Sourdough Brown Bread

When people request this loaf from me, they always ask for the “brown bread”. This recipe merges sourdough with a copycat recipe for the brown bread at The Cheesecake Factory. This is a wet dough, but the result is amazing. This is definitely my favorite bread recipe of all time (so far!)

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Sourdough Brown Bread

Yield: 2 loaves

Author: Michelle's Lane

Prep time: 1 H & 30 MCook time: 42 MinInactive time: 14 HourTotal time: 16 H & 12 M

This is a Cheesecake Factory brown bread knockoff recipe with a sourdough twist.

Ingredients

Ingredients

• 1000 grams of wheat berries (I often use 50% khorasan & 50% einkorn)
• 700 grams warm, filtered water
• 200 grams active sourdough starter
• 95 grams molasses
• 80 grams honey
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
• 20 grams salt

Instructions

1. Mix water and sourdough starter together then add in the fresh milled flour. Mix until all flour is mixed in. Cover the bowl and let rest for 1 hour.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. Cover bowl and let rest 10 minutes.
3. Do 10 minutes of stretch & folds or coil folds then cover and rest for 30 minutes.
4. Do 1 full minute of stretch & folds or coil folds then cover & rest 30 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 three more times then cover the bowl and allow the dough to rest until it has approximately doubled in size and has bubbles forming. This took me 4 hours in a 73°, summer, Texas kitchen. This time will vary according to your location and temperature.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Cut the dough in half in 2 equal sizes.
7. Shape each piece of dough into a loaf or boule & place upside down into a well floured banneton and cover (I sprinkled rolled oats and flour into the banneton before placing in the dough to achieve the look in the photo).
8. Allow the dough to proof in the bannetons until it passes the poke test (this takes me 2-3 hours depending on kitchen temperature). Then place the covered bannetons with the dough into the refrigerator for 8-12 hours.
9. Preheat oven to 475° with either a covered loaf pan or Dutch oven inside. You want your baking dish to be preheated.
10. Turn one loaf out onto either parchment paper or bread sling. Score the top of the loaf how you want then place into the hot loaf pan or Dutch oven.
11. Bake at 475° with the lid on for 24 minutes then reduce the temperature to 450° and bake with the lid off for 18 minutes.
12. Remove the loaf from the baking pan immediately and cool on a wire rack. Repeat the baking process for the second loaf.

Notes

This recipe uses whole, fresh milled flour. You can use white flour for this recipe, but you will need to adjust the amount of water used. Fresh milled flour absorbs more water than white flour. My advice if you use white flour is to initially mix half the volume of water with the sourdough starter, add in the flour, and add the remainder of the water as needed to get a sticky, shaggy dough consistency.

https://www.michelleslane.com/blog/sourdough-brown-bread

Sourdough