Maple Blueberry & Sweet Lemon Zest Sourdough Bread Recipe (2024)

Before You Start - Prepare the Lemon & Blueberries:

An hour before you start mixing this sourdough, you need to prepare the blueberries and lemon zest. Put your blueberries into a small bowl and cover them with 10g of Maple Syrup and just enough boiling water to cover them. Cover with cling wrap and put aside until you need them (these can be made the day before if you want, but as long as they sit for an hour they will be fine).

Premix & Autolyse:

Weigh out your sourdough starter and water into a large ceramic or glass bowl. This recipe is based on you having an active starter that you have fed a few hours before starting your bake.

Mix the water and starter together briefly. Then add your flour and salt and mix together with the end of a wooden spoon. The dough will be fairly shaggy and only just brought together.

Forming Up Your Dough:

After the dough has been through autolyse, you need to bring it together into a ball. You'll notice that the dough is fully hydrated after soaking up all the liquid. It will be fairly sticky but as you bring it into a ball, it will become smoother and shinier.6

Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside and stretching it up and over itself until a smooth ball is formed. You shouldn't need more than 20-25 folds to form the ball, you might need less. You just need to let the dough tell you

Once the dough has formed into a smooth ball, pop the cling film back on and let it rest for around 30 minutes.

Stretch & Folds / Adding Flavors:

Over the next few hours, you need to create some structure for you dough by stretching and folding. Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretches and folds. For each set, stretch the dough up and over itself 4 times. You'll find it gets easier to do at each set as the gluten in your dough develops.8

Bulk Ferment:

Once you've finished your stretch and folds, place the cling film or damp tea towel back over your dough and let it rest and ferment.

Shaping Your Dough:

Once your dough has finished its bulk ferment, you need to shape it. I've chosen to shape into a boule for this recipe, but you can use any shape you prefer.

Cold Ferment:

Now your dough is in it's shaping container, cover it loosely with a plastic bag or damp tea towel and place it into the fridge.

Try to leave it for a minimum of 5 hours, up to a maximum of 36 hours. The longer you leave it, the better your bread will be.

Preparing To Bake:

Once you're ready to bake your sourdough, you'll need to preheat your oven to 230C/450F. Place your Dutch Oven into the oven when you turn it on so that it gets hot. Try to preheat for around 1 hour to ensure your oven is super hot - but you know your oven, so just adjust this time if you need to.

Leave the dough in the fridge until the very last minute.

Time To Bake!

When your oven is at temperature, take your sourdough out of the fridge. Gently place it onto a piece of baking paper or parchment paper.

Gently score your bread with a lame, clean razor blade or knife. A cross is sufficient, but you can get as artistic as you like.

Carefully take your Dutch Oven out of the oven. Place the sourdough into the pot using the baking paper as a handle. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven. If you want you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on.

BAKE TIME:

Bake your sourdough for 30 minutes with the lid on at 230C/450F plus

12-15 minutes with the lid off at around 200C/390F.

Keep an eye on your bread at this stage - because it has blueberries and sugar in it, the sugar can make the top go very dark, very quickly.

I tend to turn my oven back to 200C for the last 10-15 minutes with the lid off as I don't want to caramelise the crust too much on this one. I find a lighter crust works better with the delicate lemon flavor.