Sourdough Rosemary Blueberry Loaves

These Sourdough Rosemary Blueberry Loaves, with a cute bee stencil on top, are made with stone-milled Georgia bread flour and 36% home-milled whole grain emmer flour.

Rosemary and Raisin Loaves are the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes, and Judy, of Judy’s Gross Eats, is our hostess.

According to Judy, this is one of her “… most favorite breads ever.” When she was in culinary school, she played around with adapting bread recipes for starters, and this recipe was the result.  She said this bread always performs!  This is also the only baked good containing raisins that she will eat.  She said the golden raisins add a nice touch of sweetness.

Judy also said, “One summer, she entered her bread into the County Fair, and it won a second-place ribbon for sourdough bread.  It was featured in an article in the local newspaper, complete with story, recipe, and photos.”  Pretty cool huh!

The main takeaway, at least for me, from Judy’s instructions was this one: “Please feel free to change it up, if you wish: different fruit or herb or sweetener.”

So I took up the challenge and made a completely wild-yeast version with no added dried yeast, substituted dried blueberries for the raisins, used stone-milled bread flour, and doubled the amount of whole-grain flour.  I also cut the recipe in half and made two smaller loaves.

For fun, I added a stencil of a bee on top of each loaf.  I tried one stencil with brown rice flour and the other with oregano powder.  I thought the oregano powder would be neat since this is an herb bread, but after baking, it didn’t provide enough contrast. The brown rice flour bee provides a much better contrast.

The scoring pattern on the second loaf (the one with the brown rice flour bee) seemed to work better for the stencil as well.  On the first loaf, I was going for a loaf that looked more like a flower, and although you can’t see it in these photos, the loaf tore a little bit at the top of the stencil.  I still like the shape of the first loaf and the scoring even though the stencil doesn’t show up very well.

The smaller loaves were the perfect size for sharing.  I gave the loaf with brown rice flour stencil to a friend and kept the other one for taste testing.  I think I ended up with more blueberries in my loaf.  Not sure how that happened, but yum!  It makes great toast!

Sourdough Rosemary Blueberry Loaves

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• Author: Bread Experience
• Yield: 2 small loaves 1x

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Description

These Sourdough Rosemary Blueberry Loaves, with a cute bee stencil on top, are made with stone-milled Georgia bread flour and 36% home-milled whole grain emmer flour.

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Ingredients

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• 283 grams bread flour (I used stone-ground bread flour)
• 227 grams whole grain emmer flour (I used home-milled flour)
• 12 grams Kosher salt
• 30 grams honey
• 57 grams olive oil
• 60 grams dried blueberries
• 3 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
• 227 grams sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 322 (257 + 30 + 35 grams) water, room-temperature * (see notes)

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Instructions

Day One

1. Feed your sourdough starter the morning or evening before you plan to start this bread.
2. Blend dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients, except dried blueberries, and mix until just combined into a shaggy dough.
3. Cover with a towel and let mixture rest for 15 minutes.
4. Mix in blueberries, and add more water, if necessary
5. Cover the bowl, and let the dough rest for 30 minutes. Mix in more water if necessary.
6. Bulk Proof – Cover and let the dough proof for 6-8 hours. Perform a stretch and fold after the 1st and 2nd hour, then let it rest in the bowl for several more hours.
7. Remove the dough from the bowl, form into a rough ball and let it rest for 15 minutes.
8. Shape Loaves – Divide the dough in half, shape into tight rounds and place seamside up in two lined, and flour-dusted banneton proofing baskets. (I use a mixture of brown rice flour/all-purpose flour for dusting the baskets)
9. Cover the baskets with plastic wrap, bees wrap, or a plate.
10. Final proof – Let the loaves rest on the counter an hour or two and then tightly cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Day Two

1. Preheat – Oven to 450°F (205°C) with a cloche, Dutch Oven or other baking pot on the bottom rack. Let it preheat for 30-45 minutes prior to baking the loaves. (I used a cloche for this bread)
2. Score Loaves – Carefully turn out the loaves from the proofing baskets onto parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal. Score the loaves with a lame or serrated knife in the pattern of your choice.
3. Add a stencil on top if you like. I tried scoring before and after adding the stencil, and after scoring worked a little bit better because I knew where the stencil would go.
4. Bake the Loaves – When the oven and bread pot have preheated sufficiently, remove the lid and transfer the scored loaf (on the parchment) to the bottom of the baker. Use the “parchment sling” to transfer the loaf in and out of the baker to keep from getting burned.
5. Bake each loaf about 20 minutes with the lid on and 15 minutes with the lid off, for a total of 30-35 minutes.
6. Carefully remove the loaf from the oven and place it on a wire rack for cooling.
7. Repeat the baking process with the 2nd loaf. Preheat the oven again to 450 degrees F. before baking the 2nd loaf.

Notes

Since I used stone-milled and home-milled flour, I incorporated a good bit more water. I started out with 227 grams which would have been the correct amount had I used regular bread flour and regular whole wheat flour. I added more water when I incorporated the blueberries and after letting the loaf rest for 30 minutes. If you use a different combination of flours, you may not need this much water. Just add it gradually.

Sourdough:
Here is the link to my favorite starter if you don’t have one https://www.breadexperience.com/you-are-apple-of-my-starter/

• Category: Round Herb Bread
• Method: Sourdough

Baking with the Bread Baking Babes

Would you like to make Sourdough Rosemary Raisin Loaves with us this month and get your very own Buddy Badge?

Check out Judy’s post for information on how to participate in the monthly bake.

New recipes are posted every month on the 16th. Check out our Facebook group to see the participants’ baking results during that time.

Each Babe has her interpretation of this delicious bread so please check out their posts for more inspiration:

• Blog from OUR Kitchen – Elizabeth
• Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
• A Messy Kitchen – Kelly
• Feeding My Enthusiasms – Pat
• Bread Experience – Cathy

Happy Baking!

Cathy