No knead Raisin Walnut Sourdough Bread

I bake a lot of bread in my house . A LOT. Like at least 2-3 times a week and have been doing so for years now so I know a thing or two about bread. And when I bake bread, I almost always use starter unless I really really need dough fast. Then I will add yeast but honestly, I haven’t used yeast in bread in probably 3+ years. I have developed such a rhythm with bread that I just have dough in the fridge at all times.

One reason I have never shared a sourdough recipe before on the blog is that I think a lot of people feel intimidated by baking bread and especially making bread with just a starter. Another reason is that up until the past year, I don’t think having a starter was as common as it is now (but thanks to COVID it is more common then ever!). Anyway, now more people are on the home made bread band wagon (about stinkin time) and I am here for it.

A word of advice if you are new to the bread game…. Don’t take it to seriously! I remember back in my early days of bread baking I would freak out about if I was doing it right. About timing and wondering if it is exactly the right amount of rising or if the temperature of this or that was exactly, or if I handled the dough to rough. Now after all these years, I have gotten pretty intuitive with bread dough but also I don’t worry to much. It will be good. It will be bread and you will love ever single bite.

This bread is a basic no knead bread with a little added goodness of walnuts and raisins. Easy, simple, and freaking delicious. A great bread to make if you are just getting into the sourdough bread game. Or if you want really dank ass bread!

To the bread!

The stuff. Ripe starter, flour, warm water, salt, raisins , walnuts, and a little cinnamon.

Start by dumping a little of the warm water onto the raisins to plump them up a bit and to make sure they are not all stuck together.

Make the dough. Stain the water from the raisins into a big bowl and add the rest of the water, along with the starter and a little flour. Mix until incorporated. Add in the salt, cinnamon, and rest of flour and mix until all the dry is mixed into wet you have a shaggy wet dough. Add in the raisins and walnuts and mix until incorporated.

All mixed and ready to rest. Scrap sides of bowl and cover. Place In a warm spot for a couple hours.

After about 2 hours, the dough hasn’t done much rising but that is what is suppose to happen. Take a damp hand and fold dough over itself a few times then cover ( with plastic or a silicon bowl topper) and place dough into fridge. Leave it in there over night. (at least 10 hours or for up to a week)

Dough the next day. It hasn't double, but that is fine.

Dump dough out onto a flour piece of parchment. Fold each side over onto the top and them flip top side down. Gently shape into a nice ball.

Place doughstill on parchment into a large dutch oven. Cover and let rest for 2ish hours.

Preheat oven!

After the two hours and once the oven is nice and hot, remove lid and take a lame of serrated knife and slash the top of the loaf. One or two slashes or a few fancy placed ones. Just don’t press down to hard of cut it up to much. Now place lid back onto pot and place pot into hot oven. Bake for 30 minutes then carefully remove lid. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until a deep golden brown.

What a beauty! Now take the bread out of pot and yes, you MUST wait to cut into it. Let cool for at least an hour. I know you want bread now but it will not end well if you try to cut into this loaf hot.

But once it is cooled and you slice into.. Worth every minutes of waiting.

-C

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No knead Raisin Walnut Sourdough Bread

Makes one big road loaf but can also make 2 smaller round loafs

• 4 cups all purpose flour plus more for shaping

• 1 3/4 cup warm water

• 1/2 cup ripe sourdough starter

• 1 cup raisins

• 1 cup chopped walnuts

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 heapingtaspoon cinnamon

Start by dumping some of the warm water into a bowl with the raisins. Let sit for a few minutes until the y plump up a bit. Stain the water from raisins into a big bowl only with the starter and the rest of the warm water. Add in a cup or so of flour and mix until incorporated. Next add in the rest of the flour, the salt, and the cinnamon. Mix until all the dry flour is now wet and you have a shaggy wet dough. Dump in the walnuts and raisins and mix in. Scrape down sides of bowl, cover, and place in a warm spot for an hour to two. After sitting for a while, the dough should have risen a bit but to doubled in size. Grab the edge of dough and fold it over itself , cover back up (use plastic of a silicon top), and stick it in fridge overnight (at least 10 hours but up to a week)

The next day when you are ready to bake it off, remove the dough from fridge, dump out onto a floured covered piece of parchment, and fold side over to the top. Then roll the folded side over. Keep on parchment and gently shape into a round. Place shaped dough (pick up by the parchment paper) into a large dutch oven. Put the cover on and let rest. (You can also place on a baking sheet if you don’t have a dutch oven and gently cover a plastic bag that is not touching he dough). After about and hour and a half start reheating the oven to 500 degrees.

After the oven has been preheated (give it a good 1/2 hour so oven temp is truly hot) remove lid (or bag) and sprinkle a little flour on top of dough. With a lame or a sharp serrated knife, score the stop of the bread. One or two slashed should be fine. Now place lid back onto pot and place pot into hot oven. Or if not using dutch oven, add a separate baking pan to the bottom of oven with a cup of water to create steam and just slide baking sheet into oven. i After a few minutes, turn heat down to 450. For dutch oven, bake for 1/2 hour then carefully remove lid from pot and continue to cook for another 20- 25 minutes or until the bread is a nice deep golden brown. If not using dutch oven, the bread will back a bit faster so check after 40 minutes for a nice deep golden brown loaf. (When in doubt of doneness check internal temperature . 200- 210 degrees)

Once baked through, remove pot from oven, pop bread out of pot and place on a cooling rack. Let cool for at least an hour before cutting into it.

Once cooled, slice and eat. Best eaten within 2-3 days and if you are not going to eat it that fast, just slice it up and stick in the freezer.

Cranberry Orange Soda Bread

One of my go to things to do when I am feeling feelings of stress and or anxiety (or angry , or happiness, or sad… all the emotions really) is to bake. I have a feeling that I am going to be baking quite a bit in the next few weeks. And due to the fact that when I went to go buy my usual 25 lb bag of flour the other day and all the flour, at multiple stores, was sold out, I think some of you might be planning on some baking soon too? I sure hope so because I am gonna be pissed if I find out that people are just hoarding all the flour and not using it. 😁

Anyway, soda bread. This bread is not like a soft and fluffy yeasted bread. It is thick and hearty and this one is full of orange zest and dried cranberries to give it just a little more flavor. Of course I was thinking of St Patricks Day next week when I made it because we all know that Irish soda bread is well, Irish, and St Patricks Day is an Irish celebration, but I was also thinking that the mr was coming home for lunch and my sourdough was only about an hour into it’s 8 hour ferment and I had no back up bread for lunch food. So soda bread is what I made. Quick to throw together, bakes within an hour, and is every bit as fantastic as any yeasted bread. The mr was very much pleased to have a nice sturdy, fragrant, hunk of a this bread situation when he came home for lunch and I was a little less crazy stressed because of it. Plus, as usual when baking nice things, the house smelled so good! I think I sometime just bake things just for the smell that lingers for the day. I love it when my hair smells like bread. HA!

Now go grab that flour your hoarding and get at this bread!

The stuff. All purpose and white whole wheat flour, some oats, baking soda and powder, salt, soy milk, brown sugar, oil, dried cranberries, a bit of apple cider vinegar, and an orange.

First add vinegar into milk and stir it up.

Zest the orange into the bowl with the dry stuff, add in the sugar, and give it a good stir to fully combine it all.

Add in the cranberries. Make sure they are not all stuck together and stir them in.

And lastly, add in the milk and oil and stir until a dough forms.

The beauty of unbaked bread dough.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured baking sheet and knead it a few times. Then shape into a big ball and score the top with a big X. Then you just pop it into the oven to bake.

There she is. A big, beautiful loaf of bread. And guess what, you don’t have to wait forever to cut into it. Just 15 minutes of so.

Now you got what you were waiting for. Warm fresh bread, maybe some buttery spread, and a plate (if you a civilized). You eat, you feel better.

Stay well folks!

-C

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Cranberry Orange Soda Bread

makes 1 loaf

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

• 1 cups white whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup old fashion oats

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 cups plant milk

• 1 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

• 1/3 cup neutral oil

• a large orange for zest

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

preheat oven to 375

Mix together the apple cider vinegar with the milk and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together both flours, the oats, the brown sugar, the baking soda and powder, the zest of the orange, and the salt, until full incorporated. Then toss in the cranberries (make sure they are not all stuck together) and mix them in. Lastly, add in the oil and milk and vinegar mixture and stir until completely combined.

Turn out dough onto a well floured surface and knead a few times, adding more flour to keep your hands from sticking then place on a well floured and parchment lined baking sheet. Form dough into a ball and then score the top with a big X that is about a third of the way deep. Place into oven to bake for 50-55 minutes or until bread is a deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Once bread is baked, allow to cool for at least 15 minutes or so on a wire rack before cutting into it, but you can cut while still slightly warm.

And then eat

Store uneaten bread in an airtight bag at room temperature for up to 3 days, but it is actually better to eat it within the first 2 days. It does great when sliced and frozen and then tossed back to life.