Roxana Jullapat’s Buckwheat Fruit-Nut Bread
Buckwheat lends flavor and texture to this festive loaf, studded with some of my favorite dried fruits and nuts. Even better the day after it’s baked, it makes heavenly morning toast and the perfect accompaniment to cheese. The ingredients should be easy to find with the exception of kumquats, which I like to candy in sugar syrup. If kumquats prove difficult to come by, you can candy grapefruit, orange, or lemon peels instead. Hold on to the candying syrup, though—at Friends & Family, we use it to brush finished baked goods for its citrusy flavor and an eye-catching sheen.
This bread is leavened naturally with sourdough starter. If you’ve never made sourdough bread from scratch, read How to Start and Maintain Your Own Sourdough Starter on page 102 (in Mother Grains). With starter on hand, you can follow the suggested Prep and Baking Schedule that follows. Even experienced home bakers are intimidated by the world of sourdough, but building a starter at home is far less confusing than you might think. It does require patience, plus precision when weighing ingredients. But the steps to keeping the starter healthy are simple and easy to follow, not to mention forgiving. Breads like this one, where add-ins are more integral to the flavor than the dough itself, are a good starting point for beginning bread bakers. The ratio of fruits and nuts is high in proportion to bread dough, and its inherently rustic appearance doesn’t require fancy shaping techniques. The bread can be baked into a boule, into a free-form oval-shaped loaf, or in a loaf pan.
Remember that to make this bread you must make the dough the day before, so plan accordingly.
Makes one 8-inch loaf
Photo by Kristin Teig
Ingredients
To feed the starter
2 tablespoons (20 grams) bread flour
2 tablespoons (20 grams) whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon (7 grams) sourdough starter
3 tablespoons cold water (65º to 70ºF)
for the dough
1½ cups (150 grams) pecan halves
2 cups (270 grams) bread flour, plus extra for dusting
½ cup (75 grams) whole wheat flour
½ cup (75 grams) buckwheat flour
1⅓ to 1½ cups (320 to 360 milliliters) warm (90º to 95ºF) water
8 dried black figs, stemmed and chopped
1 cup (165 grams) golden raisins
½ cup (75 grams) dried black currants
A little less than ½ cup (100 grams) sourdough starter fed in the morning
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon honey, preferably buckwheat
2 tablespoons Candied Kumquats or other citrus peel
2 to 3 tablespoons flour, preferably rice flour, for dusting the banneton
equipment
8-inch round banneton or 8½-by-4½-inch loaf pan
4½-quart Dutch oven with lid
Lame
Digital thermometer
method
Prep day (day prior to baking): In the morning of the day before you’d like to bake the bread, feed the starter by combining the flours and sourdough starter with the cold water. Cover and let the starter ferment at room temperature for 8 to 10 hours. You will know the starter is ready when it has increased in volume and bubbles have formed on the surface.
Candy the kumquats or other citrus peels following the method on page 47.
Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 350ºF.
Scatter the pecans on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, until a nut cut in half is golden inside.
About 8 hours after the starter was fed, hydrate, or autolyse, the flours: In a medium bowl, combine the flours with at least 11∕3 cups warm water (if too dry, add 1 to 2 tablespoons more) to create a wet, sticky dough. Cover and let rest for 1 hour. This resting phase, in which the flour is allowed to hydrate, is known as the autolyse. Autolysing the flour promotes elasticity as well as enzymatic activity and contributes to gluten development in the dough. Place the pecans and the dried fruits in a bowl, cover with cold water, let soak for 10 minutes, and strain through a fine-mesh sieve.
Add the starter to the autolysed flours and mix by hand until well combined. Add the salt, honey, soaked and drained nuts and fruits, and the candied kumquats and mix well by hand to distribute them throughout the dough. Transfer to a clean bowl, wrap tightly with plastic, and let the dough proof at warm room temperature for 3½ to 4 hours, until it has risen by one-third.
To shape into a boule, transfer the dough to a floured surface. Gently flatten the dough into a rough rectangle and bring all four corners to the center. Pinch the corners together with your fingertips. Invert the boule on the work surface and, using your hands, gently rotate against the surface to tighten the boule further and seal the bottom where the corners connect. Generously flour the banneton and place the boule inside with the seam side up. Alternatively, to bake the bread in a loaf pan, place the boule seam side down in the loaf pan lightly coated with nonstick spray. Refrigerate uncovered overnight.
Baking day: Remove the bread from the refrigerator 1 hour prior to baking. Let it sit at room temperature.
Place an oven rack in the lower position and place a lidded Dutch oven (if using) on it. Preheat the oven to 450ºF for 30 minutes.
If baking in a Dutch oven, cut a piece of parchment paper a few inches wider than the boule. Invert the banneton on the parchment paper to release the bread. Using a lame or a sharp paring knife, cut an X about ½ inch deep on the surface of the boule. These cuts will serve as steam release vents when the bread expands in the oven.
Using oven mitts, carefully put the hot Dutch oven on a heat-resistant surface and remove the lid. Lift the parchment paper from the sides to help you transfer the bread to the Dutch oven. Put the lid back on and place the Dutch oven back in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes; the lid will help retain enough steam to allow the surface of the bread to remain supple and expand. Remove the lid and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes; removing the lid will help the bread’s exterior caramelize and bake into a chewy crust. The bread is ready when the crust is a dark mahogany brown and a digital thermometer inserted in the center reads 200ºF. Using oven mitts, carefully remove the Dutch oven from the oven. Gently invert it over a cooling rack to release the bread. Let cool completely before slicing.
If baking in a loaf pan, cut an X about ½ inch deep on the surface of the loaf. Cover the bread with aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the top is a dark mahogany brown and a digital thermometer inserted in the center reads 200ºF. Cool for 30 minutes before removing from the pan and wait at least 1 hour before slicing. Once baked, this bread will keep for a week at room temperature in a paper bag or wrapped tightly with plastic. If you plan to keep it for longer, place the bread in the refrigerator to prevent molding. It freezes well for up to 2 weeks, but wrap it tightly first to avoid freezer burn.
Recipe from Mother Grains by Roxana Jullapat. Excerpted by permission of W. W. Norton & Company. All rights reserved.
Don’t miss roxana on she’s my cherry pie
Photo by Kristin Teig