Mango-Cranberry Sourdough Bread

I am having so much fun with Sourdough Surprises, but it made me realize something that might seem a bit strange.

Of all of the things that I make with my sourdough starter, there is one thing that I don't make all that often.

Sourdough bread.

But when I saw the delicious, fruity, nutty, cheesy bread baked up by my friend Jenni, inspiration struck.

While her bread incorporated delicious strawberries, I am still on my mango kick. 

The bread starts with a levain, made by combining sourdough starter, water and bread. This sits overnight, and the bread is prepared the next morning.  So as my levain, well, rested, I pureed some mangoes.

And then all of the ingredients are placed into a large bowl...

...and gently mixed until combined.

I loved the color that the mango added, and wanted to try for some kind of mango swirl through the bread, to bring that color out even more in the finished bread. And then I thought that, rather than adding nuts and cheese, I wanted to keep it simple, while complementing the beautiful, orange mango.

So I chose to go with dried cranberries as my mix-in.

The tricky part was rolling that whole thing up to keep all that delicious filling in.

But I made it work, and got all of that swirly, fruity goodness incorporated in the dough with a series of rests and re-rolls.

And by the end of the afternoon, we were ready to bake.

The dough for this bread is pretty... loose. It has a high hydration (helped by the mango puree worked through it, too), so I knew that my loaf would be a bit rustic looking. But with the high heat of the oven, I was glad to see that it didn't expand much once it went into the oven.

Then came the hard part.

The waiting.

You really have to be patient with bread. If you cut it before it has a chance to cool, it will squish and lose its shape. Even if that shape is rustic.

So, believe it or not, we waited until morning to cut into the beauty.


But it was definitely worth the wait.

Both kids wanted more. And more. And more. I was really pleased with the crust (not crazy hard, but with a definite bite), the crumb (airy but not too light) and the taste (I mean, it's mango and cranberry!) of this bread.

I can't wait to try this with other fruits now!

This bread has been submitted to Yeastspotting at the Wild Yeast Blog.

Mango-Cranberry Sourdough Bread
(adapted from The Gingered Whisk)


For the Levain:
3 ounces starter
5.25 ounces water
8 ounces flour

Combine all ingredients and leave overnight, covered.

For the Bread:
all of the levain
9.25 ounces flour
0.125 ounces salt
3.25 ounces water
4.75 ounces + 1/4 cup mango puree (separated)
1/4 cup (approximately - to taste) craisins

Combine the levain, flour, water, salt and 4.75 ounces of mango puree, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.
On a lightly floured counter, stretch out the dough into a long rectangular shape.
Drizzle the 1/4 cup mango puree and sprinkle the craisins as evenly as possible across the dough, theb fold/roll the dough over top (which ever method you want to do this is fine, you just need to get it in there).
Place the dough in a large oiled bowl, cover, and allow to rest for 1 hour.
Stretch and fold the dough, place back in the bowl and allow to rest for 1 hour.
Make another stretch and fold, place back in the bowl, cover, and let sit for at least four hours.
(If you would like, you can place the dough in the refrigerator at this point to rest overnight)
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500 degrees and cover a baking sheet with parchment. Flour the parchment and turn the dough out onto it. Score the top of the loaf.
(If you have refrigerated the dough, pull the dough out of the fridge and place in a well floured couche,
allowing the dough to proof and come to room temperature before turning it out onto the parchment and scoring it.)
Place the bread in the oven and turn the oven down to 450.
Bake the loaf for 25-35 minutes, until nicely golden brown.
Cool for at least 1-2 hour before slicing.

Enjoy!

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