Blueberry Sourdough Loaf
1434kcal
Ingredients
Sourdough Starter Levain (Night Before)
- 5 g Sourdough starter culture
- 35 g Water
- 30 g All-purpose flour or bread flour
- 5 g Rye flour
Blueberry Dough Base
- 270 g Bread flour (90%)
- 30 g Stone ground whole wheat flour (10%)
- 207 g Water (69% baseline hydration)
- 15 g Cold water (5% – Bassinage water added with salt)
- 60 g Active levain (20% – From the stage above)
- 6 g Fine sea salt (2%)
Blueberry Inclusions
- 300 g Fresh blueberries (mashed up, using only the skins, patted dry with paper towels)
Equipment
- Stand Mixer (or large bowl for hand mixing)
- Cast-iron Dutch Oven with lid
- Scoring Lame or Razor Blade
Method
Night Before: Build Levain
- 7:00 AM: Whisk 5 g starter into 35 g water. Add 30 g bread/AP flour and 5 g rye flour. Mix well, cover loosely, and rest at 74–78°F (23–26°C) for 8–10 hours until at least tripled in volume.
Autolyse & Mixing
- 5:00 PM (Autolyse): In a mixer bowl, combine 270 g bread flour, 30 g whole wheat flour, and 207 g water until fully hydrated. Cover and rest for 1 hour.
- 6:00 PM (Levain Integration): Add 60 g peak levain. Mix on low speed (or KitchenAid speed 3) for 3–4 minutes until incorporated. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
- 6:30 PM (Bassinage & Salt): Add 6 g salt and 15 g cold water. Mix on low speed for 2–3 minutes, then medium (KitchenAid speed 3) for 5–6 minutes until gluten tightens and dough pulls together. Rest 30 minutes.
- Prep Berries: Mash 300 g blueberries, separate the skins, and thoroughly dry skins with a paper towel.
Lamination & Stretch-and-Folds
- 7:00 PM (Lamination): Spray work surface and hands with water. Stretch dough into a thin rectangle without tearing. Scatter dried blueberry skins uniformly over the surface. Fold into thirds and let rest 45 minutes.
- 7:45 PM: 1st Stretch & Fold
- 8:30 PM: 2nd Stretch & Fold
- 9:15 PM: 3rd Stretch & Fold
- Rest untouched for 30 minutes at 76–80°F (23–26°C) until light, bubbly, and risen ~40%–50%.
Preshaping, Shaping & Cold Proof
- 9:45 PM (Preshape): Turn dough onto a work surface, dust top with flour, flip floured-side down, fold onto itself, and shape into a loose round. Rest uncovered 30 minutes.
- 10:15 PM (Shape): Flip floured-side down, pull corners inward, roll into a taut log, and transfer seam-side up into a floured proofing basket.
- Cover with plastic, rest at 80°F (27°C) for 15 minutes, then transfer to the refrigerator for 14–24 hours cold fermentation.
Bake in Dutch Oven
- Preheat oven with Dutch oven inside to 500°F (260°C) for 45–60 minutes.
- Invert cold dough onto parchment paper and score cleanly with a lame.
- Bake inside the covered Dutch oven at 500°F for 15 minutes.
- Remove lid, reduce heat to 450°F (232°C), and bake uncovered for 20 minutes until deep golden brown. Cool on a wire rack for 2–3 hours before slicing.
Nutrition
Calories1434kcalCarbohydrates300gProtein44gFat7gSaturated Fat1gPolyunsaturated Fat3gMonounsaturated Fat1gSodium2349mgPotassium661mgFiber19gSugar31gVitamin A170IUVitamin C29mgCalcium84mgIron6mg
Notes
- **The Strategic Role of Fruit Lamination:** Fresh blueberries should never be mixed during the initial autolyse or primary mixing stages. The friction of the mixer blade would burst the berries, flooding the dough with raw juice and destroying the gluten structure. Waiting until the dough has achieved robust elasticity, stretching it thin on a wet counter (lamination), and folding the berries inward ensures they remain perfectly whole and beautifully pocketed throughout the crumb.
- **The Absolute Dryness Rule for Inclusions:** After washing your fresh blueberries, you must dry them completely using paper towels or a kitchen cloth before placing them onto the dough sheet. If the berries are introduced while wet, the surface moisture will create slick barriers inside the dough, preventing the folded layers from bonding to each other and leading to large, hollow gaps around the fruit after baking.
- **Managing Purple Dough Discoloration:** It is completely normal for the dough surrounding the blueberries to turn a soft purple or greyish-blue shade during the folding and proofing process. The natural pigments (anthocyanins) in the berry skins bleed slightly as the dough expands. This creates a gorgeous, marbled watercolor look inside the finished slices.
- **Cooling Before Slicing is Crucial:**While it is tempting to slice into a warm loaf of bread, fruit-filled sourdoughs require a long, uninterrupted cooling cycle of at least 2 to 3 hours. Hot berries act like molten pockets of jam; cutting the bread too early will cause the hot fruit juices to smear across the crumb, making the interior wet, gummy, and sticky.