Orange Cranberry Sourdough Bread

A magical sourdough flavor combination combining fragrant orange zest and juicy cranberries to create a bread fit for any occasion.

4.86 from 28 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe

Prep Time 4

Cook Time 45

Fermentation Time 22

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Servings Loaf

Calories 2219 kcal

Equipment

Mixing Bowl
Digital Scales
Banneton
Dutch Oven

Ingredients

Instructions

Soak The Cranberries
This step is optional, but it really gives the bread so much more flavor! Add the juice of an orange to a small bowl and add the dried cranberries. Allow them to soak until it's time to add them to the bread dough.
If you don't want to soak the cranberries, you can add them dried.
Autolyse - Premixing The Dough
Weigh out your sourdough starter and water into a large ceramic or glass bowl.
Mix the water and starter together briefly.
Now add the honey and orange zest and stir to combine with the water and the starter.
Then add your flour and salt and mix whole lot together to form a shaggy dough.
I find a dough scraper the easiest way to mix it as you can keep the sides of bowl clean.
Cover your bowl with cling film or a damp tea towel and let it sit for around 1 hour.
Forming Up The Dough
After the dough has been through autolyse you need to bring it together into a ball. Work your way around the bowl, grabbing the dough from the outside, stretching it up and over itself, into the centre, until a smooth ball is formed. You shouldn't need more than about 20-25 stretches to form the ball.
You'll notice that the dough is fully hydrated after soaking all the water up. It will be fairly sticky but as you bring it into a ball, it will become smoother and shinier.
Once the dough has formed into a smooth ball, pop the cling film back on and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Stretch & Fold + Adding the Cranberries
Over the next few hours you need to create some structure for your dough by "stretching and folding", as well as incorporating the cranberries.
**if you soaked the cranberries in orange juice, drain off as much liquid as you can before you add them to the dough. The liquid can be discarded**
For each set, stretch the dough up and over itself 4 times. Leave around 15 minutes in between each set. Again you do not have to be exact with time, but you need to do at least 4 sets over 2 hours.
Add the cranberries around the 2nd or 3rd set of stretch and folds. Just add a handful of cranberries to the dough for each stretch and fold. They will become incorporated over the next few hours (see notes for alternative method).
Aim to do around 4-6 sets of stretches and folds.
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 ferment.
See notes below for more info on this step.
Shaping The Dough
Once your dough has finished it's first ferment, it's time to shape it into either a boule or a batard.
You'll find full shaping instructions for a batard here and a boule here.
Placing Into A Banneton
Once the dough is shaped into a tight ball, place it into your banneton smooth side down, so your seam is on the top - this way the top of your dough will get the pretty lines from the banneton.
If you're using a cloth or tea towel in a bowl it's ok to put your dough with the smooth side up. Just make sure the dough is tight.
Lift your dough around the edges to pop a little more rice flour if you feel it needs it. Just try to handle the dough as little as possible and be really gentle as you really want to preserve all the gases and air bubbles that have formed during your bulk ferment. If you don't have rice flour, corn meal works really well with this dough.
Cold Ferment
Now the dough is in its "shaping container" cover it loosely with a plastic bag or damp tea towel and place into the fridge.
I use a large plastic bag to cover it - I just reuse it each time.
Try to leave it in the fridge for a minimum 5 hours.
Preparing To Bake
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.
Leave your dough in the fridge until the very last minute - placing a cold dough into a hot oven will give you a great "spring".
Bake Time!
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.
Make sure that you make the baking paper big enough to use the edges as a handle to lower to dough into your Dutch Oven.
Gently score your bread with a lame, clean razor blade or knife. At minimum a large cross is sufficient, but you can get as artistic as you like. Try to score it fairly deep to ensure the dough opens up.
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.
If you want to you can spritz your dough with extra water before you put the lid on.
BAKE TIME:
30 Minutes with the lid on at 230C/450F plus
10-15 Minutes with the lid off at 210C/410F
Finishing The Bake
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.

Notes

Soaking The Cranberries: You do not have to soak the cranberries in orange juice if you don't want to. Soaking the cranberries gives them a juicier texture and adds more orange flavor to the dough, but it's not essential.

Notes on Flour: This recipe is written using strong Bread Flour. Bread flour has a higher protein content than All Purpose flour. If you choose to use All Purpose flour you may have a different result because of this.

Notes on Sourdough Starter: This recipe is based on you having an active starter that you have fed a few hours before starting your bake. For information on whether your starter is ready, go here.

Notes on Incorporating Cranberries: You can incorporate the cranberries using a series of stretch and folds (I recommend leaving the dough in the bowl as it can get messy) or you can laminate them in. You will find instructions for laminating ingredients here.

Notes on Bulk Fermentation: If your home is warm then your dough will ferment a lot faster and could be done in as little as a few hours. If it's colder, it will take longer, possibly overnight.
I would recommend that you try to do your first few bulk ferments during daylight hours so that you can watch your dough closely.
Once you're more familiar with the process - and the temperature of your home - you will be able to do overnight ferments. You will know your dough is ready to move to the next stage when it has *just* doubled in size. It will be fairly wobbly and full of bubbles. You should be able to see large air bubbles under the surface of the dough.
You don't want to let it go any further than doubled as it will be over fermented.
If you want to do an overnight ferment, but your home is warm, consider using a little less starter (ie 25g).
Less starter means your dough will take longer to ferment and you will reduce the risk of over fermenting your dough.
You'll find more information on these topics here:

When is my bulk ferment finished?
What is the difference between cold ferment and bulk ferment?
Why does the amount of starter matter?

Walnut Topping: You can see in some of the photos, I've added a walnut topping to this dough. I just crushed some walnuts and placed them in the bottom of the banneton before placing my dough on top. They stick to the dough during the cold fermentation process.

Notes on Baking: If you're worried about the base of your bread burning, place a baking sheet on shelf underneath your Dutch Oven - it works! If you're worried about your bread not being cooked all the way through, turn the oven off and place your dough straight onto the oven rack.
Leave the door ajar and let your bread rest there for a few hours. Make sure you don't close the door or your sourdough will sweat and you'll get a wrinkly, soggy crust.
Remember not to cut into your loaf too soon - you'll need to let it cool for at least a few hours (4-6 is best).

Nutrition

Calories: 2219kcalCarbohydrates: 471gProtein: 61gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 4gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 3910mgPotassium: 560mgFiber: 18gSugar: 91gVitamin A: 10IUVitamin C: 0.3mgCalcium: 98mgIron: 5mg

Keyword Sourdough Bread, Sourdough Recipes

Tried this recipe?Share your creation with us @ThePantryMama or tag #thepantrymama!