I don't usually make white bread, but this recipe looked too good to pass up. And I am pretty pleased with how it came out. Judging by TF's response to it, she is very pleased with how it came out. I'll definitely have to make more rosemary bread in the future!

When it comes to breads, I find that I'm generally able to get very good results from 100% whole wheat doughs that use commercial yeast, but I still sometimes struggle to get a really nice internal structure with the 100% whole wheat sourdoughs. Although, after this experience, I've realized that that may be, in part, down to my shaping technique rather than anything to do with the dough itself. More experimentation required...

Rosemary-Cream Cheese Sourdough

Slightly adapted from The Fresh Loaf

Ingredients

• 470g hard (strong/high grade/bread) white flour
• 80g hard (strong/high grade/bread) whole wheat flour
• 410mL water
• 100g ripe/fed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
• 40g pâte fermentée
• 40g cream cheese, softened
• 12g coarse sea salt
• 6g honey
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh rosemary
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Directions

1. Feed your starter so that it's nice and active by the time you're ready to mix your dough.
2. Combine the flours and pour in the water. Mix well, cover, and let rest at room temperature for anywhere from 1-12 hours.¹
3. Mix all the remaining ingredients into the dough. I like to do them one at a time, but mix them however you'd prefer.
4. Cover and let rest at room temperature for ~2 hours, stretching and folding every 30 minutes.
5. Cover and ferment in fridge for up to 24 hours.
6. Divide the dough into two equal portions and round each one. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 10-20 minutes.
7. Shape your loaves² and place in covered bannetons to rise.
8. Proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 250°C (475°F) and dust a baking sheet with cornmeal. (I like to use a little butter on the baking sheet to help the cornmeal "stick".)
10. Turn the loaves out onto the prepared baking sheet and slash as desired.
11. Pour some boiling water into a pan and place it on the bottom rack of the oven.
12. Bake the loaves on the middle rack over the pan of boiling water for 15 minutes.
13. After 15 minutes, remove the water pan and reduce oven temperature to 200°C (400°F) and bake for another 15-20 minutes.
14. Turn off oven and let loaves rest in warm oven for 10 minutes.
15. Remove from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool.

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¹ I like to feed my starter and mix the flour and water the night before. That way the flour can be autolysing while the starter is building toward its peak. ^Back
2 I normally shape my sourdough loaves the same way I'd shape a pan loaf: letter fold, then roll up jelly roll style. I did that for one of these loaves. But for the other one, I tried a book fold. It was that second one that produced the better shape and gave me a nicer oven spring. So... maybe try book folds for sourdoughs going into bannetons to proof and save the jelly-roll-ing for pan loaves? ^Back