Okay, here we go! Here’s my sourdough sweet bread adventure, start to finish.
Alright folks, so I decided to tackle sourdough sweet bread. I’ve been messing around with sourdough for a while, mostly just your basic loaves, and I was feeling a bit adventurous. Saw a recipe online that looked promising, and figured, why not?
Day 1: Levain Build
- First things first, gotta get that levain going. Took my starter out of the fridge, fed it a good meal of flour and water, like a 1:1:1 ratio. Let it sit on the counter all day, watching it like a hawk to see when it doubled.
- By evening, it was bubbly and happy. Ready to rock.
Day 2: Dough Time!
- Okay, the recipe called for mixing the levain with milk, sugar, eggs, and some flour. So I dumped everything into my stand mixer.
- I let that mixture chill out for about 30 mins, I then add the flour, and knead with the machine.
- Then, came the butter. Soft, softened butter. This is where things get messy, but oh-so-good. Added the butter bit by bit while the mixer was running, until it was all incorporated. The dough was super sticky, but that’s what I was expecting.
- Let it bulk ferment for about 4 hours, doing some stretch and folds every hour to build strength.
- After the bulk ferment, I shaped the dough into a log and placed it in loaf pan.
- Into the fridge it went for an overnight proof.
Day 3: Bake Day!
- Preheated the oven. Slid the bread in. The recipe said to tent it with foil for the first part of the bake to prevent burning. Did that.
- Took the foil off and let it get golden brown and gorgeous.
- The aroma that filled my kitchen was heavenly. Sweet, yeasty, buttery… everything good in the world.
The Verdict
- The crumb was soft and fluffy, with a slight tang from the sourdough. It was the perfect balance of sweet and savory.
- I would say this is a success. I’m so glad i’m trying it.
