a more tangy finished product.

Whole wheat flour is an excellent choice for creating a sourdough starter due to its nutrient-rich composition and potential for fostering a robust microbial community.

Longer fermentation

As your dough proofs, the good bacteria eats up sugars and starches in the flour. This decreases the sweet undertone and creates a more sour undertone. The longer you ferment, the more starches and sugars the bacteria eats, and the more sour your bread will be.

Simply measure out the blueberries, add may an extra 1/2 cup to what the recipe calls for fresh berries. Then simply let them thaw and allow them to drain a little. Then use as you would fresh. If they seem a little watery, add about 1 tablespoon of cornstarch before adding to the pie.

Generally speaking, you should thaw frozen berries if the recipe you're making has a short cooking time. For something quick, like a pancake, a frozen berry won't have time to thaw properly in the pan. The cold berry will also keep the batter around it from cooking properly.

The good news: You can freeze sourdough bread! That's the perfect way to keep your bread fresh if you won't be able to get through a loaf in a few days. Generally, a homemade loaf can do three to five days at room temperature, before it may go stale or develop bread mold.

Using flours with more ash, or mineral, content, will yield more sour taste. If you can't get enough ash, adding a bit of whole wheat flour to your recipe, which is what is done with the 20% Bran Flour, will boost the sour of a bread. Conversely, using a lower ash flour will tend to produce a milder bread.

For more tang: Incorporate some rye flour and/or whole wheat flour early in the bread-making process, such as when feeding the mother culture and the preferment. Rye flour in particular will help your culture produce some acetic acid.

Overproofed is when the dough has rested too long and the yeast has continued making carbon dioxide while the strength of the dough (gluten bonds) have begun to wear out. The dough will look very puffy, but when you touch it or move it you may notice it deflate or sag.

Why do you put baking soda in sourdough bread? ›

What does baking soda do to sourdough? because it reacts with the acid from the sourdough starter to create carbon dioxide gas, which provides leavening.

It might be cold dough. One of the most common mistakes is having a dough temperature that's too low for the starter to feed on all the flour in the dough, resulting in a crumb that's dense, with fewer openings. "Starter is happiest and most active at around 75 degrees.

Set the oven to 450°F, turn it on, and set a timer for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, remove the lid and allow the bread to continue baking until it's a dark golden brown, probably an additional 25-30 minutes.

So don't leave your dough in a warm oven, on a radiator or in sunlight. It will likely be too warm and will dry out your dough too. Instead, find a cosy spot, with no drafts, for your dough to rise. And, if your sourdough starter is struggling to get going, consider finding it a warmer spot too.

Honey: Honey adds a sweetness to this dough and helps balance any sour flavor that comes through from the fermentation process. If you are looking for whole wheat bread without the honey, try this recipe. Salt: Salt enhances the flavor and helps tempers the fermentation.

In my experience, the shortest final proof (at room temperature) that I prefer to do is one hour. The longest final proof (at room temperature) is about 3 hours. When going past 2-3 hours in a final proof, the crumb tends to get very gassy and opens up large gas bubbles with a longer countertop proof.