Ingredients
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Dough
100g active, bubbly starter
290g warm water
1c whole cherries
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cherry extract
500g bread flour
10g salt
Approx. 1/2c - 1c dried tart cherries - to fold in
Chocolate chunks to fold in
Pink Pitaya Powder and purple sweet potato flour for dusting
Directions
Remove all pits from your cherries and blend them in a blender or food processor.
Add your blended cherries, warm water and starter to a large bowl. Mix everything together.
Add the cherry and vanilla extract.
Add flour and salt into the starter mixture and mix to incorporate.
Combine everything until dough forms. To fully incorporate the dough wet your hands and use them to fully combine everything. There should be no dry spots. Cover and let sit for 35min - 1hr.
Now that the dough has rested we're going to be doing a total of 3 sets of stretch and folds/coil folds. If your dough looks like it needs an additional fold you can absolutely add more. Wet your hands and do a set of stretch and folds. Cover and let sit for 30 min.
After the first set of stretch and folds I like to switch to coil folds (completely preference if you like to do one or the other). So for the second set of folds you'll wet your hands again and do your folds. If you notice that your dough is pretty sticky that's ok just work it a little more when doing this step. This will help the dough strengthen up a bit. Cover and let sit for 30 min.
Again wet your hands and do a set a folds. With this third set of coil folds you should notice that the dough has a smoother consistency.
Now it's time to let the dough bulk fermenting on the counter. This process can take anywhere from 3hrs-12hrs (from the time we mixed all the ingredients) depending on multiple factors (temp being the primary factor). You'll have a good idea of when your dough is finished bulk fermenting when you see larger bubbles on the top and it has a bit of a domed top and is no longer sticky to touch. I would reccomend looking at the @SoudoughJourneys chart for bulk fermenting. It's amazing and very helpful when trying to determine if your dough has fermented enough.
Once your bulk fermentation is completed flour your surface and turn the dough out onto the floured surface to start shaping the dough. Stretch the dough into a rectangle shape.
Add a layer of chocolate chunks and dehydrated cherries - as much or little as you'd like. I tend to not put as many on the first layer because this will stretch out and become the outside layer.
Then fold the left side into the middle and then the right side into the middle. Add some more cherries and chocolate into each layer. Start from the bottom and roll the dough to the top.
Pinch all the sides together. If you want to make a batard shape you can finish your shaping now (this is much easier than trying to shape into a boule) and move on to the next step. If you'd like the boule shape you'll want to turn the dough long ways facing you. Gently grab the top and push it into the bottom. It'll look like there's a split on the left and right side.
Place your tea towel into your proofing basket and lightly flour. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough and put it upside down into the proofing basket. For the batard shape go ahead and sprinkle some more flour on top, cover with the tea towel and move onto the next step. For a boule - once in the proofing basket gently pinch the sides so that you don't see the seam. Stitch the bottom and top together. Sprinkle flour over the top of the dough again. Once the dough is in the basket you'll want to tuck in the sides that we brought together a little tighter so that it holds it's boule shape.
Cover the dough and stick in the fridge to cold proof for 12-48 hours.
When you're ready to bake preheat the oven to 500 for an hour. I advise to stick your loaf in the freezer 15 mins prior to cooking. Then cut a piece of parchment paper and turn the dough out onto it. At this point you can flour and score the dough how you'd like. If you'd like to dust with the pink pitaya powder and purple sweet potato flour do so before scoring. Place the parchment paper into your dutch oven with the lid on. Throw a couple of ice cubes in the dutch oven. Turn the oven down to 440 and bake for 35-40 min. After 40 min remove the lid and continue baking for 5-7 min or until the bread is to your desired color on the top. NOTE- if you have a loaf recipe that works well with your oven please feel free to use that. When it comes to cooking sourdough each oven is a little different so the times may be greater or lesser depending on your oven.*
Remove your bread from the oven and off of the parchment paper and place on a cooling rack. Let the bread cool for at least 2 hours.
Enjoy!