I've been baking sourdough for about 2 yrs now (no expert by any means) and recently tried sweet inclusions for the first time—blueberries, lemon zest, and sugar. To my surprise, that loaf turned out amazing. Best ear/belly I’ve ever had. I always add my inclusions during final shaping (not during stretch and folds) so I did a little experiment to see if I could recreate it. I did a double batch of my typical recipe and added different inclusions to each at the end, cold proofed the same amount of time and baked at the same temp (adjusted time slightly for color preference).
Again, the blueberry loaf rose way more, had better oven spring, and overall looked better than anything I've made before. The herb loaf looked like my typical bakes—fine, but just okay.
I've heard sugar can boost fermentation—could that explain the difference? I’m mostly focused on looks here haha, I’m always happy with the crumb typically. I don’t believe the oven time played much of a factor as I checked them both at the same time in and noticed the difference immediately.
Would love insight into what may have caused such an improvement, or any other tips welcome!! I'd really love for all my loaves to turn out like this one!
My recipe & process:
-350g water, 500g bread flour, 100g active starter, 10g salt
– I mixed starter + water, added flour + salt, let it rest 1 hour, then stretch and folds every 30 min for about 2-2.5 hrs. Bulk fermented for ~6 hours (8 total from mixing). Then I split the dough into two loaves for final shaping. One loaf got the blueberry, lemon zest, and sugar folded in, the other got herbs (my usual go-to).
– Both proofed overnight and were baked the next morning. I baked them one after another at 450°F for 30 mins, then 425°F for 10-15min
by Historical_Monk5777
8 Comments
>Why can’t all my loaves turn out like this blueberry loaf?
Because you don’t add blueberries, clearly.
OK seriously: yeast and lactic acid bacteria, the live critters in your starter, love sugars. If you want the same effect without added sugar, add 1 tsp diastatic malt powder for every 3 cups of flour. And then add your water, then let it sit for an hour or two (“autolyse step”) before adding starter. It’s the lack of an autolyse step that’s causing your loaf to be so sugar-responsive.
See, flour naturally has an enzyme called amylase in it (and other similar enzymes) that break starches, which yeast can’t eat, down into sugar, which they can. The enzyme is activated by water, so the sugar doesn’t start forming until the flour gets wet. Adding sugar at the start of fermentation shortcuts this whole process and gives your yeast what they crave from minute 1.
Many shelf-stable store bought bag flours have added amylase. If you want to add amylase at home, the good stuff called “diastatic malt powder” is the way you do that.
So many reasons
How much sugar, blueberries, and lemon zest? They both look delicious!
It’s the sugar, it’s fuel for the yeast, it lightens the loaf.
wooooow that looks absolutely fantastic, i’m going to try a blueberry loaf too, thanks for the great idea!
Why don’t recipes call for sugar in sourdough?
This is the second thread this week that mentions sugar. The previous one I read suggest 4 tsp per loaf. I’m going to give sugar a go
Because lemon juice, like vinegar, tightens the gluten and strengthens it to rise higher. I always add vinegar to my bread.
Because they all don’t have blueberries