Sweet Pepper, Garlic and Parmesan Sourdough 

I grow peppers in pots on the south side of the house. With the hot dry weather if this summer, I ended up with a bumper crop of beautiful red sweet peppers. I chopped them up in small pieces and dried them in a dehydrator. I remember reading here that drying and rehydrating fruits or vegetables enhanced their flavour. So along with minced garlic, shredded Parmesan, dried parsley and some olive oil, this should be one tasty bread. I’ll have to wait for my friends to let me know as I sold out completely. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge 

100 g rolled oats

200 g water

Add-ins

25 g dehydrated sweet peppers (chopped in small pieces)

25 g hot water 

30 g olive oil

150 g shredded Parmesan 

1 tbsp dried parsley 

2 tsps minced garlic in oil

Dough

700 g unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled whole grain Spelt flour (200 g Spelt berries)

100 g freshly milled whole grain Durum flour (100 g Durum berries)

700 g water

22 g salt

30 g yogurt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

Extra wholegrain flour of your choice for feeding the levain

The night before:

1. Mill the grains and place in a tub. Add the unbleached flour to the tub as well. Cover and set aside.
2. Soak the dehydrated peppers in the 25 g of water overnight. 
3. Take 10 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough Making day:

1. Early in the morning, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g of strong baker’s flour and 50 g wholegrain flour. Let rise until doubled (About 5 hours, mine was ready in 4 and a half). 

2. About two hours before the levain is ready, put 700 g of water in a stand mixer’s bowl and add the flours from the tub.  Mix on the lowest speed until all the flour has been hydrated. This takes a couple of minutes. Autolyse for a couple of hours at room temperature. 

3. Make the porridge: Add the water to the rolled oats and cook on medium heat until the liquid is absorbed and porridge is very thick and creamy. 

4. Once the autolyse is done and the levain has doubled, add the salt, the yogurt, the porridge, the soaked peppers, the rest of the add-ins, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on the lowest speed for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on the next speed for 9 minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 45 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 45 minute intervals and then 1 more set after 30 minutes. Let rise about 30%. This took only another 45 minutes or so. I’m finding that my bulk fermentation is done after about 3 hours on average. It’s a bit difficult to gauge because I do 4 batches in succession and the first couple of batches do get some extra fermentation time. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~845g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and cross over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice flour and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight.

Baking Day

1. The next morning, about 12-13 hours later, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 20 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

The aroma put out by these loaves is amazing!