Description
This Sourdough Uzbek Stamp Bread is fairly thick around the edges and flattened in the middle using a bread stamp to impart a lovely design.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 50 grams sourdough starter, active, recently fed
- 125 grams all-purpose flour (I used stoneground all-purpose flour)
- 30 grams whole grain spelt flour (I used freshly milled flour)
- 20 grams whole grain rye flour (I used freshly milled flour)
- 100–110 grams warm water, or more as needed
- 1/2 teaspoon organic sugar (to add color to baked loaf)
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame, or black onion seeds
Instructions
- Feed your starter the evening before you plan to bake this bread. Let rest overnight at warm room temperature.
- The next day, add 50 grams of fed starter to a medium bowl. Pour 100 grams of the water over the starter and mix to incorporate.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and sugar. Add the flour mixture on top of the starter mixture and stir using a Danish dough whisk, then work it with a dough scraper until mixed thoroughly.
- Cover the bowl, let rest for 20-30 minutes at warm room temperature.
- Sprinkle the salt over the dough along with 10-15 grams water, if needed, and work in the salt with your fingers until thoroughly incorporated in the dough.
- Cover, let rest for a total of 3 ½ – 4 hours. Stretch and fold the dough 2 times at 45-minute intervals, then let the dough rest for the remaining 2- 2 ½ hours.
- Knock the air out of the dough and form it into a domed round. Sit it on a piece of parchment paper and cover with a large bowl. Let prove for about another 45 minutes to an hour; about doubled in size again.
- Preheat the oven and baking stone to 500°F, or as hot as it will go.
- Make an indentation in the middle of the bread. An Uzbek baker – nonvoy – would have a special tool that creates the depression in the middle of the bread. The tool has a handle much like on the bread stamp -chekich – but the bottom is more like a ball cut in half and smushed a little flat. Lacking this special tool, you can use your hand or anything in the kitchen that resembles 1/2 a ball smushed; like a large ladle. (I tried using a ladle, but had better success with one of my small stoneware bowls because they were heavier).
- The indentation needs to be slightly larger than your bread stamp. Using the bread stamp, pierce the pattern in the middle indentation. Brush the top with butter, oil or an egg wash (or water).
- You can create steam in the oven with ice cubes or mist with water OR slide the loaf onto the hot stone and cover with a stainless-steel bowl or roasting pan.
- Bake covered for 12 minutes; Bake uncovered 5 to 10 minutes longer until the bread is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped underneath. The internal temperature should be between 200 and 205° F.
- Category: Flatbread