A friend of mine suggested I try this recipe and I have to say it is one of my favorites. She said to add a cream cheese, egg mixture to any standard sourdough recipe so I decided to try my buttermilk recipe. I’ll probably try next time with a barley and wheat flour mixture to make it a little healthier.
Valerie said it could have trouble with rise (it is a wet dough) so I also added a tsp of yeast. I had a great rise with it.
Recipe: this fits a loaf sized Dutch oven.
1 tsp dried yeast
1/2 cup warm water
3/4 cup slightly warmed buttermilk (20 sec in microwave)
1 cup ripe sourdough starter
3-4 cups unbleached wheat flour
1 tsp salt
Cream cheese mixture:
4 oz room temp cream cheese
1 egg
1 cup fresh blueberries (I had extra so I threw them in!)
Directions:
Mix yeast and warm water for 10 minutes until it smells “yeasty.” Then add buttermilk, half of flour and sourdough. Mix well. It should be quite loose. Add remaining flour about a half cup at a time and salt. Dough should be a little dry. Depending on your humidity, get the flour to dryish but not over dry,
Mix well and let sit for 30 minutes to start a rise. Then knead for 15 minutes. Set aside for 1.5 to 2 hours to double in size. This depends on temperature.
Mix cream cheese/egg mixture well. It should be a sort of slurry.
Flour the surface and start to knead dough. After 5 or 6 turns, flatten out the dough into a rectangle, and swipe slurry across the top. Fold over and flatten again. Do this at least 4 times. It gets VERY goopy. Then add blueberries as you make three more swipes with the slurry. You are not trying to mix it into the dough so just fold a couple times. I had to add a little flour also to get it firm enough to go into a floured banneton. Let rise for 45 to 60 minutes.
Heat your oven to 475F and let sit for 20 minutes so the walls are warm. I bake mine in a loaf sized Dutch oven so I turned it into a hot Dutch oven, covered it and baked it for 25 minutes. I then took the lid off and baked it at 425F for another 20 minutes.
Let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing. It is very good toasted.
