Orange Cranberry Sourdough Mini Loaves

 

Ingredients: yields 4 mini loaves or 1 normal loaf

50 g peaked sourdough starter (I might’ve used 100 g…)

350 g water (maybe 300 g?)

20 g maple syrup or honey (we prefer maple syrup)

500 g bread flour

10 g salt

100 g dried cranberries (try chopping them next time)

Zest of whole orange

Juice of whole orange to soak cranberries in (optional)

Soak cranberries in orange juice until you add them to the dough.

In a large bowl, mix water and sourdough starter until mostly combined. Add maple syrup (or honey) and orange zest and stir to combine. Add flour and salt and stir until it makes a shaggy dough and all flour is incorporated. Now at this point, I just follow the instructions for my normal sourdough loaf.

After the first series of stretch & folds, while your dough is resting, strain out the cranberries and pat dry with paper towels. Once the dough is ready for the second series of folds, add the cranberries. I found that the cranberries mixed in better if I’d add half the cranberries, do a couple folds, add the second half, do a couple folds. It can get frustrating if it seems like the cranberries aren’t staying in, but trust the process, you’ll mix them in more on the next series of stretch & folds.

Continuing to follow the instructions from the original sourdough loaf recipe, make the mini loaves by cutting the dough ball in quarters after all of your stretch & folds, before bulk fermentation. Lightly form them into rounds and place them in separate bowls. Cover and let rest for the 6-10 hours as instructed in the original recipe.

Refer to the rest of that recipe to finish shaping, rising, scoring, and baking. When it comes time to bake, you can bake 2 loaves at a time in a dutch oven, or find oven safe bowls to place each loaf into and cover with another oven safe bowl.

Let them cool and enjoy your cute lil loaves!

These make great neighbor gifts for end of the year holidays!

Obviously, I need to make them again to remind myself of the measurements I used, so until then, trust your gut haha I’ll modify it when I make them again. I also want to try putting orange juice in the dough…

Recipe adapted from Pantry Mama.