When our friend Craig came over for dinner recently, he brought a stunning loaf of whole wheat and walnut sourdough with him. It was so good that I was keen to try something similar.
I’d recently purchased wholemeal spelt flour from Weston Milling and decided to make a hybrid dough with walnuts. The finished bread was very moreish – Pete and I ate half a loaf standing up in the kitchen, slice after slice – it was that delicious. Spelt flour has a nutty flavour which complements the walnuts particularly well.
Here’s the formula…
- 300g active sourdough starter (166%, fed at a ratio of 1 cup flour to 1 cup water)
- 600g water
- 500g bakers/bread flour
- 500g wholemeal spelt flour
- 200g walnuts
- 18g fine sea salt
The finished dough is at 70.5% hydration. If you’re using a 100% starter, increasing the water to 660g should do the trick. I wrote a little about dough hydration here.
These quantities made one 900g and two 600g loaves…
It was a great opportunity to try out the new, smaller bannetons I’d recently bought from Chefs’ Warehouse…
I hadn’t tried the Weston Milling spelt before, and was very chuffed with how well it baked up. I bought it at Southern Cross Supplies in Marrickville – from memory, the 10kg sack cost me $28, which is much cheaper than spelt flour has been in previous years. I might need to buy some more, as I can see this becoming a regular loaf at our place!
. . . . .
Edit: Since starting this post, I’ve made the walnut loaves again…
…as well as a batch of sourdough rolls, made to the same recipe minus the walnuts, and shaped using our easy fold and cut method shown here…
