Tahini In Sourdough. Why Not?
If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I love tahini and I use it in pretty much everything. My favorite tahini recipes are definitely the tahini miso tempeh, hummus and double chocolate cookie dough. As my obsession with tahini continues, I recently discovered the perfect way to incorporate tahini to my sourdough baking. Hence, I’m so happy to share with you my recent favorite – Tahini Sourdough with black sesame seeds.
Tahini Is the New Peanut Butter
If you haven’t tried tahini before, you are definitely missing out. Similar to any other nut butter, tahini is basically sesame paste made by ground up sesame seeds to release the oil. While peanut butter tastes like peanuts, tahini has a slightly nutty and bitter taste. Texture wise, tahini is creamier and runnier, when compared with other nut or seed butter. Despite the difference in flavor profile and consistency, you can pretty much substitute peanut butter with tahini in any recipes.
Black Sesame – An Underrated Superfood
When it comes to superfood, black sesame may not be the first thing that came to your mind. However, apart from its distinct nutty flavor with a hint of bitterness, black sesame is in fact a vegan powerhouse. There is a myth in Chinese culture that black sesame have the effect of reversing greying of hair, as well as promoting healthy hair. This is due to its melanocyte activity to produce melanin, which is the pigment responsible for hair and skin colour.
Besides, these tiny black seeds are rich with vitamin B, iron, calcium, zinc, copper and magnesium, which is essential for a healthy nervous system, blood, bones, and skin.
Interested in other recipes using black sesame seeds? Check out the following posts:
- Black Sesame Sourdough Brioche
- Black Sesame Sourdough (Zebra Bread)
- Matcha Black Sesame Sourdough Babka
Tahini Sourdough – The Best Sourdough Ever Existed
Course: Baked Goods, Bread, SourdoughCuisine: SourdoughDifficulty: Medium6
servings30
minutes40
minutesI recently discovered the perfect way to incorporate tahini to my sourdough baking. The nuttiness of sesame makes this loaf irresistible!
Ingredients
210g bread flour
30g spelt flour
30g rye flour
210g water
60g levain (100% hydration)
6g salt
15g water (added together with salt)
24g tahini
16g maple syrup
- Add-ins
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 is incorporated into a dough. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
- 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, the extra 15g of water, tahini and maple syrup 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 one set of light bench fold. Let it rest for 30-45 minutes, or until the dough has relaxed.
- Drain the soaked black sesame seeds.
- Perform lamination on your dough, sprinkle black sesame seeds on the dough during lamination. Make sure they are evenly distributed.
- Rest for 45 minutes or until the dough has relaxed. Perform one set of coil fold.
- 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. Score the dough using a bread lame. I used my UFO lame from Wire Monkey. 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.
