Sweet sourdough bread with cinnamon, sugar-free

I made this bread last Christmas for the first time and it's bound to become a classic at my household, because it's delicious. In spite of the name, it's not very sweet. It's excellent as toast for breakfast, with some ham or a sharp cheese... I found the recipe at this blog (thanks Tess for the great idea and check out her amazing painted breads!) and it originally contained ginger and orange. As I usually do, I took her recipe and turned it upside down, so that the result is almost unrecognizable. But that's what globalization is about... you pick ideas and concepts here and there, shake them in a cocktail shaker and pour the concoction on your cultural heritage, don't you?


Sweet sourdough bread with cinammon and dried apricots, sugar-free

• 100g white flour sourdough (baker's percentage: 100%)
  
• 160g light spelt
• 130g bread flour
• 130g whole spelt
  
• 8g fresh yeast (I didn't trust my sourdough in this cold)
• 9-10 dried apricots, soaked in Cointreau or Triple Sec (the original included candied ginger instead, but I'm no big fan)
• 65ml maple syrup (dark molasses in the original recipe)
• 40ml agave syrup (1/4 cup sugar in the original recipe)
• 65ml melted butter
• 200ml water (250ml if sugar is used instead of the agave)
• 1 tsp Cointreau from the apricots soaking
• 1/2 tsp anise seeds
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt

If you don't want to use such a ridiculous mixture of flours, just follow the original recipe, which is more sensible. But you know I loooove spelt. If you happen to dislike dried apricots, you can of course substitute for any other dried fruit or even nuts. These would be a great match too.

Weigh your solid ingredients and mix them. Crumble the yeast on top of them. Add the sourdough. In other bowl mix the liquid ingredients with the melted butter. Knead well, around 10 minutes by hand or 6-8 in a stand mixer, till you have an elastic and smooth dough. Then add the drained apricots. Make a ball, put it into a well oiled bowl, cover and leave to proof. My bread took 4 hours to double in bulk, because my kitchen is quite chilly these days. When doubled, I made a roll and dumped it into a loaf pan, covered it with a plastic cap and put it in the fridge to raise overnight. The next day the bread had nearly doubled, so I immediately turned on the oven to 180ºC, and there went the bread. Bake it around 40-45 minutes, depending on your oven's fierceness (watch it closely at the end of the baking so that the top doesn't brown excessively). You can test the inner temperature for doneness. The original recipe calls for an inner temperature of 75ºC. But maybe because of the change in ingredients, my bread was not thoroughly baked at 75ºC (I checked it with a skewer), but at 90ºC, so watch out. When done, unmold it carefully and leave to cool on a wire rack.


The consistency of this bread is very cake-like and the dried fruit gives it a delicious touch. Today I had a toasted slice, with cheese and quince jelly, while gazing at our snow-covered garden...

I'm sending this bread over to Susan's Yeastspotting, at Wild Yeast.