Bread & loaves · loaf

Persian-Inspired Sourdough

Status
Confirmed bake
Dates
not recorded
Format
Dutch oven boule
Leavening
not recorded
Formerly
L06
True hydration
74.5%
Salt
2.0%
Inoculation
18.2%
Total flour
550 g
Total dough
1171 g

Formula

Formula for Persian-Inspired Sourdough. Baker's percentages are calculated on total flour, including the flour contributed by the levain.
IngredientGrams Baker’s %Notes
Bread flour45081.8%Refinement: go 500 g all bread flour
Whole wheat flour509.1%Muted the expected saffron color. Drop next time
Water31056.4%
Water for the saffron bloom509.1%
Active starter10018.2%50 g flour + 50 g water
Salt112.0%
Honey203.6%
Saffron0.3not recovered~30 threads, bloomed in warm water 4+ hours. Hold this quantity
Madagascar vanilla beannot recoverednot recovered1 bean, scraped. Refinement: double it
Ground cardamomnot recoverednot recoveredRecorded at 2 tsp; reduce to 1 tsp
Lemon zestnot recoverednot recoveredZest of 1 large lemon. Keep as-is
Pistachios, toasted and chopped8014.5%
Dried cranberries10018.2%Swapped in for dried apricots mid-bake. Keep cranberry; no soaking needed
Total dough1171

Hydration

Added water65.5%water weighed into the dough
True total74.5%including the levain’s flour and water

410 g total water / 550 g total flour.

Scale

  • Bread flour450g
  • Whole wheat flour50g
  • Water310g
  • Water for the saffron bloom50g
  • Active starter100g
  • Salt11g
  • Honey20g
  • Saffron0.3g
  • Pistachios, toasted and chopped80g
  • Dried cranberries100g

Total dough 1171 g

Percentages are fixed; only grams change. Rounded to 1 g, or 0.1 g under 20 g.

Process

Friday feed to Saturday bake. 8am Fri: feed starter. 12-2pm: starter peaks, start the saffron bloom (crumble ~30 threads into 50 g warm water, cover, room temp; 4+ hours pulls deep color and flavor). 2-3pm: toast pistachios at 325 F for 7-8 minutes, cool, rough chop; prep fruit. 3-4pm: mix dough, bulk begins. 7-9pm: bulk done, shape, into the fridge overnight. Saturday: pull from fridge, preheat oven and Dutch oven to 500 F for a full hour, score and bake.

Bake

Dutch oven, preheated a full hour.

Outcome

Close second-best bake. Sweet-leaning rather than savory. Cranberry bled through beautifully and carried sweetness; no accompaniment needed beyond butter.

Next action

Next version: 500 g all bread flour, double vanilla, cardamom at 1 tsp, keep cranberry and lemon zest, hold saffron. Added fruit sugar means slightly faster bulk fermentation. Nutmeg was deliberately excluded to preserve the clean floral notes.

Where this sits

2860920.63.8 True hydration % Salt % F01 Original Barese / Puglian Yeast Benchmark — 60.5% hydration, 3.8% saltF03 Classic Cold-Fermented Sourdough Focaccia — 77.3% hydration, 1.8% saltF05 Focaccia Barese - Sourdough Canon Version 2 — 53.1% hydration, 3.3% saltF06 Potato-Free Fast-Track Focaccia Version 2.0 — 74.5% hydration, 2.0% saltF08 Potato-Free Barese Version 1A - Open-Crumb Adjustment — 91.8% hydration, 3.8% saltF09 Four 6-inch Square Potato-Free Scaling — 88.0% hydration, 3.7% saltF10 Potato Small-Square Focaccia Batch — 68.9% hydration, 2.2% saltF11 6.25-inch Square Sandwich Focaccia — 77.8% hydration, 1.8% saltF12 Chicago-Style Hot-Dog Focaccia — 78.3% hydration, 1.9% saltF15 Shredded-Potato Focaccia Pugliese — 60.0% hydration, 2.4% saltF16 Sourdough Focaccia - Two 6x6x2 Pans — 82.1% hydration, 2.1% saltF17 One-Pan Tomato Focaccia - 475 g Experiment — 77.8% hydration, 1.8% saltF18 Two-Pan Tomato Focaccia - 7 September Comparison Bake — 77.8% hydration, 1.8% saltB01 Standard Sourdough Baseline — 75.0% hydration, 2.0% saltB02 100% Whole-Wheat Integrale Sourdough — 81.8% hydration, 1.8% saltB03 Pane di Altamura - 100% Italian Durum Semola Sourdough — 84.0% hydration, 2.0% saltB04 Rye-Spelt-Honey Base / Five-Grain Seeded Loaf Lineage — 78.0% hydration, 2.0% saltB05 Croissant-Style Laminated Sourdough Loaf — 42.9% hydration, 1.1% saltB07 One Hearty Pan Sourdough - First Loaf-Pan Trial — 77.9% hydration, 1.8% saltB08 One Hearty Pan Sourdough - Revised Multigrain Formula — 77.8% hydration, 1.8% saltB09 Same-Day Enriched Sourdough Loaf — 69.6% hydration, 1.7% saltB12 Everyday Sourdough - 9.8" Banneton — 77.3% hydration, 1.8% saltB13 Control Loaf (Documented Baseline) — 71.7% hydration, 1.9% saltB14 Same-Day Sourdough — 72.2% hydration, 2.0% saltB16 Dark Chocolate Espresso Sourdough with Pistachio — 77.3% hydration, 2.0% saltB18 Cinnamon, Blueberry & Cherry Swirl Loaf — 70.2% hydration, 1.9% saltA01 Orange-Pistachio-Espresso Dark Cocoa Sourdough Biscotti — 27.9% hydration, 0.6% saltB17 Persian-Inspired Sourdough — 74.5% hydration, 2.0% salt
Every formula in this archive with a recoverable hydration and salt figure. Dot size is inoculation; outline is status. This bake is filled.

Tags

  • inclusion
  • saffron
  • sweet-leaning