Spring onion bread

I am not very good at scoring bread. I’ve tried many different methods and tools to make my cuts look nice and tidy. Most of the time it doesn’t work out. So this time, I did not score the loaf at all. Instead I shaped it in a special way to get a “rustic” look for my bread. And it worked out perfectly!

Usually, when you shape your loaf, you place it on your baking sheet seam side down and make sure the seam is sealed. For this spring onion bread, I did place the bread seam side up on the sheet. The result was this beautiful loaf:

Spring Onion Bread

This recipe calls for a pre-ferment and a sourdough starter. You might think this is a bit too much pre-fermentation, but it’s not. It’s a great method to get a flavourful and shelf stable bread with a creamy and light crumb.

Spring Onion Bread (makes one loaf)

Pre-ferment:
75 g all-purpose flour
75 ml water
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Sourdough starter:
10 g sourdough starter (ripe starter from the fridge)
100 g whole rye flour
100 ml water

Bread:
pre-ferment
starter
163 g whole wheat flour
163 g all-purpose flour
10 g diastatic malt powder (optional)
10 g wheat germ
180 ml water
10 g salt

3 spring onions, chopped
1 teaspoon oil, plus some more for the loaf

In a bowl, combine ingredients for the pre-ferment and stir until the dough is smooth. Cover with plastic and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Transfer to fridge and let rest for 12 hours.

At the same time, combine ingredients for the sourdough starter. Also mix until smooth and let sit, covered,  at room temperature for 14 hours.

The next day, remove pre-ferment from fridge and let come to room temperature (2 hours).

Combine pre-ferment, starter, flour, malt powder, wheat germ, water, and salt. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Transfer to a bowl and let rest for 1 hour. Meanwhile fry the onions. Heat oil in a pan and add onions.  Fry over medium heat until browned, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Generously flour your working surface. Punch down the dough and knead in the onions. Shape into a round loaf and form a hole in the centre.

This is the open seam, brushed with oil

Brush this hole with oil. Turn the loaf around and close the hole by gathering the dough and shaping it into a ball. Place the loaf seam side down in a brotform (proofing basket).

Proofing seam side down

Cover and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 250C (480F). make sure to preheat the baking sheet as well. Have a piece of parchment paper ready.

When the bread dough is ready, take out the baking sheet and line with the parchment paper. Transfer the loaf to the baking sheet. The seam side should now be up. Transfer to oven and reduce heat to 200C (400F). Bake for 55 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing. This step is important because if you slice the bread while still warm, your crumb will be dense and gum-like.

Sliced bread served with carrot soup

This post was submitted to Susan’s YeastSpotting.