MARBLED SWEET POTATO SOURDOUGH

Posted in Breads by sallybr

I had a blast making this bread, which I improvised beginning to end, including the decoration on top. I have a few ideas to adjust the design for a next adventure, but I am quite happy with the way this one turned out.

MARBLED SWEET POTATO SOURDOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

500g bread flour
350g water
10g salt
75g sourdough starter (at 60 to 100% hydration)
25g sweet potato powder (I used this one)

Mix all ingredients except the sweet potato powder in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead gently for about 3 minutes (first or second speed maximum). Weigh the dough, and remove approximately 1/3 of the amount to a smaller bowl. Continue kneading the white portion for another minute. Transfer to an oiled bowl. Place the smaller portion of the dough back into the mixer bowl, add the sweet potato powder and knead for another minute. You will probably have to knead by hand to incorporate the powder well into the dough, but no need to worry too much about it. Transfer that dough to a smaller, oiled bowl. Bulk ferment both portions folding them at every 45 minutes. Do that for 3 cycles, so the fermentation will last for about 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Forty five minutes after the last folding, stretch both doughs as a rectangle, ad place the purple on top of the white. Roll them together. Allow to ferment for another 90 minutes, with very gentle coil folds, twice, again, at 45 minute intervals.

Once bulk fermentation is over, shape the dough as a oblong loaf and place in a banneton. Move it to the fridge, covered, and leave it there overnight.

Next day, freeze the dough for 30 minutes in the banetton, to make it easier to score later. Invert the dough on a paper liner, rub a fine layer of Thai rice flour, and decorate with slashes or if you want to add a pattern, use an air-brush and a stencil to do so.

Bake in a Dutch oven with the lid on at 450F for 30 minutes, open and allow the bread to brown for a further 15 minutes. Depending on the decoration chosen, you can do a deeper scoring at 7 minutes into baking.

Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: When marbling sourdough, I like to mix the two colors at least 2 hours into the bulk fermentation. At that point the dough is nice to work with, has some “strength” and you can easily stretch and manipulate. Once that is done, two more cycles of folding help the colors mingle, but be gentle, that’ s why I change to coil folds instead of full folding. You can check youtube for the way to do coil folding, but the name is pretty self-explanatory.

I used purple luster powder mixed with vodka in my air-brush, and a stencil that did not really have randomly placed stars, so I covered parts of it and arranged rows of stars all over. A few parallel cuts and into the oven it went…

Of course, the crucial moment is slicing this baby, and hoping for a nice marbling effect inside…
What do you think? Did I get it right?

If anyone is curious, the flavor of the bread is not changed by the sweet potato powder. It does change slightly the texture of the dough, but once it is all fermented for several hours, it acts pretty much like a single-color batch does. I hope you give this method a try, you can use butterfly pea flower powder, beet powder (make sure to add some vitamin C to keep the red color), or even charcoal powder for a black and white version.

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13Aug2026

LITTLE CUBES OF SOURDOUGH JOY

Posted in Breads by sallybr

The idea of baking sourdough in closed containers so that they retain that exact shape is not new and not mine either, you can check Elaine using a larger cube pan (click here), or in her book The Sourdough Bible. In fact, back in 2020, I shared a recipe for a bread made in a loaf tin that takes that concept into a pretty exotic path (click here to learn all about it). In today’s post, I went a little smaller using a pan that in theory is more appropriate for cakes, but I am thrilled with the way these baby cubes turned out. Needless to say, the husband requested these to go “on regular repeat”. I have no objection to that!

LITTLE SOURDOUGH CUBES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

300g bread flour (I used Bob Mill’s Artisan Bread Flour)
215g water (for 72% hydration)
30g Super 10 Blend from King Arthur (click here)
8g salt
50g starter (at 80 to 100% hydration, your choice)
sesame seeds to sprinkle on the dough (optional)

Mix all the ingredients in a KitchenAid type mixer. On second-to-lowest speed, mix the dough for about 4 minutes, then remove to a slightly oiled bowl. Proceed with bulk fermentation with folds at roughly ever 45 minutes. Do 4 to 5 total folds, then allow it to ferment at room temperature until almost doubled in size. Portion small balls of dough weighing 90 to 100g each. Place inside the cavities of your mini cube pan. I used this one. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning, turn the oven to 400F. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on top of the dough, close the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid, bake for 5 more minutes, then carefully take the pan out of the oven, flip the little breads and place them on a rack back in the oven to give uniform color on the sides. This step is optional but I think it gives a better final product, with a more pleasant crust all over.

Allow to cool completely before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I wanted to have a dough that would be almost exactly 600g total in weight, so that I could make six cubes. I wasn’t sure it 100g would be too much or not enough, but decided it was a nice round number to start experimenting. You can definitely play with the hydration level, as the bread is contained, you won’t have issues adding more water, so next time I might go to 75% or even higher.

Some of my cubes were slightly lighter than 100g, maybe 92g. You can see that in some the shape was not totally straight, as if the dough failed to fully expand the whole volume of the cavity. It’s not a serious problem, but if you use the exact same pan, aim for 100 to 105g per space.

They are adorable and delicious! As the husband said, the only problem is that once you start eating, you lose a bit the perspective of how much bread am I really consuming? It is easy to keep going because the slices are so small… I wanted to make croutons, but the cubes were gone next day. I will have to make more soon and save one or two cubes to cut croutons and freeze. It think that will be a perfect use for this bread.

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4Jul2026

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Posted in Breads by sallybr

I’ve baked quite a few 4th of July inspired goodies in the past couple of weeks, but the only new recipe is the one I share today. Quite excited about this sourdough, not for the design, which is quite simple and easy, but for the formula: 2 egg yolks were added to the dough right at the beginning stage. I follow the bulk fermentation by removing a small amount of dough to a glass vial, and was amazed at the way it rose like a rocket. It doubled in size in 5 hours, which is definitely a first for me. Normally it takes 7 to 8 hours to get to that point.

DOUBLE-EGG YOLK SOURDOUGH BREAD
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

475g white bread flour
25g spelt flour
70g sourdough starter at 80% hydration (you can use 100% if you prefer)
350g water
10g salt
2 egg yolks

for rubbing on surface:
red yeast powder (I used this product)
to paint:
blue luster powder + vodka
star shape cut from parchment or regular paper

Mix all ingredients in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead gently for about 4 minutes (first or second speed maximum).

Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and do a bulk fermentation with 4 to 5 folds made 45 minutes apart. Before you start the fermentation , remove a very small amount of dough to a small glass container (like those that hold spices), and mark where the level of the dough is with a permanent marker. Keep that at room temperature to monitor fermentation.

After the last folding cycle, keep an eye on the fermentation using the small vial. Ideally you want to let the dough ferment until it is double in size. The inclusion of egg yolks will considerably speed up the process.

Once bulk fermentation is over, shape the dough as a boule and place in a banneton. Move it to the fridge, covered, and leave it there overnight.

Next day, freeze the dough for 30 minutes in the banetton, to make it easier to score later. Invert the dough on a paper liner, place the piece of paper shaped as a star on top of the shaped dough, wetting it just lightly to make it glue to the surface. Sprinkle red yeast powder all over, rubbing it gently. Remove the paper, and paint that area with blue luster powder. Score with a sharp razor blade in any pattern you like.

Bake in a Dutch oven with the lid on at 450F for 30 minutes, open and allow the bread to brown for a further 15 minutes.

Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: The dough is particularly smooth and nice to work with. I still cannot quite get over how much faster it rose during bulk fermentation. The temperature in our house does not change much during the year, thanks to air-conditioning and a bread proofing box for the winter months. The crumb has a slightly yellow hint, and the taste is a tad richer than your regular sourdough bread. I really liked it a lot, and so did the husband. If you are into sourdough baking, consider playing with this recipe.

I was ready to re-paint the bread once it was out of the oven, but much to my delight, the luster powder kept its intensity throughout the baking process! How cool is that?

I close this post with a few more bakes made to celebrate the 4th. Crinkle Sugar Cookies, Chocolate-Covered Oreos, Decorated Sugar Cookies and Red Velvet Cupcakes.

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28Jun2026

PAPRIKA SOURDOUGH

Posted in Breads by sallybr

For this super simple sourdough formula, I wanted the outside to give a hint of what’s inside, so I dusted the dough with red yeast powder before scoring it with a combination of razor blade and scissors. I really like the look, and it tasted wonderful!

PAPRIKA SOURDOUGH
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

375g white bread flour
25g spelt flour
70g sourdough starter at 80% hydration (you can use 100% if you prefer)
285g water
8g salt
1 to 2 tsps paprika

for rubbing on surface:
red yeast powder (I used this product)

Mix all ingredients in the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer fitted with the dough hook. Knead gently for about 4 minutes (first or second speed maximum).

After the last folding cycle, keep an eye on the fermentation using the small vial. Ideally you want to let the dough ferment until it is double in size. Depending on the day, temperature of your kitchen, it might take 8 hours or more.

Once bulk fermentation is over, shape the dough as a boule and place in a banneton. Move it to the fridge, covered, and leave it there overnight.

Next day, freeze the dough for 30 minutes in the banetton, to make it easier to score later. Invert the dough on a paper liner, sprinkle red yeast powder all over, rubbing it gently. Score with a sharp razor blade making a grid, and cut the edges with small scissors.

Bake in a Dutch oven with the lid on at 450F for 30 minutes, open and allow the bread to brown for a further 15 minutes.

Cool completely over a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I love the red yeast powder because it does not fade much during baking, even if you generate steam by keeping the lid closed in the beginning of the bake. Plus, the color is exactly that of paprika, which is what I was hoping for.

My original plan was to add a little oat flake at the center of each square, but after adding the first three, I lost my Zen. Removed those and said to myself “maybe next time”…..

You cannot quite tell it has paprika, but it gets this sightly more complex flavor, plus the soft hint of color in the crumb makes is special. A lovely loaf, highly praised by the husband!

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24May2026

ONE DOUGH, THREE OUTCOMES

Posted in Breads by sallybr

For some odd reason, we’ve been going through sourdough eating at a fast pace. I used my default recipe two days in a row, first being a regular boule with an attempt of flowery design that had so much enthusiasm in the oven that it exploded through the petals, but I am not one to complain about excessive oven spring…

Next day, I went a bit crazy and did something totally different. I shaped the dough as a batard, and placed it in the fridge overnight. Next day, I divided it lengthwise in half, and used the first portion to bake a baguette-ish creature (not quite as thin), and divided the remaining half in 7 pieces to bake as small boules in a muffin tin. You can watch a short video of my first attempt to do this technique, which had a few issues, but nothing too serious. Halfway through the video, the important stuff got a bit off-center, but I caught in time to re-adjust for the final scoring. Apologies, I am a true newbie at this. Also, if the closed captions are showing and annoying you, I do not know now how to get rid of them. Will have to investigate that for future videos.

Apart from the problems handling the dough, I loved the method, and intend to do it again and again, The little boules are adorable and two of them were almost immediately consumed by the husband with a bit of jam.

As to the recipe, essentially any formula will work. I used 475g white bread flour and 25g whole-wheat, with my usual method that you can find here. I have incorporated following the fermentation by removing a small portion of the dough to a little jar, which gives me extra confidence in the bulk fermentation step. I leave it fermenting at room temperature until almost doubled in volume, then shape and place in the fridge overnight.