The garnish on top not only elevates the look but provides profound flavour in sourdough
Garnishes on top of sourdough can be an indication of the inclusion (add-on) in the bread but for me, it serves better purposes – to boost the flavour and to contribute to different texture. One example is my honey and porridge sourdough (Check here for the recipe) and today I’m going to share another sourdough recipe where I take advantage of this simple garnish tip to levelup my sourdough game.
Black sesame seed sourdough recipe
| weight | ingredient | baker’s percentage |
| 400g | baker’s flour (12.5% protein) | 100% |
| 300g | water | 75% |
| 120g | starter | 30% |
| 8g | salt | 2% |
| 40g | honey | 10% |
| 40g | black sesame paste | 10% |
| 20g | black sesame powder (optional) | 5% |
| toal 920g |
Workflow
| Day before/ On the same day | Feed starter and use it when double-size |
| Day 1 | |
| 15:30 | Mix flour, black sesame powder and most of water until a dough forms. Cover and rest for 30 minutes (autolyse) |
| 16:00 | Add the active starter and some water to the dough. Continue mixing until all ingredients combine well. Add salt and the rest of the water. Continue mixing until the medium level of gluten is reached. |
| Take 20% of the dough and mix with black sesame paste. Fold the colored dough into the original dough. Transfer the dough to a container. (see demonstration in the Notes section below) | |
| 16:30 | Bulk ferment starts. Perform 3-4 coil folds at 30-minute intervals. |
| 20:30 | Transfer the dough to the fridge to continue the first proof. (I was tired and wanted to go to bed) |
| Day 2 | |
| 6:00 | Move the dough from the fridge to the bench top to resume first proof. |
| 7:30 | Divide and preshape the dough. 460g *2 boules Bench rest for 30 minutes. |
| 8:10 | Final shape: Dip the shaped dough on the plate with a paper towel soaked with water. Then dip the dough onto another plate with cooled toasted black sesame seeds. Move the dough into a proofing basket (seam side facing up and the garnish facing down.) |
| Bench rest for another 20 minutes. Transfer the dough to the fridge to continue final proofing (cold proofing). | |
| (I went to work for 5 hours.) | |
| 14:30 | Preheat oven and cast iron bread pan to max. |
| 15:30 | Score the bread and transfer it to the bread pan. Chuck 2 ice cubes at the side. Quickly cover it with a lid and move into the oven. Bake at 250 degrees, lid on, 20 minutes. Remove the lid, lower the heat to 230 degrees bake for 25 minutes or until the colour is perfect to your eye. |
Notes
* Make your own black sesame powder: simply blend some toasted black sesame into powder and you have the fragrant nutty flour. Continue blending it, you will get black sesame paste. Alternative: those ingredients can easily be found in Asian supermarkets.
* Black sesame powder is added to strengthen the fragrance. However, including too much black sesame powder may interfere gluten network. Add additional gluten powder if needed.
* I took a small amount of the dough to mix with black sesame paste and folded it in the original dough to create a marble effect. Due to the many folds I performed, the two-colour dough corporated way too much. I would try either to reduce the portion of the colored dough or incorporate two doughs at a later stage. Otherwise, you can spread the black sesame paste randomly over the dough to create a two-colour effect.
* After shaping, slightly dip the dough (seam-side up) on a plate with a paper towel soaked in water and then dip the dough again onto another plated with toasted black sesame. (Water assists stick sesame seeds on the dough) Quickly transfer the dough into a proofing basket to continue the final proof. This is my usual setup:
* When choosing garnish, use raw seed. If using toasted sesame seeds, they will burn during baking.
* I enjoy the combination of black sesame and honey. Honey not only boosts fermentation (wild yeast needs sugar (food) to go through fermentation activity) but provides a mellow flavour in profile. Leave it out if you prefer a simpler flavour.
At the end
I have tried different approaches to make this sourdough taste more nutty, including increasing the quantity of black sesame paste and adjusting the sesame flour amount in the recipe. The best and the most efficient way is to use black sesame seed as a garnish. I can taste the toasted sesame as well as wheat flavour and honey on every bite I have. The crunchy garnish on the crust also offers texture to the bread. If you enjoy toasted seeds/ nuts as I do, you will definitely appreciate this simple garnish tip that helps bring out most of the aroma.
