Blue Cheese Walnut Sourdough

My favorite salad is spring greens, blue cheese, walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. And alongside this salad, I like to eat a crusty piece of sourdough bread.

Here is a new sourdough bread — one where the walnuts and blue cheese of my favorite salad are IN the bread.

I also plan to toast and butter this Blue Cheese Walnut Bread. (I admit to buttering bread and crackers before putting blue cheese on them, so this eliminates a step.)

Ingredients

75g of walnuts (a scant cup)

100g blue cheese (see pic for size estimate)

(SET ASIDE the cheese and walnuts for after the bulk fermentation)

480g bread flour (~4 cups)

4g salt (1 tsp)

360g water (~1.5 cups)

90g starter (hefty 1/3 cup)

Pictures and Instructions

(for more specific guidance, read the No-Knead Sourdough recipe on www.breadtopia.com)

This is the cheese in a 1 cup measuring cup.

Here are the cheese and nuts.

After a 8-12 hour bulk fermentation of the dough, scrape it onto a floured counter, spread it out and lay some cheese and nuts down the center.

Then fold a side 1/3 inward, over the cheese and nuts. Drop another layer of cheese and nuts over the folded side.

Fold the left side 1/3 inward to cover the new layer of cheese and nut. Then add a final layer of cheese and nut just on the top half.

Fold the bottom half of the dough up and over the top half. Let it rest for 15 minutes.

After the rest, flip the dough, shape it into a boule, and put it in your proofing basket.

I like my second proof to be 8-18 hours in the fridge, but you can do 45-90 min at room temp also. After the second proof, I put the (cold) loaf straight into a dutch oven that has been preheated for 30 minutes at 500’F.