This week I’ve mailed out a stack of dried sourdough starter. I hope you all enjoy playing with them!
And whilst almost everyone who receives the starter might begin by making our basic loaf, within a very short time every kitchen will be producing their own “house” style, adapted and tweaked to suit their schedules and tastes.
I love that. The true joy of breadmaking is not in the fastidious reproduction of a set formula, but rather in the experimenting – playing with the hydration levels, testing out different flours, slashing creatively. Please don’t ever feel obliged to follow our bread recipes precisely, because I’m usually making it up as I go along!
After all these years of baking, I now read bread books for inspiration rather than instruction. Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf is a treasure trove of ideas, including one for a great loaf that involves adding walnuts in two ways – whole pieces and ground into a paste…
I didn’t follow Dan’s recipe, but rather took the idea and applied it to my standard formula. You could easily do the same with your own favourite dough – just add walnut pieces and reduce the water quantity by the amount in the paste. The ground nuts give the dough a gorgeous purple tinge…
Here’s the formula I used:
- 300g ripe, bouncy starter (fed at a ratio of one cup water to one cup flour)
- 500g – 550g water (start with smaller amount and add more if needed)
- 500g Semola Rimacinata di Grano Duro (fine durum wheat semolina flour)*
- 500g bakers flour
- 20g fine sea salt
- 200g walnut halves
- walnut paste – 120g walnuts, 100g water, 15g olive oil
Note: If you can’t find remilled semolina flour, substitute more bakers/bread flour and reduce water by 30g.
I ground up the paste ingredients in my small food processor and then added it with the walnuts to the other ingredients. Our basic instructions for making a nut sourdough are here.
Our standard bread dough weighs about two kilograms and produces two large oval loaves – just letting you know in case you want to scale the walnuts and paste to add to your own dough recipe. The taste and texture of the finished loaves was sublime…
This has instantly become one of our new favourite loaves – Pete, Big Boy and I all love it (Small Man’s not a walnut fan). It’s perfect with cheese, smoked fish and eggs, or just on its own, spread with a little butter…
Have a wonderful weekend, folks!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Good morning Celia, this walnut sounds delicious… and would be perfect with the butter I made yesterday! Happy baking over the weekend, love.
Thanks darling! It’s been a good weekend, hope yours was too! :)
I having being reading your blog regularly for over two years now and really look forward to each post. I once tried to start a sour dough starter but it being winter at the time it didn’t really work. I would love some of Priscilla as a starter.
Hi Cora, it’s gone out in the mail today, hopefully you’ll have it soon! :)
Celia, may I buy a packet of starter? I love your blog.
Sami, I’ve sent you an email – hope you get it! I think the email address you’ve entered here isn’t quite right?
Hi Celia, this walnut bread sounds delicious, we love fresh baked bread, hopefully soon I will have enough confidence in my baking abilities to start making bread on my own.
Cheri, it’s really pretty easy after the first couple of attempts! :)
Sounds and looks wonderful Celia!
Thanks Ardys! xx
Just the thing to do with the pack of walnuts I bought this morning (along with my tins of evaporated and condensed milk). I like the idea of ground and pieces.
Anne, it’s a clever idea, isn’t it? I’m going to try it with other nuts, although it was most fine with walnuts.
If you ever have any spare starter I would absolutely love some. I am off work on maternity leave and this time I’m determined to start mastering sourdough. Only problem is my attempts at creating my own starter have failed and I don’t know anyone who does it around here. Love the recipe above it looks amazing
Emma, it’s on its way to you now! Have fun being home with your wee ones! :)
Beautiful looking loaves! I will be looking up your sourdough recipes to try as soon as I get my starter working. (First it has to arrive!) Lol
I hope it gets there soon, M! I’m still amazed by how cold it’s been over there! Stay warm! xx
Stunning loaf, Celia. I think a little homemade strawberry jam would compliment it as well. I’ve made Dan Lepard’s recipe before and found it heavier than I like. Might try again with just a touch of wholewheat and rye.
Liz, that’s interesting! I think it would be very nice made with a bit of rye, actually!
Celia, I’ve made it with a some rye, dried organic cherries(no sugar) & hazelnuts……..was sublime!
Oh Celia how man times have I wished to reach into the screen & rip into your crusty loaves of bread!! thank you for sharing.
Hahaha…thanks Lina! :)
It is lovely to think of all that sourdough baking – and always inspiring to see what you are up to. I love walnuts but am not sure how a loaf with whole walnuts would go down in our house. The idea of adding nut paste is really interesting – definitely something I might try (and no one would ever know)
Johanna, the flavour in the crumb is lovely and subtle – I reckon you’d get away with it! :)
G’day Looks wonderful Celia and you truly could have a chocolate shop combined with a bakery! Cheers! Joanne
Jo, that’s very kind of you, thank you! :)
Mmmmm yum! I love walnut bread….& this gorgeous fig, lime & vanilla jam from a Skye Gyngell recipe.
And I can’t seem to contact IMK via email??? Hoping this will be the start of my involvement with this fantastic concept :))
Thanks for sharing Celia
love Roni xx
Hi Roni, best way to contact me is via a comment here or on twitter. Thanks! :)
BTW, if you’d like to join in IMK, just put up a post on your blog prior to the 10th of the month and leave a comment here so I’ll know to add you to the list. You’d be most welcome! :)
Hi Celia,
I received the starter. I love it already. I can’t wait to use it and bake some amazing bread asap, half as good as yours. Thank you Celia. Best wishes, and Merry Christmas to you and your family. :D XX
Padaek, that’s fabulous! Have a wonderful time with it! Have a glorious Christmas and New Year! :) xx
Hello Celia,
Maureen Shaw from Orgasmic Chef introduced me to you….what a fabulous concept!
The site says let you know if I want to add something, which I would love to be involved in if that’s okay…
Thanks for the invite too :)) Post up about salads…& thanks for adding me to the list.
Looking forward to playing with you guys…
Thanks so much,
Merry Christmas
love Roni xx
Thanks Roni, I’ll add it shortly – WordPress playing up a bit at the moment!
Going to Soho today to source the re-milled flour!!
Oh I hope it arrives soon for you, Lady Sparkle! The last one I sent to the UK only took 4 days, so hopefully yours will be there soon too! :)
Priscilla has arrived!!! So excited – I am going to start the process tomorrow – thank you so much xxxx PS I have always loved anything that sparkles – when Jake was little I was in heaven doing crafts with him just because of the glitter!!
She’s arrived already!! That was quick! I hope you have great fun with her, my lovely sparkly friend! And do let me know what you name your starter.. :)
That was quick – Jake came in and said that there was an air mail envelope for me – I shot into the hall like a bolt of lightning!! So, we may end up calling her Priscilla’s Twinkle (which addresses my love of sparkle as well as alludes to the bubbling of the yeast)…Jake and I are still in deliberations…
I think I should ‘treat’ myself to Dan Lepard’s book to go with the starter dough…. I can’t wait 😊
It’s on it’s way, Melissa! Have fun with it! Dan’s book is wonderful. It’s worth noting that he keeps his starter at a different hydration level to mine, but it’s very easy to adjust for (let me know if you get the book and want to know what we do).
That looks like a magnificent loaf Celia! We are currently munching on an enormous miche loaf from Sonoma. It’s so good!
I’ve had one of those – they’re huge! :)
Celia, your bread is always wonderful, no matter what variation you make.
Glenda darling, so is yours! :)
I think you capture the spirit of Dan’s baking beautifully with that loaf. Funnily enough I have been re-reading his book, not so much for the recipes but for the social documentation of all the bakers and places he visited and poring over the photographs of faces and places and the detail. Knowing more now than I did when I started baking and first read the book, there are phrases and names and words that still cause my mind to ripple with delight when I re-read them. I must have read his book over a dozen times now. I still adore it. Do you have a book that you read over and over just for the pleasure of the words? xx Joanna
Yes, Dan’s book is exactly like that, isn’t it? I have so many books I re-read just for the flow and rhythm of the language, so I know EXACTLY what you mean! :) xxx
oh yummo how do i get some starter?
I bought mine from the U.S. but you could also make your own – Brydie at CityHippyFarmGirl has instructions! I had some to give away, but all 30 packets have now gone out (they were only available to folks who had left a comment previously). Hope you track some down, it’s not hard to find! :)
No I want this book! Can’t wait to try the walnut bread looks delicious.
Lury, the book is a great read – it’s full of stories about bread baking in different countries, and offers so much more than just recipes!
Celia,
I love your relaxed approach toward bread making! I use to think I would never be without my bread maker to do the kneading for me, but once it broke I didn’t replaced it. I now find it a joy to work the dough with my hands and some good muscle. =)
I’m a very lazy baker! I barely knead at all! :)
Do all your recipes require little kneading or do you simply skip it?
I tend to let the dough rest for half an hour then give it a few turns in the bowl before letting it prove. If it’s a very wet dough, I’ll give it periodic folds to build structure, but otherwise I tend to just leave it alone. The sourdough yeasts tend to do all the work! (And it saves my often sore hands!) :)
Thanks for the info, very helpful to know. 🍞
Walnut bread sounds wonderful – I will have to try it. My sourdough is rising so slowly at the moment I am going to try boosting it with a little yeast. I will be ‘fiddling’ with your standard recipes. I hope you don’t mind!
Please do! Then every loaf you produce will be uniquely yours, Kim! :)
This is a thing of complete unmitigated beauty. Sometimes you just know you are going to have to experience something. I am going to have to experience this bread. That means getting Chica’s starter and starting it back up. Hopefully it’s got as much get up and go as The Rolling Stones and I can turn out something even half as scrumptious looking as this. Riffing on a theme… a good friend works at a smelter and was given a stack of refractory bricks that he didn’t want so knowing that we are in the middle of planning for a pizza oven he gave them to us. They are nigh on impossible to cut but we got to thinking…what about if we made a masonry oven instead?! Plans immediately changed and going oldschool and on a bigger scale methinks :)
Lovely to have lots of room and free bricks, Fran! But the bigger it is, the more fuel it takes to keep warm, I think (not having one of my own though).
Yeah, we thought that as well but these refractory bricks will be coupled with insulation and another layer of regular house bricks on the outside. I am lazy and don’t want to be shoving in wood constantly. If you are prepping a meal and sharing a nice glass of wine with friends, the last thing you want is a workout jumping up and down to throw more wood on the fire! You can be assured that this baby will be the best darned insulated masonry oven on the planet! (probably visible on Google Earth ;) )
I have to get
THing Two up and ready to do some work soon. I’ve been using yeast and making French and Italian bread exclusively to keep my husband happy- but now it is time for me! And your walnut bread has inspired me- thanks Celia for your faithful blogging!
Heidi, I’m glad to hear Thing Two is still alive and well. Let me know if you ever need more dried starter – would be happy to send it to you! :)
I love the look of your bread and I agree that with the walnuts, it’s just perfect with cheese – I’m thinking blue! I’m going to get on the bread-making band wagon one day soon! xx
Just let me know whenever you need some starter Charlie! Maybe you could name yours Arabella…hahaha
I love walnut breads! I think the best sourdough loaf I ever made back when I had a live starter was a walnut recipe from the Bourke St Bakery cookbook. I had people offering to pay me for it! Looking forward to replicating it with my offspring of Priscilla! Thanks Celia!
It should be with you very soon! Have fun! :)
Wonderful, i wil try this one too,i hve my starter and will start it up this week.. THANK YOU!!
It arrived! Hooray!! :)
Celi dear, I was thinking that you might like this recipe too. Just use all bread flour if you can’t get any of the 00…
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/04/27/bread-101-sourdough-white-sandwich-loaf/
I’m so excited to receive my starter kit!! I’ve never made sourdough before! Thanks you SO MUCH Celia!!!
Nagi, I’m so glad you received it! Have fun playing with it! :)
I’m especially fond of sourdough with walnuts and fresh rosemary, but haven’t tried adding walnut paste. Tomorrow, for sure! Thanks for the inspiration.
Have fun! Dan’s book is full of great ideas! :)
Thank you so very much for the starter which I have received in the mail, can’t wait to try it. Your walnut bread looks so delicious.
Hooray, it arrived! Have fun with it, Helle! :)
I’ll start with the starter next weekend.. Looking forward to it. Thank-you!
Paula, I hope that means it’s arrived? Enjoy playing with it! :)
How wonderful that walnut bread must smell while baking Celia- probably nearly as great as it tastes! Xox
Thanks Becca, it was completely gorgeous! :)
I can’t wait to see all the new loaves of sourdough from all the new bakers. I LOVED getting my starter. This walnut loaf does sound delicious.
Thanks Maureen, I LOVED sending it to you. :)
Fabulous and I’m thinking it would be perfect with the Christmas Stilton (for some English tradition) and our Spanish Pasas (sun dried moscatel grapes) and a little glass of rose port (a new one we discovered and bought in Spain) :)
Tanya, it’s perfect with Stilton, I know because I’ve just tried it! :) My favourite combo though is with Wensleydale with cranberries. I don’t think I’ve ever tried a rose port!
Great news!!! I posted a new blog on my web page in which I was nominated for the “Harmony and Peace Award.” The best news is that I have also nominated YOU and your blog to receive this this award as well. I really do appreciate and enjoy your blog, so keep up the fantastic work. I hope you not only enjoy this award, but you will use it to encourage others!! http://fourthgenerationfarmgirl.com/2014/12/07/the-harmony-and-peace-award/
That’s very kind of you, thank you! I don’t do blog awards, but I’m honoured that you’d consider me! :)
I certainly understand. :)
You know making sourdough bread is all new to me so I’m going to play it safe & stick with a tried & true recipe before experimenting. I can’t wait to play with it & actually, I think it was Glenda who suggested that I get my husband involved in bread making as something he might enjoy during retirement. I think she’s got a great idea – he used to make pasta & he surely enjoys his bread.
Diane, I do think your hubby might love this – it’s all about numbers and hydration percentages…hahaha. Your starter is on its way, but if you want to do some preliminary reading, here’s the link to our basic sourdough tutorial – it’s quite detailed! :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/02/11/bread-101-a-basic-sourdough-tutorial/
What a great loaf of bread, Celia! Love that it uses walnut halves and paste. They must give the loaf a great flavor and aroma. I will definitely be making this one. Thanks!
Hooray! I hoped you’d like this one, John! :)
I know I’m late commenting on this but I just LOVE reading your blog and all about your baking adventures. You are an amazing cook!!
Georgous walnut breads, dear Celia! Waw! That book must be a great bake book too! :)