Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread - Amy Bakes Bread (2024)

Sample Sourdough Schedule for Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough

A sample baking schedule helps me when baking with sourdough. Sourdough takes much longer to rise than commercial yeast bread. This schedule helps me plan my bake.

A few notes: This schedule assumes the dough temperature is maintained at 78°Fthroughout the process. If you’d like to make the bread all on the same day, skip the cold fermentation and let the dough rise for a few hours in a banneton before baking

Begin Bulk Fermentation: Fermentolyse

I like mixing together the ripe levain, flour and water to fermentolyse for 30 minutes before adding the salt and a little reserved water. This method helps strengthen the gluten strands in the dough and gives a better overall texture and crumb to this bread. As soon as the levain is ready (bubbly, doubled in size, peaked), mix together the ripe levain, bread flour, whole wheat flour and water. Cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, add the salt and 25 grams of reserved water. Pinch chunks of dough and reincorporate them together gently. Pick up one side of the dough and fold it over on itself. Wet your hands as needed and continue to work with the dough, gently kneading until all the ingredients are incorporated and the dough is smooth. This will probably take 3-5 minutes. Transfer the dough to aplastic containeror a glass bowl if desired.

Bulk Fermentation: Stretch and Folds

When making artisan-style sourdough bread we don’t use traditional kneading methods due to the high hydration in the dough. Instead we use a series of gentle folds to help strengthen the gluten strands in the dough. This dough usually gets about 3-4 sets of stretch and folds over a 2 hour period, if the dough is kept right around 78°F.

Stretch and Fold:To “stretch and fold,”wet your hand (so it doesn’t stick to the dough). Reach down to the bottom of the bowl of dough and pull the dough up and over the top of the dough. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat the stretch and fold. Turn another quarter turn and repeat. Perform one more quarter turn and stretch and fold the dough. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. Repeat this process every 30 minutes for a total of 3-4 times.

Adding Inclusions to Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread

Adding in Jalapeños and Cheese: After the first set of stretch and folds, prepare the mix-ins. Drain the jalapeños and grate the sharp cheddar cheese. Add them to the top of the dough at the beginning of the second set of stretch and folds. As you stretch and fold the dough, the inclusions will incorporate. Alternatively, you can use coil folds to add the inclusions if you prefer. Repeat another set or two of stretch and folds until the jalapeños and cheese are spread evenly throughout the dough.

You can also try laminating the jalapeños and cheese into the dough in place of a stretch and fold or at the end of bulk fermentation right before shaping. Read more about adding inclusions here.

Bulk Fermentation: Resting and Pre-Shaping the Dough

Rest:After the 2-hour period of stretch and folds, let the dough rest in a warm 78-80°F place until puffed up and jiggly with a few scattered bubbles around the top. This usually takes 1.5-2 hours. If the dough doesn’t look right, give it another half hour and check again.

Pre-Shaping: Once the dough has rested and is showing signs of readiness, dump the dough out on the counter. Wet your hands and the bench knife if needed and push the bench knife under the dough on one side and your free hand on the other side to tuck the dough under itself. Turn the dough tightly on the counter until it forms a smooth round ball. Let the dough sit for about 30 minutes, uncovered. It will flatten out a little bit during this time and will be ready for shaping.

Shaping the Dough

Prepare abannetonor small bowl. Place a kitchen towel orhair netin the bowl and liberally flour.If you use the hair net, you should not need much if any flour, especially if using a cold ferment.Using the bench knife, lift the dough up off the counter and place it on top of the countertop – floured side down. Pull the dough down toward you and then fold up to the middle of the dough. Take the right edge and pull out and then into the middle of the dough. Take the left side of the dough and stretch out and then back to the middle. Repeat with the top of the dough, forming a little “package” of dough. If any jalapeños pop out, remove them from the top of the dough and place them inside the bottom of the dough. This keeps them from burning on the top. Gather the bread into a circle or oval and lift the bread, placing it in your lined bowl.

Cold Fermentation

I almost always use a cold fermentation for mysourdough artisan bread, and the same goes for this jalapeño cheddar sourdough bread. Cover the dough in thebannetonand place in the refrigerator for 12-20 hours. If it goes a little longer than that, it should be okay – up to as much as 48 hours depending on the temperature of your refrigerator.

Want to bake this the same day you mix the dough? Leave the dough to continue rising in a warm place for a few hours until puffy, jiggly and risen. Pre-heat oven and bake.

Baking Jalapeño Cheddar Sourdough Bread

Pre-heat the Oven:Put aDutch oven(top and all) into the oven and preheat to 500°F. Allow theDutch ovento heat for about 30 minutes to an hour at 500°F. This builds up steam, which is necessary to achieve the beautiful oven spring and perfect crust that artisan bread is known for.

Scoring the Dough:Once the oven is preheated for 30 minutes, pull the loaf out of the refrigerator. Remove the plastic wrap (this is easy to do straight out of the refrigerator if the dough is chilled – not easy if the dough warms up) and place a piece of parchment paper on top of the bread dough. Flip the dough over so that it is now sitting on the parchment paper. Take off the bowl/bannetonand kitchen towel. Smooth the flour over the top of the dough and use abread lameor very sharp knife to score the dough. I find a simple score is best when working with this dough.

Baking the Bread:Carefully remove the Dutch ovenfrom the 500°F oven with hot pads. Take the top off and place your bread into the Dutch oven(including parchment paper – this helps with the transfer). Be very careful not to touch the sides of the hot Dutch oven. Put your hot pads back on before you pick up the lid of the Dutch oven and place it on top of the bread. Put the whole Dutch oven back into your oven. Lower the temperature to 450°F and bake for 20 minutes. Once 20 minutes are up, take the top off the dutch oven and continue baking for 20 minutes until the bread is fully baked.