Patrick cooks

Honey, Blue Cheese and Walnut Sourdough

Preparation time:

2 days

Cooking time:

43 minutes

Serves:

1 loaf

This sourdough is the perfect pairing for the festive season. The flowery sweet honey contrasts well with the sharp, salty blue cheese and earthy walnuts. This is such a delicious recipe and couldn’t be simpler to make!

Ingredients
- 400g strong flour
- 260g water
- 10g sea salt
- 180g levain (this is the starter we prepare specifically for the recipe)
- 60g honey
- 135g blue cheese
- 120g walnuts
Method
- To prepare the levain. This should be done 8 to 10 hours prior to making your dough.
- Combine 60g of sourdough starter with 60g of strong white flour (if using a rye starter use rye flour) and 60g water, stir everything together and leave covered at room temperature until you are ready to start making the dough.
Day one:
- This dough will be built in stages.
Stage one:
- Combine the flour and water together in a clean dough to form a rough dough. Mix everything until all the loose flour has been incorporated. Leave to autolyse for 30mins (simply leave the dough to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes)
Stage two:
- After 30 minutes of autolyse to the dough add the salt, honey and levain. start kneading the dough for 2 to 3 mins. The dough will be wet and sticky but that is ok do not add any additional flour. This kneading can be done within the bowl so no need to turn the dough out onto the counter. After 2 to 3 minutes leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
Stage three:
- After ten minutes of resting return to the dough and knead again for 1 minute. Just by resting the dough, you'll notice how the dough has already begun to develop. Transfer the dough to a clean oiled bowl. We will now leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
Stage four:
- Stretch and fold. Every 30 minutes we want to build strength in our dough by simply stretching and folding. We will do this 2 times with 30 minutes break between each fold. This is perfect at which to add the blue cheese and walnuts. After the 2nd stretch and fold simply leave the dough to prove for a final 4 hours before shaping.
Preparing the dough:
- As the dough is stretched out cover the surface with some of the blue cheese and walnuts. Fold the dough over. Return to the bowl and rest for 30 minutes before repeating.
  After the dough has been allowed to prove for 4 hours turn out onto a floured work surface. Without knocking too much air from the dough gently preshape. Let the dough rest on the counter for ten minutes.
- This quantity of dough will make 1 large sourdough loaf.
  Whether you are using a proving basket, Pyrex dish or simply proving in a bowl lined with a tea towel it should be prepared by dusting with flour. Rye flour or rice flour works well for this.
- Mould the dough into a round, dust the surface of the dough with flour and place it into your proving basket seem side facing up. Leave the shaped dough to prove for 30 mins at room temperature before placing it into the fridge to prove overnight.
Day two:
- The next day remove the dough from the fridge. Preheat the oven to 240c with an empty tray placed into the base of the oven.
- Turn the dough out from the proving basket, rub some flour over the surface of the dough and score. If baking using a Pyrex dish or Dutch oven place the dome over the dough and bake.
- Bake for 35 minutes with the lid on and a further 8 minutes with the lid off. If using a Pyrex dish or Dutch oven there is no need to steam the bread however if simply baking on a baking tray adding steam to the oven is required. This can be done by pouring boiling water into the preheated tray that is sitting in the base of your oven.