Sourdough Fruit Loaf

You will need to make your own sourdough starter – this should take about 5 to 7 days, but it’s very easy. This starter is used instead of the instant yeast you buy at the shop. All you need for it is flour, water and time. In this recipe we use rye flour and wholemeal flour. I only use organic flour, as this limits all the pesticides, bleaches and sprays used on conventional flours.

You only need to make this starter once – for all your future baking, you won’t need to make the starter again, you can just keep it going forever. Keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week, then either use it or discard a part of it and "feed" it with more flour and water.

Here is how to make the sourdough starter:

Put about 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour and just a little less than 1/2 cup of filtered water in a jar and mix it together until smooth. It'll look like a thick, sticky dough. Cover with a cheesecloth or tea towel and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 24 hours.

Over the next 5-7 days keep adding 1/2 cup of wholemeal flour and just a little less than 1/2 cup of filtered water every day. Mix it up until smooth, cover and let it sit on your kitchen counter.

After about 5 - 7 days you should see bubbles on the surface of the dough and notice a sour smell. This means it's ready to go and you can use it for the fruit loaf.

How to make the sourdough fruit loaf

makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups of luke warm filtered water

• 3 tablespoons sourdough starter

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup of rye flour

• about 4-5 cups of wholemeal flour

• Raisins, any dried fruit, cinnamon, honey....

Method:

• Preheat oven to 240 °C (460 °F).

• Mix the water, sourdough starter, salt and rye flour together in a big bowl.

• Add the wholemeal flour until it's a consistency of thick porridge (see picture above).

• Cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave it in a warm place until it has risen (at least 6-8 hours).

• Once it's risen, take out some of the dough (about 3 heaped tablespoons) and put it into a small container - this is the sourdough starter for your next loaf. (You can put it in the fridge for a week and take it out again the night before you want to bake your next loaf).

• Mix some raisins, any dried fruit you like, cinnamon or spice and 1 tablespoon of honey or sugar to the dough.

• Put the dough in a bread tin and bake in the oven for about 40 - 45 minutes.