Coconut Walnut 30% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
I had a good handful of toasted sweetened shredded coconut leftover from a pie that I made a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to try adding it to a sandwich bread. I didn’t want the bread to taste too much like dessert so other than the sugar I used for the stiff sweet levain, there were no other sweeteners added to the dough. I did decide to add some olive oil to this dough to soften it up a bit and keep it fresh longer without having to make a tangzhong. Yes I’m still feeling a bit lazy down here in very hot humid Florida where I’m still developing the dough fully by hand.
I like how this loaf turned out, but it could have even more coconut added to it. I would have added more but was weary that the coconut was sweetened.
For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman pan.
Build stiff sweet levain, ferment at 76-78°F for 10-12 hours overnight.
In the morning, add salt to the water and dissolve. Then add the levain and break down the levain as well as you can. Add both the flours and mix well until no dry bits are left. After 10 mins of rest start gluten development with slap and folds. Add the coconut and walnuts through a series of folds, incorporate well. Bench letterfold, remove aliquot, then at 30 mins intervals do coil folds until good structure is achieved.
Once the dough has risen 30-40% then shape the dough into a batard and place in prepared pan.
Final proof the dough until it has reached 1 cm of the rim of the pan. pre-heat oven at 425°F .
Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water or egg wash. Transfer to oven and bake (without steam) for 25 mins. Rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF. Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed until browned. Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust if needed.
Comments
I’ve tried making a coconut bread several times and never achieved the coconut flavor I desired. I’ve used coconut milk which helped and you may want to try that next time and see if it gives you a deeper coconut flavor.
Best regards,
Ian
That's a really nice open crumb and the slices look tasty (and springy!)
I'm pretty sure Mini Oven was the one who suggested toasting the coconut to bring in the flavour, it was lovely when I tried it
What I find amazing about adding coconut to bread is how it seems to disappear.
-Jon
You’re right Jon, it is amazing ho the coconut seems to disappear. I think you can add quite a bit before you’d see it in the crumb. Toasting the shredded coconut is always a good idea similar to toasting nuts that will be in the dough rather than on the dough.
Benny
I made a pandan coconut bread once that used coconut milk, it didn’t ferment well, something really slowed it down. It didn’t end up being a good bake, so I hadn’t tried it again. Did you find that the coconut milk affected fermentation Ian?
Benny
Also had similar with coconut milk (my can in the cupboard shows stabilisers and emulsifiers as ingredients so it could be that too). On the other hand, coconut water was like a dream to bake with.
Yes perhaps it was related to additives in the coconut milk. Back when I had that failed bake I wasn’t aware of those additives in some coconut milks.
Benny
The coconut milk I used had solidified and I had to heat it up in the microwave to liquify it. I don’t recall it really affecting the fermentation.