I baked this bread 2 weeks ago and it was delicious. I substituted a few ingredients, like: 2Tbsp orange zest, 1tsp orange juice, 130g almond flour, white wholewheat flour and unbleached all purpose flour. The bread had a crisp crust, chewy tasty crumb. If the pics upload successfully, you’ll notice tiny streaks of rice flour that I use for flouring the work surface. The dough was very wet and sticky. Thus, I was forced to coat the surface generously with rice flour. I’m thinking of omitting the orange juice, even though it’s only a teaspoon. And I cooked the apples in the water called for in the recipe, as suggested.
Will definitely make again.
Nice photo! So glad you enjoyed the bread!
Lowering the liquid will help with the handling next time - like you said. I’ve never used rice flour on my work surface before, only in the proofing basket. But I also have had loaves come out with flour streaks in the crumb from shaping with too much? regular flour. It happens - and still tastes good 
Thanks for the great recipe.
I used almond flour instead of almonds, and only 100 gms of raisins. Also added a bit (1/8) tsp cinnamon, and a (1/8) tsp of instant yeast, it gives the starter a boost, also shortens the min ferment time - 7 1/2 hrs at 71 F. I put the formed loaf in a banneton over night in the fridge, and baked then next morning. Baking time 37 min total ( last 7 minutes uncovered).
Nice change from my usual wheat levain!
GS
Glad you enjoyed the recipe! Lovely bread (and baking vessel too). All you almond flour substituters are making me want to try it
Today was my 1st with this formula. Since I was missing some of the ingredients, My creation had pecans in place of almonds and extra orange rind since I had no orange water. In place of the 50g water soak with the dough additions, I used unsweetened apple cider. Since I was without Durham flour, I substituted white whole wheat. I found it challenging to blend in the nut, apple, etc. mix without tearing the gluten that had formed so the resulting crumb had more of a sandwich structure rather than the open structure of an artisan loaf. I baked at 480 for 20 min, then 450 for 15 min and 420 for 12 min. The result was a tasty, moist loaf. I think next time I will cut back on the raisens.
I’m glad your loaf was tasty. I too feel it is counterintuitive to add nuts, fruits, porridge, herbs etc. after some gluten development has taken place. It does feel like you’re ripping up the dough. And yet, the Tartine method recommends additions with the second stretch and fold.
So, I’ve gone back and forth in my head about whether that ~hour when gluten develops without the bother of additions is more beneficial regardless of the rip-y addition process. I can’t find where I read someone’s thesis on the benefit of later additions, otherwise I would link you to it. I personally am on the fence, so I vary up my technique a lot.
Here’s a link to more dough addition strategies and results:
This is my favorite sourdough recipe for all time. I was skeptical at first that the gluten structure would hold up to the weight of the added ingredients, but the miracle of organic chemistry produces a fantastic result! I’m curious to know if there are other ingredients in this recipe (apples maybe) that are working to augment the reduced salt (1 percent) and build a strong enough structure to support all the added ingredients? I’ve been experimenting with the main ingredients; increasing flours to 625 grams and corresponding baker percentages, changing flours (kamut), and proportions of whole grains (40 percent whole grain); keeping the homemade applesauce but using different nuts (e.g., ground and whole pecans), dried fruits (sour cherries); and even adding 100 grams of dark chocolate. The result is a large loaf, 3 1/4 lbs, but the high hydration and sourdough fermentation gives this very moist bread a long shelf life of more than a week. I use the large wood pulp banneton for the final proof and bake in a preheated Breadtopia clay baker. Bake time is longer for this larger loaf and I’m still experimenting with tweaking oven temperatures and time to get the best result in the crust while getting the internal temperature to 205 degrees. Thank you Melissa!
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Your experiments with the recipe sound delicious!
I wish I could answer your dough structure question with confidence. I’m enough of a scientist to observe, note, and modify; but not enough of a scientist to understand the why of my results much of the time. My off-the-cuff theory would be that the sugar in the apple sauce (as well as a bit coming off the dried fruit) does some good toward feeding the starter in the dough. So maybe the excess dough weight is buoyed somewhat by a good strong fermentation. Or we could chalk this up to the miracles and mysteries of bread baking.
You’ve inspired me to bake this bread again in the coming week, maybe trying some new nuts and fruit and also the cocao nibs @charlesvk and @peevee inspired me to buy a while back. Thanks for sharing your experience with the recipe!
Thank you for the tag Melissa! I see many delicious breads passing here. I must try this recipe
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It’s more typical to add all the liquids to the autolyse except for whatever you need to hydrate the amendments. I would probably do that and reduce the amount of water used by however much liquid is used elsewhere. After the first fold you simply destroy the gluten structure you developed by having to incorporate that much additional liquid.
Let me know how it goes! Keeping that structure intact is ideal. I wrote the recipe as a solid additions + bassinage sort of strategy but other approaches may work better.
So, I am in the middle of making this bread, & have a bit of a mess on my hands! My starter is strong. I weighed ALL the ingredients. I followed the instructions … at least I thought I did. I mixed the dough & let it have the initial rest. At the 1st fold/stretch, I found my dough to be VERY stiff - not wet as is indicated in the recipe & comments. I got to the 2nd fold, & it truly hadn’t changed in texture. I knew that incorporating the “additions” would be near to impossible by hand, so took Liz’s suggestion to use a mixer with a paddle. It took a LONG time to get the ‘additions’ incorporated. Now I have a VERY WET (oatmeal textured) dough/batter. I will proceed as per the instructions & hope that it firms up. I have been baking bread for decades (various methods) so will try to use intuition to sort this out … but WOW! … quite the change in moisture/texture. Fingers double crossed. … stay tuned.
Fingers crossed for you! The wetness after adding the apples etc doesn’t seem out of the ordinary for the recipe, but it is curious how stiff you found the dough to be before that. You used whole grain durum as the second wheat, right? Either way, hopefully the gluten comes back together nicely for you.
You’re probably are already planning this, but if it continues to feel wet, I’d do a cold final proof to stiffen it up and help it not stick to your basket.
Thanks Melissa, for the quick reply. You are correct, I have planned a cold final proof - mostly because of the texture, but also for the timing. (This dough takes a LONG time, … right?) It was nice to receive your thoughts, as a 2nd opinion/reassurance.
I confess that I did NOT use whole grain durum as the second wheat. (? oops) I didn’t have any, so used my freshly ground whole hard wheat flour. (I tried to put in a “worried” emoji here, but that didn’t work either)
Not much rise yet - at the 2 hour mark. Will let you know tomorrow.
Amazing. My bread turned out VERY WELL … despite the ridiculously wet dough that I turned out of the bowl after a 2 hour cold final proof. I moved the saggy mass around on a very floury board - there was NO WAY IN THE WORLD to do anything about surface tension. Baked as directed. AMAZING aromas! Baked it at 9:30 pm, so no one had access to it until morning. It rose quite high. Delicious - as promised. I got home after work to find that more than half the loaf had disappeared! (damn house elves!)
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I wish I could click the “heart” 99 times!! It looks gorgeous and I am so happy to hear that it turned out well. I’ve baked bread for many years also and still, sometimes, I think … really, this will bake up ok?? and have been happily surprised many times. Kudos for following your baker’s intuition!!
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I’m so glad it worked out and you’re enjoying the aroma and flavor.
I meant to reply earlier that I bet the durum vs traditional whole wheat is what made for the dry initial dough. Since you don’t want an even wetter final dough, I think you could get away with mixing everything at once to avoid that crazy stiffness at the beginning. When I make cranberry walnut bread, I mix everything at once to no ill effect on gluten development.
Happy baking!
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Thanks Melissa. I’ll try adding the applesauce, almonds, raisins (etc) during the initial mix next time, & see how it goes.
You mention cranberry walnut bread … but I can’t find a recipe on the Breadtopia site for it. Do you have it written somewhere online?
Katy
This is the framework and the baking strategy is the same as the apple almond raisin etc bread. Because the cranberries are unsoaked, the dough initially feels wet, but by the time you get to the shaping stage it’s pretty stiff. I usually skip the preshape and bench rest. It’s very packed with fruit and nuts. Sometimes I go 50/50 or 60/40 on bread flour vs. whole grain flour. Rye makes everything more sticky, so beware and skip when you’re not in the mood 
300g whole grain flour (e.g. 200g red fife, 100g rye, whatever combination you want)
200g bread flour
400g water
140g dried cranberries
100g walnuts
75g sourdough starter
1.5 tsp salt
I baked this delicious bread this morning! It may have been noted by others but the bran flakes mentioned in the instructions are not listed under the ingredients. I substituted them with a light sprinkling of semolina. Next time I make this I may add some chopped soft dried apples to boost the apple flavor.
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