Hello from NY-NY. Modifying recipes.

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Just found the sight by searching for raisin sourdough.  Found this and thus TFL.  I'm not educated about bread making and want to learn more.  I'm psyched.

Currently, I make a simple sourdough with 300g starter (100% hydration), 400g water, 700g bread flour, and 100g wheat germ++.  The dough makes a great sourdough and (if treated differently) an excellent pizza crust; however, I love flavored and whole wheat breads and I want to understand how to vary the recipe; thus the search for raisin sourdough.

Primary goals are adding fruit and using other (?whole wheat?) flours.

 

 

 

The easiest way to add fruit and add-ins is to just add them in to the just-mixed dough. If the ingredient is wet, you might want to slightly reduce the water in the dough (5-10%). Dried fruits work very well, as do candied citrus peels. You don’t need a whole lot but you might want a whole lot. The world is your oyster.

The easiest way to add another whole wheat like emmer or einkorn or spelt is to do a direct substitution for all of your whole wheat, 1 for 1, and see how you like it.

to your dough. My first experience with that was a rather tasty but heavy bread that took forever to rise. I second Michael in suggesting that you just add dried fruit, or other items such as toasted seeds, or sprouts to your dough. I usually have a base recipe where I swap different ingredients and that works well for me. The recipe you referenced is one where I mostly followed the original recipe because of the issue with the cinnamon, otherwise, I look around for flavour combinations and use those with my base recipe.

I scaled the recipe by 2/3and replaced the red fife flour with germ & whole grains that I had on hand. 

I took your cue and about needing extra moisture and added a bit more yogurt to rehydrate the raisins.  Initially, the dough looked much wetter than my usual, but during the initial rise,  the raisins took up the extra liquid.  I did a  stretch/fold after 2 hours and again after the rise, the dough was unearthly: darkened by the spices and distended by swollen raisins. I had let it rise a total of 5 hours, then put it in bannetons in an ice chest for about 4 hours more.  I let it come to room temperature for about 2 more hours.  Baked in a dutch oven @450F , 35 min covered, 10 min uncovered.  Internal temperature about 203.

My resulting bread was flavorful but less dense than I expected.  I look forward to baking with the red fife (which I just ordered).  I'm giving the ingredients I used for 2 loaves if that's of interest.

Makes 2 loaves.

Bread Flour 500 g
50%WheatGerm-50% Whole grain mix 90 g
Water 400 g
Starter (100% hydration) 300 g
Ground Flax 75 g
-------
salt 15 g
------- spices (ground)
cinnamon 20 ml (4 tsp)
coriander 2.5+ml (1/2+ tsp)
clove 2.5+ml (1/2+ tsp)
ginger 2.5+ml (1/2+ tsp)
nutmeg 2.5+ml (1/2+ tsp)
-------
yogurt 75 g (3 oz)
raisins 225 g (1/2 lb)

I think I will use even a bit more yogurt next time since the boules seemed a little stiff.