My 1st Sourdough Bread w/ Pumpkin & Chia Seeds

I spent the last 10 days mixing flour and water together (flour and pineapple on Day 1) each day and waiting eagerly for the next day to see how well the dough had risen (checking the ribbon marking the previous level) tyring to make my own sourdough starter.

The rising process was not as successful as I would have hoped and although I knew I should have waited to have a better (more active) sourdough starter I could not wait any longer to use it to bake my first sourdough bread.

I decided to follow one of King Arthur Flour's recipes and added pumpkin and chia seeds.

My 1st Sourdough Bread w/ Pumpkin & Chia Seeds 

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of sourdough starter
• 1½ cup lukewarm water
• 5 cups bread flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 ¼ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 1 tbsp chia seeds

Steps:

• Combine starter with water and 3 cups flour.  Beat vigorously.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let it aside for 4 hours. Then, put in the fridge and let aside for 12 hours.
• Add the remaining ingredients (salt + sugar + 2 cups of flour + seeds) kneading and forming a smooth dough.
• Cover and allow the dough to rise (depending on starter and temperature – it can take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours).

dough before 2nd rise

•  Divide the dough in half. Shape each half into oval loaves and place them on lined baking tray. Cover and let rise until puffy (about 2 – 4 hours). [Note: the dough did not rise and was very sticky. It was difficult to form 2 nice oval shapes.]
• Preheat oven at 220º C for about 15 minutes.
• Spray the loaves with lukewarm water. Make 2 slashes on top of each loaf. [Note: The recipe said “bake the bread for 25-30 minutes (until it is golden brown)”. However, after 30 min the bread was not cooked enough and I baked it 15 min more].
• Remove bread from oven and let it cool on a wire rack.

Here is how my bread looked like!

flat bread....

crumb ...compact but yummy!

I hesitated before adding these 2 photos but I prefer to be frank and show you how it really looked like. I can hear you saying: “terrible…it took her such a long time to make and write about this ugly thing…”

Yes, you are right! My bread was flat. The dough has not risen. It could have been cooked a little bit longer to get a browner crust {but I was afraid it would become too hard and the bottom would burn}.  

However, the crust was delicious and the texture of the crumb although heavy (too compact and not enough air) and not cooked enough had a light and pleasant sour taste. 

Overall it has been a nice experience making my first sourdough starter with pineapple juice and the bread does not taste that bad. I will experiment further and try to make better and lighter bread in the future. Sure, will let you know (in a shorter post...hahaha!)

Warning (keep in mind): “To have good bread the rising is the single most important process”. (thefreshloaf.com)

“Until next time, may your bread always rise!”  Peter Reinhart