This week's sourdough experiment

I've been baking almost weekly loaves of the Rustic Ciabatta bread from Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery book, so this week, I needed to change things up a bit.  I was missing having regular loaves of bread around the house for things like french toast.  My first thought was to make a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, till I remembered I was out of raisins!  The recipe I was planning to use was the sourdough Grandmother bread recipe from Chickens in the Road, and while looking for the raisin bread version, I came across the apple streudel version.  Thank goodness!  I had some apples that needed to be used, so this was perfect.

mid-rise

Deviating just a bit from the original recipe, I use two cups of sourdough starter, two cups of water, and no added yeast for the two loaf recipe when making this bread, leaving the rest of the ingredients the same.  It takes longer for everything to rise, but it develops more flavor during the longer proofing times and I don't have to keep yeast around when I want to make bread.

Is the bread ready yet?

Today, I made one plain loaf in a 5x9 pan, then made the apple version with the second loaf.  The only thing I changed for the apple loaf, was to use water instead of butter brushed on the dough before adding the apple mixture for a lower fat version.  Oh, and I had to bake mine for an hour as both loaves were in the oven together.

fresh from the oven

The apple bread - oh my.  So delicious!  Yup.  Ate it for lunch.  Don't tell anyone.  I plan on drizzling it with some frosting when eating the leftovers this week.  The braid on this was so easy to do and made such a great presentation.  The original recipe link has several how-to photos on this quick process.

cinnamon apple bread

The sandwich loaf - is again a reminder that I have little patience during that second rise time!  I should have let this loaf rise a bit longer while the apple version was baking, then it wouldn't have popped open on the side.  I guess I need to make these loaves more often so I won't forget!