Happy Harvest Bread!
What can we say? Doug and I blame shelter-in-place for our newfound addiction to baking (and eating) bread, a hobby that all started with a little sourdough starter named, Senorita that was given to me by our friend Maria. (Yes, apparently you must name your sourdough starter). During SIP, we have tried many different bread recipes with Senorita and have even created a few recipes of our own, such as this one! Being we are competitive, we have also been known to, on occasion, throw our own household “bread-offs” like this one here, just to see which of us can bake the best bread. (May the best loaf win!)
Anyways, with all of this domesticated bread baking debauchery, we have finally discovered a true purpose of it all - the most wonderful Harvest Bread!
This bread is SO GOOD that even amidst our busy harvest schedules, I made sure to bake a few loaves for friends and family each week - a tradition that we plan to carry forward for harvests to come.
Harvest is an exciting time of year at the winery and it deserves celebration. Our Harvest Bread is all about celebrating the abundance of what we gather, in our case, grapes! So, it only makes sense that our Harvest Bread is packed full of grapes (well, raisins of grapes anyway), and other hearty fall inspired ingredients.
Sourcing your wine grape raisins:
For my recipe, I use Old Vine Zinfandel raisins that we source from Burnett Vineyard, Dry Creek Valley. These raisins have either been snipped from the vines or separated out on the sorting table during crush, since we don’t harvest the raisins (unless we are making an Amarone-style wine).
While we use Old Vine Zinfandel raisins, any red wine varietal grape raisin will do in this recipe. Taste your raisins first and if you like their flavor on their own, they will be delicious in your bread. If you are having a difficult time sourcing some local raisins of your own, you can also make raisins yourself in the oven by using fresher bunches of grapes off the vine and dehydrating them.
Grape raisins pulled from the vine work particularly well in bread-baking, as they have a natural amount of yeast already on their skins which help make the bread rise super fluffy during the proofing period. (Fun Fact: The same yeast on the grape skins is what also ferments wine! A “native fermentation” is a wine fermentation that uses 100% of the natural yeast found on the grapes themselves).
Most importantly, these raisins taste fantastic when cooked in bread. Our particular Zinfandel raisins add a cross between a blackberry/ blueberry flavor and texture without being as sweet as traditional raisins from table grapes. The raisins also offer a subtle little crunch from their tiny toasted seeds giving an added special earthiness to the bread, as with the nuts.
The supporting cast of ingredients:
While our diva ingredient is the Zinfandel raisin, our Harvest Bread is also equally packed full of dried apricots, walnuts and pecans. The dried apricots add a perfect amount of tang and sweetness. The pecans and walnuts give a rich and dense nuttiness to remind you it is fall!
Now, we would like to share our Harvest Bread with you!
Ingredients
Water: 400 grams, 1 2/3 cups
Sourdough Starter: 70 grams, 1/3 cup
Bread Flour: 490 grams, heaping 3 1/2 cups
Honey: 44 grams, 2 Tbs
Zinfandel Raisins: 1 cup (de-stemmed and washed)
Dried Apricots: 1 cup (diced into chunks)
Walnuts: 1 cup (chopped)
Pecans: 1 cup (chopped)
Salt: 12 grams, 1 3/4 tsp
Instructions
In a mixing bowl, mix the starter into the water. Add the honey, raisins, apricots walnuts and pecans.
In a separate bowl, combine the flours and salt.
Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet using a dough whisk or spoon until the flour is well incorporated. Cover with plastic and let rest for 15 minutes. After about 15 minutes, mix again for a minute or two. Again let rest for 15 minutes and mix one more time as before. Now cover the bowl with plastic and let sit at room temperature for roughly 12-14 hours.
After the long 12-14 hour proof, stretch and fold the dough and shape into boule or batard (round or oblong) shape for baking. Cover again with plastic and let rest 15 minutes before putting in a proofing basket for the final rise. If you don’t have a proofing basket, line a bowl with a well floured kitchen towel and put the dough in there for the final rise. The final rise should last somewhere between 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Keep the dough covered with plastic to prevent it from drying out.
Preheat your oven to 475 F a half hour before baking.
Score the dough with a razor or sharp serrated knife and bake until the internal temp is about 200 F.
Let cool completely before eating.
Serving
We love slicing our Harvest Bread into thick hearty pieces and toasting them with butter or jam for breakfast. Another great way to serve, is to slice your bread thin, toast it and serve it with charcuterie. Enjoy!