Turmeric Fennel Sourdough Bread and Pizza
This unique and eye-catching bread has a tasty and surprisingly approachable flavor that is a bit peppery-bitter from turmeric and a bit licorice-sweet from fennel seeds. Try it as a bread or a pizza crust; you'll be amazed by how many dishes it complements.
- Prep time
- 40 min
- Cook time
- 35 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
- 350 g bread flour (2 3/4 cups)
- 150 g Kamut whole grain flour or khorasan whole grain flour (1 1/8 cups)
- 350 g water (1 1/2 cups)
- 100 g sourdough starter (1/3 cup)
- 13 g olive oil (1 Tbsp)
- 11 g salt (2 tsp)
- 1 tbsp fennels seeds, partially crushed with a mortar and pestle or pulsed in a spice grinder (6 grams)
- 2 tsp ground turmeric (6 grams)
- optional 1 Tbsp honey (21 grams)
- optional 1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper (0.5 grams)
Instructions
- 1
Thoroughly mix all of the dough ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer to a straight-walled container if you have one.
- 2
Cover and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes. Do 2-4 rounds of stretching and folding of the dough with 20-30 minute rests in between.
- 3
When the dough has expanded by 75-100%, place it on a floured work surface and shape it to fit your proofing basket or into balls for pizza dough. _My dough rose a bit too much for 5.5 hours in a warm kitchen. (See the Notes section for the rest of the pizza instructions.)
- 4
Place the shaped dough in the proofing basket, cover, and refrigerate for 8-16 hours -- or proof for 1-2 hours at room temperature -- or do a combination of 20-40 minutes at room temperature followed by overnight refrigeration. If your kitchen and dough are hot, you might want to refrigerate the dough immediately; and if very cold, refrigerate after closer to 1 hour. If doing a same-day room temperature final proof, you also have the option to place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes to stiffen it during the oven preheat. My dough proofed in the refrigerator for 11 hours.
- 5
Preheat your oven and baking vessel to 500°F for at least 30 minutes.
- 6
Flip the dough out of the proofing basket and onto a sheet of parchment paper or onto the base of your hot baking vessel. If you refrigerated the dough during the final proof and your baker is ceramic, use parchment paper or a silicone sling between the baker and the cold dough. Score, cover, and return the vessel to the oven.
- 7
500°F for 20 minutes, lid on
- 8
450°F for 5 minutes, lid on
- 9
450°F for 10 minutes, lid off
- 10
If your baking vessel is cast iron, after 15 minutes place a baking sheet directly under the cast iron on the same shelf. This will prevent the base of the bread from burning.
- 11
When baking is complete, the bread should have an internal temperature over 205F and it should sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of the loaf.
- 12
Let the bread cool for a couple of hours before you slice it.