No knead Lemon thyme and nigella seeds basic sourdough

Continuing my little love affair with no knead sourdoughs, I sort of back testing all my old recipe with the no knead method. This is absolutely fantastic, it is so quick to basically dump all the ingredients and do nothing (which is really what I do best). I am seeing the no knead light and running towards it.

So the “bakers percentage” which is basically the proportions of all the ingredients is the same as the rosemary loaf that I made a while back. I changed rosemary to lemon thyme (using what herbs I had in the fridge) and nigella seed (bought a huge bag for really cheap from a local Lebanese shop). These have both a light lemon zing taste that a very subtle to the bread.

I alos switch percentage betweem the wholemeale and white flour (was running out of white flour). This made it much more of a wholemeal bread. and so it is a much heavier bread but still really lovely and full of taste.

 

A bit of close up and you can see bubble and holes everywhere. So this is a denser bread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 380g water
• 100g sourdough starter
• 400g of stoneground whole wheat flour
• 100g organic strong white flour
• 10g (1 Tbsp) salt
• 2 sprigs of Rosemary
• 2tbsp of nigella seeds

Recipe

1. In a small cup add 10g of hot water and dissolve the salt. Leave to cool.
2. In a large bowl add 370g of water + the starter and mix to dissolve.
3. + add the flour + nigella seeds + thyme + the now tepid 10g salt water 
4. Mix until combined
5. Cover with a plastic freezer bag and leave in the fridge for 20 hours.
6. Scoop out your dough on a clean floured surface shape your dough. The seams bottom down, push down and rotate your shaped dough to close the seams.
7.  And leave the dough at room temperature for another 2 hours. Preheat the oven at 260C˚ with the Dutch Oven inside. Leave the dutch oven for a least 30 min at 260C˚.
8. Slash the top and Bake at 260C˚ for about 30mins with the lid on. Take off the lid and lower the temperature to 230C˚ for another 15min.
9. Take it out of the oven and let cool for an hour.

Rosemary basic sourdough

Another day another bread. For today I tried a new basic sourdough, which  I modified by adding Rosemary and olive oil from the sourdough school basic sourdough.

Ingredients

• 380g water
• 100g sourdough starter
• 100g of stoneground whole wheat flour
• 400g organic strong white flour
• 10g (1 Tbsp) salt
• 2 sprigs of Rosemary
• 2tbsp of nigella seeds
• 30grams (3 Tbsp) of olive oil

1. Mix water + starter + flours in a bowl. Let it autolyse for 30 min.
2. Add the salt + rosemary + nigella seeds and fold so that is just incorporated
3. Fold  3 times every 30 min.
4. Shape the dough and either leave it a bowl that has been well oiled or you can use a clean tea towel dusted with flour. Dust the top and cover with another tea towel that has been moisten.
5. Prove in the fridge for 8-12 hours
6. Bake at 220C for 1 hour, 180C for 10-15 min

I have to say this is my absolutely favourite basic sourdough work loaf recipes. Comes out airy with loads of bubbles as well as moist and springy. The crust was a bit too soft for my liking I usually quite a decent crush to it.

Rosemary can be replace with thyme or sage. I made a past for the sage and thyme with olive oil simply by using a pestle and mortar so that incorporates better.

it was really wonderful as a cheesy toasty with Dukkah. You can find my Dukkah recipe here. The celeriac and apple soup which was actually easy and quite good despite it being from Jamie Oliver.

Tahini Bread

Just grabbed got some tahini and nigella seeds from the middle eastern store. Tahini is basically sesame butter. It is wonderful and is used from humus to halva. Ottolenghi has also few other suggestion such as cauliflower salad and burnt brussel sprouts with tahini.

Ingredients

• 770 grams  flour
• 515 grams water
• 240 grams starter
• 15 grams salt
• 50 grams tahini
• optional :
  • crushed caraway seeds
  • nigella seeds

1. mix the water and flour slowly until just incorporated – Autolyse for 30 min
   

   

   
2. Add starter +salt+ tahini+ crushed caraway seeds
3. 1st rise – oil the bowl, I used sesame oil to continue with the theme. Let it rise for 4 hours.
4. Folding and proofing – I would recommend dividing the dough in two (foolishly I did not). Let it proof for about 2 hours in a warm room (±25C). Much Longer if you have a cold kitchen like mine.
5. Right before putting it into the oven I added the nigella and sesame seeds on the top. 
6. Slash the top and Bake at 220C for about 40mins or when the internal temperature is 90C.

Taste test:

The tahini adds this sweet delicate nuttiness that is subtle. It’s really quite wonderful. I really like with a bit of olive oil.