Fruit Loaf Spelt Sourdough Recipe

 
Fruit Loaf Spelt Sourdough by Olivia McFadyen

Have you ever been curious just how easy and therapeutic it is to make your own sourdough?! Let me show you.

Not to mention that sourdough is fermented, which means it’s a probiotic-rich food, making it much easier to digest than regular wheat and bread. It’s full of gut-loving goodness and can help to reduce/manage IBS, diarrhoea, constipation, gut dysfunction and immune issues. I love using spelt flour in my cooking as it’s an ancient grain that has not been hybridized like other wheat, and again is much more easily digested!


Here’s my rough calculations for those sourdough lovers (I am not precise when it comes to measurements or timings, which is absolutely fine for making sourdough!)

Ingredients:

  • 100 sourdough starter

  • 250 grams unbleached bakers flour

  • 250 grams wholemeal spelt flour

  • 300 grams dried fruit (I did a combo of goji berries, sultanas & chopped prunes. Best to soak fruit for an hour in water then drain and leave on a tea towel to dry for another hour)

  • 14 grams Himalayan salt

  • 380 mL luke warm water

    1. Whisk sourdough starter & water for 10 seconds in a bowl until frothy
    2. Add in flour and using your hands to stir it until combined
    3. Leave it to sit for at least 10 mins uncovered on the bench (I can get distracted with the kids & leave it for an hour!)
    4. Add in sea salt
    5. Using the folding technique (Paul Hollywood’s folding technique is fabulous - delicious magazine did a great recipe on it - read about it here)
    6. I loosely follow the folding technique - I fold the bread every 10-20 mins & repeat about 5-6 times
    Hot tip: to fold use one hand to slowly turn the bowl and the other hand to pick up the dough on one side & fold it down on top of itself + Add in dried fruit on the second or third fold
    7. Leave the bread to sit uncovered on the bench for 2-3 hours
    8. Flour the bench and put the dough onto it. This is the point where you fold the bread to put in a heavily floured bread basket/bowl.
    (More step-by-step info will be available when I put up my sourdough blog within the next few days!)
    9. Leave it in the bread basket overnight. Best to cover with lightly oiled cling wrap or something similar
    10. Bake the following morning - preheat oven to 210 degrees
    11. Put the bread on baking paper on a baking tray (flip the bread basket/bowl over) and score the bread
    12. Put bread in the oven
    13. Be careful with this step (don’t burn yourself!) - add a tray to the bottom shelf of the oven & pour in 500mls water in to it then quickly close the oven door.This creates steam to help the bread rise!
    13. Bake for 20-30 min.
    14. Leave to cool then slice & eat

Enjoy!

 
Olivia McFadyen