24 Jan Masala Chai Apple Sourdough (tastes like an apple pie)
Why I Created This Recipe
After my previous sourdough experiments on blueberry sourdough and chocolate foccacia. It’s time to dedicate a post to my beloved fruit apples! Apple is definitely an underrated fruit. It contains antioxidants, vitamin C, fiber and other nutrients that boosts heart, brain, and digestive health. Moreover, what’s better than the heavenly combination of cinnamon and apple? If you know me, you know I love cinnamon! I used cinnamon in almost all of my sweet recipes. So I decided to make a cinnamon apple sourdough.
Masala Chai
What is Masala Chai? Masala means spice in Indian, and chai means tea. So simply put, masala chai means spiced tea. Masala chai usually consists of 5 spices – cardamom, cinnamon, fennel seeds, ginger and peppercorn. This tea is my all-time-favorite drink to have in the morning to go with my smoothie bowls or oatmeal. It’s especially comforting during the colder days when you just want to stay in bed all day.
As mentioned, my initial plan is to make a cinnamon apple sourdough. But while I was sipping on my morning chai latte, I wondered, “What if I replaced water in the sourdough recipe with masala chai and then fold in some cinnamon apples?” This is how this recipe comes into play.
Apple Pie Sourdough
In order to prevent extra moisture from the apples to be releasing to the dough, I first caramelized the diced apples with some vegan butter, sugar and cinnamon. Cook until they are soft (but not mushy) and fragrant, then leave it aside to cool down completely. These caramelized apples make the sourdough tastes like an apple pie. To incorporate the caramelized apples into the sourdough, simply distribute them evenly during the lamination step.
Serving Suggestions
This bread is perfect on its own, but you can also serve it with some vegan butter, peanut butter or, pumpkin butter or apple jam.
Masala Chai Apple Sourdough (tastes like an apple pie)
Course: Baked Goods, Bread, Breakfast, Desserts, Desserts / Snacks / Cakes, Healthy Snacks, SourdoughCuisine: SourdoughDifficulty: Medium6
servings30
minutes40
minutesThis Masala chai apple sourdough tastes just like apple pie! 🍎
Ingredients
210g bread flour
45g spelt flour
45g rye flour
207g brewed masala chai tea
60g levain (100% hydration)
6g salt
15g brewed masala chai tea (added together with salt)
- Caramelized Cinnamon Apples
1 small apple (around 100g)
3g cinnamon
20g sugar
1 Tbsp vegan butter
Directions
- Prepare the Levain
- Feed your starter using 1:2:2 (starter:flour:water) ratio. Cover loosely and let it rise until it tripled in size, around 5-6 hours.
- Autolyse
- In a large mixing bowl, mix flour and water until everything in incorporated into a dough. Cover and let it rest for 2 hours.
- Prepare the Caramelized Apples
- Melt 1 Tbsp vegan butter in a pan. Add diced apples, cinnamon and suagr, simmer for 3-5 minutes or until the apples are just softened.
- Transfer the apple mixture to a bowl to cool. Allow the mixture to fully come to room temperature before adding it to your dough.
- Mixing the Dough & Bulk Fermentation
- Once your levain has peaked, add 60g of levain to the dough. Mix until you feel the dough has strengthened. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
- Add 6g sea salt and the extra 15g of masala chai to the dough and mix until everything is incorporated.
- Cover and let the dough rest for 30-45 minutes, or until the dough has relaxed.
- Perform lamination on your dough and add the caramelized apples. Make sure they are evenly distributed.
- Rest for 45 minutes or until the dough has relaxed. Perform one set of coil fold.
- Repeat step 5.
- Perform one more set of coil fold after 45 minutes. Then leave the dough to rest until the dough has increased by roughly 50% in volume.
- Shape the dough and transfer to a banneton dusted with rice flour. Rest for 15 minutes at room temperature. Then retard the dough in the fridge overnight or 16 hours.
- In the morning, preheat the oven to 250°C for 1 hour with a dutch oven inside. I love baking with my challenger pan.
- After 1 hour, take the dough out from the fridge and transfer it to the challenger pan using a parchment paper. Place 2-4 ice cubes beside the bread, cover the pan immediately and bake for 20 minutes covered.
- Remove the cover after 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 220°C and bake for another 10 minutes.
- For the last 10 minutes, further lower the temperature to 210°C.
- Turn off the oven and leave the oven door a crack open for 15 minutes.
- Remove the loaf from the oven and place it on the cooling rack until it’s completely cooled.