Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread
Chewy sourdough bread with the zing of hot peppers and sharp cheddar makes for an irresistible snack.
Equipment
- 1 Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 50 g Bubbly, active sourdough starter
- 330 g water (1⅓ cup + 1 Tbsp)
- 9 g salt (1½ tsp)
- 125 g Whole wheat flour (can round to 1 cup)
- 375 g All-purpose flour (can round to 3¼ cups)
- ¼ cup Jalapeño peppers, pickled or fresh, chopped (other hot peppers can be substituted; pickled banana peppers taste amazing here)
- ½ cup Cheddar cheese, shredded (go for an old/sharp cheddar)
Instructions
- This recipe starts the night before and concludes the next day.
- The night before, whisk starter and water together in a large bowl.
- Mix in flour and salt with a fork until the dough becomes stiff and shaggy. Finish mixing with your hands.
- Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- After resting, work the dough into a ball using the "pinch and fold" method. Grab a pinch of dough at the edge and fold it / press it into the middle of the ball. Rotate the bowl a bit and do it again, repeating until you've gone all the way around. The dough will feel tighter as you do this.
- Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let it rise overnight at room temperature, about 10-12 hours.
- After 10-12 hours, the dough should double in size. Don't panic if it doesn't; while mine does get larger, it certainly doesn't double in size. A lot of this comes down to local climate factors and my local climate is not amenable to sourdough.
- Sprinkle flour on your work surface, like a counter or table. Scoop the dough out of the bowl and onto the work surface. Spread the peppers and cheddar on top of the dough.
- Use the pinch and fold method to start shaping the dough into a ball. Once you've gone around the whole ball, flip it over so the pinched seam is down. Cover with a towel and let rest for 30 minutes.
- Flip it over again so the seam is up. Pinch and fold the dough one more time. If you pinch and fold too hard, you might rip the dough and cheese and peppers might tumble out, so be gentle.
- Line a bowl with a dry towel and sprinkle the towel with flour. Let the dough ball rest in the towel, seam side up and with the towel edges covering it, for thirty minutes to an hour. The dough should rise some more, but again local climate may give you different results.
- Preheat oven to 450℉.
- Cut a sheet of parchment paper larger than your dough. Place the parchment over the dough and flip the bowl so the dough is now resting on the parchment in your hand. Set it down on the counter and with a sharp knife, make four shallow cuts at north, east, south, and west points (or 3, 6, 9, and 12 on the clock).
- Grabbing the edges of the parchment paper, lift the dough and place it into the dutch oven and put the lid on.
- Reduce oven heat to 425℉ and put the dutch oven in on the centre rack.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid. Bake for an additional 40 minutes. If the bread doesn't seem ready, bake for ten more minutes.
- Transfer to a wire rack and let cool for at least an hour before slicing.