Ingredients

  • For 2 loaves of bread (each 800g)

For The Soaker:

  • 60g raisins
  • 60ml water

For The Poolish:

  • 300g wheat flour
  • 3g yeast
  • 300ml water

For The Sourdough:

  • 50g rye flour
  • 5g active starter
  • 50ml water

For The Main Dough:

  • 100g roasted wheat flour
  • 500g wheat flour
  • 50g oatmeal
  • 50g breadcrumbs
  • 6g yeast
  • 22g salt
  • 150g roasted California walnuts
  • 400ml water

Preparation:
For The Soaker

  1. Put the raisins in the bowl, soak them in warm water overnight in the covered bowl. Finely blend raisins together with soaking water the following day.

For The Poolish

  1. Put raisin purée, flour and yeast and 300 ml of water together in a bowl, stir thoroughly, then put the bowl in the fridge overnight.

For The Sourdough

  1. Put flour, active starter in a bowl and mix well with 50ml of warm water. Cover sourdough and set aside at a warm place for at least 16-24 hours.

For The Main Dough

  1. Roast the California walnuts in a pan without fat at medium heat until they start to disseminate their scent. Afterwards roast 100g wheat flour in a pan without fat at medium heat until the flour attains a light brown color, then let it cool off.
  2. On the following day, put polish, roasted and unroasted flour, breadcrumbs and yeast in a mixing bowl of the food processor with 400 ml of water and mix with a dough hook, first at a slow speed for around 5 minutes, then knead it for approximately 3 minutes at a faster speed. Add salt and knead again first at slow speed for 1 minute, then fast for 3-4 minutes until you have a dough which passes the “windowpane test”. The ideal dough temperature would be 24°C. Then mix in the roasted California walnuts.
  3. Let the prepared dough rest in a covered, slightly oiled bowl for at least 3 hours. After 1 hour, stretch and fold the dough.

After Letting The Dough Rest

  1. Cut the dough in half, carefully fold each piece together and shape it into a slightly elongated form. Cover the dough, let it rest for approximately 20 minutes, afterwards process each dough piece to an elongated bread, lay on a floured kitchen cloth and fold the dough. Let the bread loafs rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, then put them in the fridge for 1 hour.
  2. Preheat the oven along with the baking stone to 260°C. Place dough pieces on a floured wooden slider and cut in lengthwise slightly off-center. Shove the breads directly onto the baking stone in the preheated oven with steam and bake for 35-40 minutes. Depending on the kind of oven, reduce the temperature after approximately 10 minutes to 220°C.
  3. Pull the finished breads out of the oven and allow them to cool on a cooling rack.