Hands up if you love the comfort of a warm apple crisp for dessert? Well, I've taken everything that's good about an apple crisp and transferred it to a sourdough loaf. It's such a delightfully warm and comforting sourdough loaf, full of diced apple, rolled oats, honey and warming spices - just like a warm sourdough apple crisp on a cold fall evening.

2 slices of sourdough apple crisp bread laid on a round wooden board so you can see the crumb inside. Around the slices of bread you can see a dish of butter, a floral dish towel and a green apple.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Everything You Love About Apple Crisp! - I've taken everything that's good about my sourdough apple crisp recipe and added it to a loaf of sourdough bread! It makes dessert totally acceptable for breakfast! And that's always a good thing, right?

Brunch Centrepiece - Like many flavored sourdough loaves, this sourdough apple crisp loaf makes a beautiful centrepiece for a fall inspired brunch.

Sourdough apple crisp loaf sliced open so you can see the inside. The loaf is displayed inside a cast iron bread pan with a green apple next to it.

Ingredients

Sourdough Starter - you'll need an active and bubbly sourdough starter that's been fed in that last few hours so it's ready to raise your dough!
Water
Honey - I've used honey to give this bread a little sweetness, but you can choose to use maple syrup instead if you want to.
Bread Flour - as always, good quality bread flour is a must!
Rolled Oats - it's important to use traditional rolled oats and not quick oats. Rolled oats bring so much flavor and texture to this loaf. I add some into the banneton before placing the loaf down so that they stick to the crust and toast while baking.
Salt - you can reduce to suit your own taste, but I recommend at least 10g of salt for this loaf both for flavor and gluten development.
Raisins - or sultanas, depending on where you live in the world, bring sweet pops of flavor to this loaf. They are not technically an ingredient in an apple crisp but I've added them this loaf for some visual interest and sweetnesss.
Apple - dice a green apple, skin on (any chance to get extra fibre in). You can use any apple you like really, but I prefer to use green.
Warming Spices - just like in an apple crisp, I've used warming spices to create the fall flavors you know and love. I've used cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You can adjust these to suit your own tastes.
Brown Sugar - brown sugar brings a gorgeous color and sweetness to this loaf. I've added it in a similar way to this sourdough carrot cake loaf.
All Purpose Flour - I've used all purpose flour along with the brown sugar in order to stop the brown sugar from leaking out during the cold fermentation.
Pecans - I use pecans in the topping for my sourdough apple crisp because they increase the crispiness (that is totally a thing) and I just love them. Again you can always leave them out or replace them with walnuts if you prefer.

How To Make A Sourdough Apple Crisp Loaf

One of the things I love about this loaf is how much flavor it packs in. The process of making this loaf was actually inspired by my sourdough carrot cake bread, because just like that loaf, this loaf has some of the flavors added during the mixing stage, some during the stretches and folds and then some during the shaping. It's such a beautiful process and one that I hope you enjoy as much as I do! Honestly there's nothing better than planning this loaf on a quiet Sunday. It's better a day spa in my opinion!

Pre Mix & Autolyse

Weigh out your sourdough starter, water and honey in a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix them together so that the honey and sourdough starter is dissolved in the water (or at least really well distributed).

Then add your flour, rolled oats and salt and mix altogether with a spatula. The dough will be fairly dry and only just brought together. Cover your bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and let it sit for around 1 hour.

A bowl of sourdough where it has just been brought together into a dry dough with rolled oats.

Forming Up Your Dough

Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself until a smooth ball is formed. You shouldn't need more than about 20-25 folds to form the ball.

Once the dough has formed into a smooth ball, pop the cling film back on and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Stretch & Fold - Creating Structure

You need to add the raisins and diced apple to your dough during the stretch and fold phase. It's very easy to do! Try to add them around the second or third set of stretch and folds. So do your first set of stretch and folds with the dough as is and then add the inclusions on the second (or third) set depending on how your dough is behaving.

4 process photos showing how to add the diced apples and raisins to make sourdough apple crisp bread.

Try to do around 4 sets of stretch and folds with around 15 to 30 minutes between each set.

Bulk Ferment

Once you've finished your stretch and folds, place the cling film or damp tea towel back over your dough and let it rest and bulk ferment at room temperature. This can happen quite quickly with the honey in the dough and all the inclusions, so keep an eye on that dough.

While your dough is fermenting, take a small bowl and mix the cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar and all purpose flour together. Set this aside until you're ready to shape your dough. Chop the pecans if you're going to use them and pop them alongside your spice mixture.

Shaping Your Dough

Once your dough has finished its first ferment, it's time to give it some shape and surface tension and add the spices that you've kept aside.

I think this recipe lends itself to a batard however it's completely up to you what shape you would like.

Stretch your dough out into a rough rectangle and sprinkle over a generous amount of the spice mixture.

A rough rectangle of dough that is ready to shape into a batard. There are 4 bowls of inclusions ready to sprinkle over the dough. 2 green apples can also be seen in the photo but these are just there for decoration.

Fold the top down and sprinkle on some more. Fold the sides in, sprinkle some more. It's really up to you as to how much of the mixture you want to use. If you're using the pecans, add these along with the spice mixture.

Roll up the dough like a burrito and pull it towards you to create some surface tension and ensure all of those beautiful spices are tucked up inside. Place the shaped dough into your banneton with the seam side up. Stitch the base together if you need to.

I like to sprinkle some rolled oats into my banneton before I place the dough on top so that they stick to the top of the dough.

4 process photos showing how to shape the sourdough apple crisp dough into a batard.

Cold Ferment

Now your dough is in it's "shaping container" cover it loosely with a plastic bag or damp tea towel and place into the fridge to cold ferment.

Try to leave it in the fridge for a minimum of 5 hours. I don't like to leave this loaf in the fridge for too long - generally I don't leave it more than 12 hours because after this the apple can cause moisture issues.

Preparing to Bake Your Sourdough

Once you're ready to bake your sourdough, you'll need to preheat your oven to 230C/450F. Place your Dutch Oven into the oven when you turn it on so it gets hot.

Try to preheat for around 1 hour to ensure your oven is super hot - but you know your oven so just adjust this time if you need to.

Baking Your Sourdough

Now it's time to bake! When your oven is at temperature. Take your sourdough out of the fridge. Gently place it onto a piece of baking paper. Gently score your bread with a lame, clean razor blade or knife.

Carefully take your dutch oven out of the oven. Place the sourdough into the pot using the baking paper as a handle. Put the lid on and place into the hot oven.

BAKE TIME:

30 Minutes with the lid on at 230C/450F
plus 10-15 Minutes with the lid off at 210C/410F

If you're worried about the base of your bread burning, place a baking sheet on shelf underneath your Dutch Oven - it works!

When you remove your dough from the oven, carefully remove it from the dutch oven as soon as possible and place on a wire rack to cool.

Baking Timeline

This is just a sample baking timeline, you can adjust it to suit your own needs. I generally feed my starter before bed in order to start the process in the morning like this. I give my sourdough starter a large feed overnight to ensure it peaks in the morning. You can read more about sourdough starter ratios here.

TIME	PROCESS
9 am	Premix and autolyse for around an hour, forming up the dough and leaving to rest for another 30 minutes before stretch and folds.
11 am	1st stretch and fold.
11.30 am	2nd stretch and fold - add half the diced apple and raisins.
12 pm	3rd stretch and fold - add the other half of the diced apple and raisins.
12.30 pm	4th stretch and fold.
1 pm	Bulk fermentation at room temperature remembering that the honey will speed up fermentation.
6 pm	Shape dough into a batard, place into banneton and then into fridge for cold fermentation.
9 am	Wake and bake! The next morning, you can get up, make a coffee and bake your sourdough apple crisp bread!