CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SOURDOUGH BREAD

Directions

• Make the levain – I usually do it in the morning in the warmer months and at night in winter
• Mix the starter, flour, and water together to make the levain in a tall glass jar, I recycle a pasta sauce jar with a lid and I am sorted.
• Put an elastic band around the jar where the top of the levain finish so you can control the growth. Also, you can use a marker to trace the evolution.
• Put a lid loosely on top and put somewhere warm until doubled. I use my DIY proofing box.
• Mix the Dough – noon or early afternoon
• In a bowl add bread flour, Spelt flour, rye flour, sugar and cocoa powder and mix well.
• Now add the salt and mix again.
• Add the water, honey, and the levain, after has doubled in size, to the flour mixture.
• Blend everything so that all flour is hydrated. The mixture can be a bit stiff so knead lightly if needed. You can also use your stand mixer if you wish. So, take your time and make sure you have everything incorporated.
• Cover with a damp kitchen towel or if the bowl has a lid it will work as well.
• Leave the dough to rest for 1 hour.
• Mix in the add-ins –
• Wet your hand and lose the dough from the bowl.
• Drizzle about half of the hazelnuts and the chocolate chips on top of the dough and do a stretch and fold to incorporate them, pour more and do another stretch and fold, now the rest of the hazelnuts on top and stretch and fold a couple of times again.
• Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
• Bulk fermentation
• You will be doing 3 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes.
• First, wet your hands to loosen the dough from the sides of the bowl.
• Then grab one side of the dough with one hand and stretch the dough as far as it goes without breaking it. Then fold it down over the dough.
• Take the bowl and turn it around a quarter and repeat 3 more times until you have stretched and folded the dough from all four sides like a cross sign.
• Leave the dough to rest covered for the next 30 minutes in a warm place 25C to 28C. If your kitchen is lower than 25C you might leave more time in between the stretch and folds 45min for example.
• After the 3rd set of stretch and folds, you can try and do a windowpane test to see how is the gluten development is doing. But this can be hard because the hazelnuts and chocolate chips cutting the pane. The long autolyze should have made sure that gluten is properly developed.
• Now leave the dough to rest in a warm area until it’s grown by 25 – 50% and looks puffier. It usually takes 2½ hours at 21°C or less at a higher temperatures. But you should check the dough every 45min or so.
• Preshape – late evening
• When the bulk fermentation has finished, it’s time to pre-shape it.
• Pour the dough onto your un-floured surface.
• Using a bench scraper stretch each of the four sides out and fold it over the dough. Sort of like an envelope.
• Grab the dough with your bench scraper and flip it upside down, so that the part that was facing the table is now upwards.
• Put your bench scraper behind the dough and pull it forward over the table, so that the front of the dough is pulled down underneath the dough ball. You can use your other hand to guide the dough.
• When the dough ball can’t get any further, put the bench scraper in front of the ball and push it forward while turning the scraper around so that you end up behind the ball again.
• Keep going until the dough ball has a tense surface.
• Leave the dough rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
• Shape the dough
• Start by covering a soup bowl with a clean kitchen towel (tea towel) and dust liberally with rice flour or if you have a banneton even better.
• Once the 20 minutes are up you should shape the dough.
• Follow the instructions for the pre-shape and once the dough is shaped. Flip it upside down into the floured soup bowl or banneton.
• Put the soup bowl or banneton in a plastic bag and place it in the fridge overnight, I let my one for 18 hours which develops more flavor. But feel free to let it less time as you wish.
• Bake the bread – next day
• Heat your oven to 260°C/500°F. I have two methods here. First with baking steel (optional) and Dutch oven inside. Heat for an entire hour to make sure both are completely saturated with heat. The second method, if you don’t have a Dutch oven make sure to preheat your oven for an hour, 15 min before the hour mark place in the bottom of the oven a tray with boiling water to create steam that will make your bread spring.
• Method 1. Grab the dough from the fridge. Remove the bag.
• Dust the bottom of the boule with rice flour and put parchment paper over and your peel on top. Flip it over so the dough rests on parchment paper on the peel.
• Dust the top of the boule with more rice flour and smooth it carefully with your hands.
• Score the dough with a sharp knife or a razor.
• Open the oven and take out the Dutch oven carefully it is burning hot. Place it on a heatproof mat, remove the lid. Grab the four corners of the parchment paper and place the dough with the parchment paper inside. Take a few ice cubes and put them inside the Dutch oven under the paper, this will create more stem inside for better spring. Put back the lid on and place back the Dutch oven in the oven.
• Close the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
• Then open the oven and take the top off the Dutch oven.
• Turn down the heat to 230°C/450°F.
• Bake for another 20 minutes until the bread is golden and crispy.
• Take the bread out and put it on a wire rack to cool.
• Method 2. the dough from the fridge. Remove the bag.
• Dust the top of the dough in the loaf pan with rice flour carefully.
• Score the dough with a sharp knife or a razor.
• Take an additional tray and fill it up with ice and place it at the bottom of the oven beside the other tray with water.
• Now place the loaf pan in the middle rack of the oven.
• Close the oven and bake for 30 min at 260 C.
• Turn down the oven to 230 C and bake for a further 25 min until golden crispy.
• Take the bread out and put it on a wire rack to cool at least for an hour.