First time doing a sugar swirl loaf

Hi everyone! I made a cinnamon sugar swirl loaf for the first time today.

I’ve always been scared of doing sugar bc of its difficulty to pull off / make the dough wet.

But I think I may have done it? Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a sticky mess. But it didn’t leak on my banneton (it waited until I flipped it and leaked all over its silicon sling), it managed to have a relatively crisp bottom (given that it cooked in a literal pool of its cinnamon syrup insides). The sugar mix was crunchy under the top layer when scoring, but was clearly wet inside, since it popped and leaked out the bottom before even going in the oven.

I think where I went wrong was two fold. My sugar mix was too wet (see below for details) and I should have put a paper towel under the plastic wrap / against the dough while it cold proofed. There was condensation against the dough from the wrap and I think it made the sugar mix wetter.

As mentioned above, the sugar mix was a little wet. I added a lot of flavor. Maybe too much. Call me a maximalist. Here’s what I added (I don’t have exact measurements, I measure spices from the heart) – brown sugar – raw sugar – molasses (small amt) – vanilla paste – maple syrup (small amt) – Ceylon cinnamon – cassia cinnamon – ground clove – ground nutmeg – ground allspice – ground mesquite powder (small amt) – fresh black pepper (small amt) – salt (small amt). The resulting flavor is spicy and VERY warm and good. Idk how else to describe it besides YES.

I’d like to get you guys opinions on the result. I think it looks good but pretty messy. In the future I’d prob omit the molasses and maple syrup. The extra wetness was prob not worth the flavors, esp since there’s so much flavor from drier ingredients already.

Recipe: (note, this recipe made 2 loaves)

1000 g flour

600 g water

200g starter (I didn’t have enough ripe starter, only around 140g, the rest I made up with discard from the fridge)

20g salt

Step 0: gather ingredients and assemble sugar mixture. Refrigerate sugar mix until needed.

Step 1: mix flour and water. Set aside for 30 min

Step 2: squeeze in starter and salt. Add small bits of water if needed. Should be sloppy and shaggy.

Step 3: strengthen dough by kneading it until your arms fall off, or putting it in a standing mixer with a dough hook. I chose the latter. Also add in small bits of flour if needed / until it starts to be more doughy and less schloppy. I do this until it passes windowpane test.

Step 4: stretch and folds every 30 min for 2 hrs (4 sets).

Step 5: let rise in turned-off-oven with light on until doubled.

Step 6: preshape into rounds using water for nonstick. Bench rest uncovered for 35 min.

Step 7: lightly dust tops and bench with flour, flip dough over and stretch until it’s a large rectangle. Stripe sugar mix down center third of rectangle. Fold one side over middle. Stripe sugar mix down folded side, fold other side over. Stripe mix down folded part again, leaving empty space toward edges and near top (abt 2 inches) to avoid leakage (I didn’t do a great job at this). Roll and stretch into tight roll, tucking sides under as you go, then form into a ball and work back and forth on bench to form tight skin / surface tension.

Step 8: flip upside down into floured banneton, cover with plastic wrap. (Here’s where I would add a paper towel under plastic to stop it from being so wet?) refrigerate for 18 hrs

Step 9: preheat oven to 500F with Dutch oven inside

Step 10: flip over onto silicone sling / parchment paper, score and spritz with water. Reduce oven to 450F.

Step 11: place into heated Dutch oven, put 2-3 ice cubes under sling / paper and close lid. Bake for 15 min with lid on, then remove lid and continue baking for at least 15 min or until desired coloring on crust has been reached.

Step 12: stare at loaf, going mildly insane from desire while waiting until it is cool to touch on all sides. Then cut and pray for swirls.