Seeded carrot sourdough bread

Making sourdough bread is much easier than you might think. This seeded carrot sourdough bread has a super crunchy crust and a gorgeous soft inside. Sunflower seeds bring a little extra nutty note and carrot juice that lovely colour. Delicious to enjoy either for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

I love baking bread. Every time I bake bread I am amazed by the wonderful pores. They are just the proof that I made everything right. Yey! What are pores? Pores are the result of the air pockets formed in bread during resting time. Making bread is so satisfying.

Like always, I started with feeding the starter in the morning, continued with coil and fold in the afternoon-evening and finished with baking the next morning. A long process but all worth it. Wink. I always bake quite large bread and then I freeze half of it for later (sliced).

You don’t have a sourdough starter? No problem, you can make normal bread. Well normal, you know what I mean. A non-sourdough bread. Wink. Simply skip the starter step and add some yeast, instead. But make sure you follow the rest of the steps.

Also, I let the bread dough rise overnight in the fridge. Refrigerating the dough can improve the taste. It is very important, that you let the dough come back to room temperature before baking. And, I bake my bread in a dutch oven (an oven-proof pot).

What to do when you don’t have a dutch oven?

Even though you don’t have a dutch oven, you can still bake wonderful bread. Be creative. Firstly, you have to make a barrier around the dough, in order to push its way up instead of letting it spread into a flat boule. Therefore, I suggest using a springform or a baking dish with higher sides.

Secondly, instead of a lid, use another baking dish or aluminium foil. Thirdly, add a small baking dish at the bottom of the oven filled with hot water. This will create steam and make your bread even more beautiful.

If you’d like to add some colour to your bread, use vegetable juice. Simply swap a part or the whole amount of water with your preferable vegetable juice. As for my last bread recipe, I used beetroot juice. As a result, the bread got a gorgeous wine-red colour. You can use herbs to add colours, too. Check out this beetroot sourdough bread and this delicious turmeric bread.

However, this time I picked carrot juice. The bread got that rich carrot colour. I was pleasantly surprised how the colour didn’t fade during baking time. In order to give it more texture, I used dehulled sunflower seeds.

I am a huge fan of sunflower seeds. These seeds are so versatile. They can be a snack or a part of a meal. One spoon of sunflower seeds can make a great salad topping, you can add it to your muesli bowl, on cookies or you can use them in pesto.

It is very important to allow the bread to cool completely. I know I know, it is not that easy. The lovely aroma from the freshly baked bread is just magic. Wink. However, allowing the bread to cool on a wire rack (where the air can circulate) prevents the crust from becoming soggy.

Besides that, if you cut into a loaf of still warm bread when the crumb is too wet and soft, you’ll get gummy bread. And you won’t be able to cut it nicely. Let it cool and then enjoy the sound of the crispy cust when you slice. Woohoo. Wink.

Ingredients for a boule of seeded carrot sourdough bread:

• 150 g levain
• 420 g flour
• 240 ml carrot juice
• 100 ml water
• 12 g salt
• 30 ml olive oil
• 200 g sunflower seeds (plus some for topping)

To begin, feed your starter discard and let it activate. This can take about 4-8 hours, all depending on the room temperature. Once you see some activity by the levain, combine flour, carrot juice and water in a larger bowl. With a hand mixer (dough hooks) mix, just enough to roughly combine. Then, cover the bowl with a transparent foil and let it rest for 1-2 hours or until the levain has risen for at least one third.

At this point, add the salt, olive oil and levain to the dough mixture and mix until well combined and smooth. That takes approximately 8 minutes. The dough will still be sticky, but don’t worry. In fact, it should be like that. Cover the bowl again with the foil and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Coil and fold

Then, make your first coil and fold. Firstly, with slightly wet hands, lift the dough from the side to the middle. Lift it up until it “unglues” from the bowl and let it fold on itself back into the bowl. Secondly, turn the bowl for 90º and repeat the action. Do this two more times until you complete the circle. Again, cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

More, repeat the same steps four more times (coil and fold and the rest times). And, before the second coil and fold, add the sunflower seeds. After you’ve done all of the steps (3 hours later) cover with the foil again and place the bowl in the fridge overnight or for 9-12 hours.

The following day, remove the dough from the fridge, make one more coil and fold and let the dough rest for 45-60 minutes. I put mine on a slightly dusted parchment paper in a bowl with high walls. Preheat the oven to 240º C with a dutch oven pot (lid included) in it.

Once the oven has reached the right temperature, carefully take out the dutch oven (using oven mittens) and place it in the dough by lifting the parchment paper. I put also the paper inside, which makes it later easier to take the baked bread out. Then, sprinkle the top of the dough with some water, add the sunflower seeds and score it. Place the lid on and put to bake for 40 minutes.

Next, remove the lid and bake for 25-30 more minutes until golden-brown and crispy crust. Then, remove the pot from the oven and carefully, by lifting the parchment paper, take the bread out. Place it on a wire rack to cool completely.

Finally, slice your gorgeous seeded carrot sourdough bread and serve it with some cheese, butter, honey or ham. You can even pair it with a lovely soup or salad.

Enjoy.