The Fresh Loaf

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Sour Apple w/ Walnuts

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

Sour Apple w/ Walnuts

 

Always see figs, cherries, cranberries, raisins, currants.  Why not apples.  Hell, why not fresh apples.  I'm from a Jewish family so why not walnuts with apples.  And since we're being so, Why not be it Rye.  And hence Sour Apple.  Pretty delish for a first run.  Only thing I'd do different off the bat would be to lay apples out on a towel for a bit before adding to dough so they don't create a layer of water between the stretch and folds.  It all work itself out in the end but i think the dough would have come together better had I done this.  Oh and I think I'd like to add some cinnamon, not much, but just enough to hint the dough of it.  I'm not sure what ratio this would be but I'll be looking into it. Without further ado.

 

Sour Apple


build 1 (skip if rye starter is already available) (this is enough for a touch extra to build as a rye seed if desired)
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50 g White Starter
100 g Rye (local stone ground whole rye)
75 g h20

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Build 2 (Final Levain @ 78degF 2-4 hours)

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200 Ripe Rye Starter
200 Rye (local stone ground whole rye)
140 H20
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540
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Dough:
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1000 g Strong White Flour (Giustos Ultimate Perfomrer)
166 g Rye (local stone ground whole rye)
44 g Wheat (local stone ground hard red winter wheat)
770 g H20 (hold back 10%)
75 g honey (mine was raw and infused with cinnamon but as you saw in post not enough cinnamon)
32 g Salt (pink himilayan sea salt)
100 g Walnuts, toasted
125 g Apples, diced 1/2" (the other problem I had was the apples turned out to not be great baking apples and are                                                mushier than I'd like, so get a good crisp baking apple)
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2297 (final dough)
540   (levain)
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total dough 2837
makes 4 @ 705 g (25 oz)

1) Fauxtolyse*** all but salt, walnuts, and apples 30 minutes. Bulk starts now (4 hours)                                                     #fauxtolyse***my new word for the act of an autolyse but with more ingredients than just flour and water. 

2) Add salt and squeeze through fingers until well combined. Rsst 15 minutes 

3) slap and fold, rest 15 minutes, repeat
4) add remaining h20 and squeeze through fingers until dough comes back together
5) Add fruit and nuts and fold/knead in lightly. Rest 30 minutes. 
6) 2 s + f @ 30 minutes (rest 1 hour)
7) divide, preshape into a tight ball and relax for 30 minutes. Shape to unlined bowls dusted with rice flour
Proof 2-3 hours and bake or 1 hour and retard overnight.
8) Bake at 500 with steam for 12 mintues. lower to 480 and continue baking vented for 22 minutes until deep
dark color. cool

Happy Sunday

Josh

Trying to score on an apple.  Only had 4 loaves to try with.  Got it good once.  But I think I got the idea now. 

Comments

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I bet the fragrance was amazing ! Gorgeous loaves. You proofed them in bannetons ? The markings are so nice. Did you use the pan of rocks for steam ? Got a very nice crust  and your crumb is lovely...all around a great bake. c

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Looks/sounds great.

golgi70's picture
golgi70 (not verified)

The aroma is apples and I think a touch of cinnamon would take it over the top. Yes proofed in unlined banneton. 

thanks for kind words

josh

Skibum's picture
Skibum

I really like your idea of apples and walnuts.  I loved the Forkish walnut levain bread!  Next time I will add apples. Beautiful loaves!!!  Brian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

A perfect bread to use old YW apple fruit in :-)  We like this one a lot, the dark crust, nice scoring, purple tinged, open crumb. Well done and i think the bit of cinnamon or even pumpkin pie spice would add to the mix.  That's a good idea and the perfect Thanksgiving bread to go with those dweet potato rolls.  It will be here before you know it.

When Lucy adds apple to bread it is usually one of 3 ways; used apples from YW,  applesauce for some of the liquid or re-hydrated dried apples with the water squeezed out as much as possible after re hydration.  Seems to be much more apple flavor in dried apples and they don't get mushy when baked.  Partially dehydrated fresh Granny Smiths might be the best but you woudl need a dehydrator for that.. 

When i saw the crumb of this bread, I was immediately reminded of Phil's 'Super Hero'  Sage and Walnut bread,  He mashed up some of the walnuts with the fresh sage and some walnut oil in a mortar.  The color of the entire crumb ended up being very purple,  I'm thinking an interesting variation of this bread would be to mash up some fresh apples with walnuts in walnut oil with a little cinnamon?The crumb would be purpler and quite striking I'm guessing,

Lucy loves bread that gets her small brain thinking about messing with them - this doesn't happen often enough is prime example of one that does.

Well done Josh. 

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Hi Josh,

Really nice loaves.  With fall here I have been baking with apples too.  My new favorite ingredient to add to my apple loaves is boiled cider. Pricey but a little goes a long way and really brings out the apple flavor.  (Frozen apple juice concentrate works too but just isn't as strong.)

I found the same thing with experimenting with different apples.  Found that hard green apples - Granny Smith - hold up much better than the others I tried and they are drier.  I ended up grating them too.  Made the dough easier to handle and shape though my daughter prefers to eat the loaves where I leave the apples in chunks….

When I add cinnamon I use 1% of the total flour amount in the formula.  I use Vietnamese cinnamon and it is pretty potent compared to the cinnamon available in grocery stores.

If you want to try another apple loaf THIS one is wonderful.  I substitute WY for the use of IY when I bake it and it is a huge hit.

Have Fun,

Janet

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

Great bake! How was the flavour profile?

Zita

golgi70's picture
golgi70 (not verified)

@ Janet.  I really wanted the apples to come off like raisins or cherries in a dough so I'm with your daughter on keeping the chunks of fruit.  I know I can used dry but we have such lovely apples here and they'll keep on coming that I wanted to use fresh and it worked quite well.  Now I know a crisp variety is better but by no means was it bad.  In fact it was quite good.  I'll play with 1 % cinnamon to see how strong it is.  I want it be just  a hint and not too assertive.  Sorry dab I'm not a fan of pumpkin pie spice.  I'll check out that recipe and see what you got there. 

@Zita It was mildly sweet with full apple aroma/bouquet throughout.  The bites of apple added burst of further sweetness and the walnuts went well with all of this.  The rye added the right texture.  The only reason I added the whole wheat was due to runnin out of my rye.  It adds really nice color to the crumb with the bits of bran floating about. All in all very close to what I wanted.  

Josh

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Hi Josh,

By 'dry' I didn't mean dried apples.  I meant that the Granny Smith are drier than the Fuji apples I used previously.  I too use fresh apples and different varieties have different water content hence some work better in baked goods like apple crisp for which I have always used the tart green apples like the GS.  I just hadn't though to use those in my loaves for some reason, 

Take Care,

Janet

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Awesome looking loaf Josh!  Love this formula and your results speak to themselves.

Regards

Ian