I have become recently obsessed with The Great British Bake Off. As in, I spent most of Sunday watching episodes on the internet and searching through my cookbooks for the recipes that I would make if I was on the show. I know, get a hobby, right? (Wait, this is my hobby…) In the words of one Season 3 contestant whenever things got heated, oh my giddy aunt! I just love it – great baking combined with the typical British stiff upper lip and self-deprecating attitude, which is such a refreshing difference from the ridiculously ego-driven and sob-story-laden world of North American “reality” TV.
Anyway, one of the things they do a lot of on The Bake Off is come up with interesting flavour combinations for their Signature and Show Stopper Challenges. This month’s Sourdough Surprises project was to make a sourdough quickbread of our choosing, which meant that I also got to come up with an interesting flavour combination. Since Thanksgiving last weekend, I’ve been trying to get through the giant vat of leftover cranberry sauce in the fridge, plus the few extra fresh cranberries that didn’t make it into the sauce (these particular cranberries came from a local cranberry farm – how cool is that?!), and I figured a quickbread loaf would put them both to good use. Cranberry and orange is a classic combination, and I also added some white chocolate to contrast all the tangy-ness. All good choices! The resulting loaf is perfumed with orange, studded with punchy cranberries, and has delicious little pockets of white chocolate, some of which turned kind of caramelized around the edges. Delicious.
Now, you might be thinking that quickbread, so called because it is super fast to make, and sourdough, which can often take days to turn into bread, don’t belong in the same blog post, let alone in the same loaf. In this application, the sourdough starter isn’t actually contributing to leavening the loaf (well, it sort of is, but not in the way you’d expect). Many quickbread recipes rely on the reaction that occurs between baking soda and acidic buttermilk for leavening – but sourdough starter is also acidic, and can be used in place of buttermilk. This is good news if, like me, you never have a carton of buttermilk in the fridge but always have sourdough starter on hand. If your starter is kept at 100% hydration – that is, equal parts water and flour by weight – then the substitution is fairly straightforward: decide how much starter you want to use (ie, 1 cup), reduce the amounts of flour and liquid in the recipe by half that amount each (ie, 1/2 cup less of each), and use regular milk instead of buttermilk to make up any remaining liquid. I did something like this when I made that unfortunate banana upside down cake, but in addition to making a cake that was “all wangs and no chocolate,” I also made the substitution waaaaaaaaaay more complicated than it needed to be. Thank you Cultures for Health for straightening me out!
Click below to see the gallery of sourdough quickbreads made by the talented Sourdough Surprisers this month!
Cranberry Orange White Chocolate {Sourdough} Loaf
Base recipe adapted from The Kitchn. Makes one 9″ x 5″ loaf. I bet this would also be delicious with dark chocolate in place of the white. If you don’t have both cranberry sauce and fresh cranberries, you could use a full 1 cup of either instead.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Thoroughly butter a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
zest of 1/2 a large orange (about 1 heaped tsp)
In a smaller bowl, mix together until smooth:
1 cup mature sourdough starter (can be discard starter)
1/2 cup milk
Add:
1 egg
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
Whisk until smooth, then pour into the dry ingredients and give it about 5 or 6 folds with a spatula until just combined – it should still be very shaggy and lumpy.
Add:
1/2 cup cranberry sauce
1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped white chocolate
Fold again 5 or 6 times, just to combine – the mixture should be streaky with cranberry sauce.
Scrape it into the buttered loaf pan and spread it out evenly. Bake in the preheated 350˚F oven for 45 – 55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean with a few moist crumbs.
Let it cool in the pan for a few minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn the loaf out onto a rack. Can be served warm or cool. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Looks and sounds delicious! I never knew that sourdough starter could be used in place of buttermilk. I love learning something new and I also love British TV and couldn’t agree more about your sentiment toward North American reality TV. Wonderful post!
Thank you! 🙂
Umm… yum??? What a great combination of flavors. And YES – I will watch cooking/food reality shows, but all those other crazy ones are just too CRAZY for me!! And a local cranberry farm? That is awesome.
What a bread Korena, and with my favorite ingredients, cranberries, orange and white chocolate! Mmmm, it really doesn’t get much better than this! 🙂
Cranberries and orange are made to go together in SO many dishes, and your loaf sounds temptingly good. What a terrific Autumn treat.
I am jealous of your fresh cranberries, they haven’t shown up in our stores yet! Cranberry orange bread is one of my favorites and I like the idea of adding white chocolate to it. I wish I could watch the British Bake-off but it doesn’t play here.
I guess because we’re about a month ahead of the States Thanksgiving-wise, the cranberries always appear in October. And I’ve been watching The Bake Off on the internet – YouTube doesn’t seem to have full episodes, but I found these playlists on Dailymotion: http://www.dailymotion.com/playlists/user/zodiacza/1
Yum! That sounds so Christmasy to me!
It is definitely kind of Christmasy – I’ll have to remember it for the Holidays! 🙂
My sourdough slept in the fridge, for how many days do i need to re-active it again before I bake? Wish you can help me, please!
Well, the number of days to revive your starter will depend on how long your starter has been sleeping! Keep it at room temperature and give it regular feedings twice a day until it is active and bubbly and will double (or more) in volume in between feedings – this could be between 1 – 3 days, depending on how long it was stored. This page might be helpful: http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=revivingastarter
For this recipe though, you can use old, tired starter – you just need the acidity, not the yeast power! Hope that helps!
Hi Korena, Thanks for you useful information, I’ll have a good read. Have you got any good idea, if the weather is so cold and how can I get a right temperature to reactive my sourdough?
It should be fine at comfortable room temperature. If it’s cooler, it will just take a bit longer for the starter to come back to life.
Thanks for your kind advise!
Though I’ve denounced it publicly a few times, it keeps on dragging me back in. I was even considering applying for it… This loaf is a great idea – it sounds so flavoursome!
Um, if you got on the Great British Bake Off I might actually die of jealousy. Oh, and I’d be cheering for you.
Cranberry and orange and white chocolate. Great combination! Love the photos!
G’day! Looks delicious Korena, true!
Love the combination and could go for a slice of this right now too!
Thanks Joanne – I just had a piece and it’s even better the next day!
Awesome combo of flavours! I’m yet to find a white chocolate in Canada I like. I have a favourite in NZ (and will bring a kg or so back with me!). I notice you use white chocolate buttons. I found them quite oily and “glucose syrup” tasting – have you found that? Can you recommend a good Canadian baking chocolate that is made with cocoa butter?
Callebaut is a good white chocolate that I know of – I haven’t really baked with many others. It’s available in bulk in big slabs and in smaller “chips” (Superstore carries it). Lindt is another brand that’s widely available. I had these leftover buttons from some other project and was just using them up here – you’re right, they’re not the best tasting, but for melting and dipping I’ve found them easier to deal with than real white chocolate. And they’re cheaper :S
Haha totally. Ah of course, Callebaut – I had forgotten the name. I’ve bought that from the bulk bins a few times and do quite like it.
Great looking loaf and so perfect for fall.
That looks so good, Korena! Such a brilliant combination of flavours!
Wow Korena, what a great interpretation for this month’s Sourdough Surprises!
I wish it could be possible to buy some fresh cranberries here in Switzerland 🙁
Have a lovely evening 🙂
Lou
I bet this would work well with fresh or frozen raspberries if cranberries are unavailable 🙂
Mmmmmh, raspberries…that will do…yes!
Thank you and have a lovely weekend 🙂
Lou
Amazing Korena! Love the flavor combination. And thanks for making it so easy to figure out how to substitute the buttermilk with sourdough! I had no idea they both had the same effect. I’m also like you, always have sourdough in my fridge, but not buttermilk… 🙂
this has me so tempted to keeping a sourdough starter. Years ago I tried, but never kept up with it properly. I’m imaging how delicious this bread must taste using the starter. It’s such a perfect bread for this season!!
When I first had my starter, I didn’t know it could be used for anything other than bread… but knowing it has a ton of other uses (ie, this loaf) makes it a lot easier to keep it properly maintained! 🙂
Korena, I love this loaf. You could make extra and freeze as this would be perfect around the holidays. I can also watch the great British bakeoff here in HK. I think you are a much better baker than all of the contestants combined. Take Care, BAM
Ha, BAM, you are too kind!
I was very late in posting my sourdough surprises this month but I really enjoyed playing around with recipes 🙂
I love the flavor combination you used Korena, I am sure this loaf smelled and tasted heavenly!
It looks delicious Korena!!
Been trying different cranberry breads to recreate my late mother in laws. Don’t tell my husband… This is better! Tried it with only fresh cranberries and dark chocolate. I will make this often. Thank you!
Haha, that is awesome!! So glad you like it 🙂
I made this today using raspberry. Homemade sauce, frozen berries, orange zest, and white chocolate chips. So yummy!
Oh my gosh, a raspberry version sounds SO yummy! I will definitely have to try that this summer when raspberries are in season 🙂
Wow. I have a background in all things food and I have to tell you.. This is the heaviest quick bread my kitchen has ever produced. I really wish that I had saved my cranberries for something else.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you!