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Black Garlic Sourdough

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This loaf of black garlic sourdough is the perfect balance of soft and fluffy, with a nice crusty exterior. The swirls of black garlic add a sweet and savory depth that is perfect for dipping into soup or slicing for sandwiches.

Black garlic is a super food that is absolutely delicious and is fantastic in sourdough bread. Because of its superior flavor and health benefits that come with it, it will become a recipe that you will want to make on repeat.

How to make a soft and fluffy sourdough bread that is swirled with black garlic.
Two halves of black garlic sourdough bread stacked on top of each other on a wooden cutting board

Garlic Sourdough Bread Recipe Your Family Will Love

  • This recipe has been adapted from my Sourdough Garlic Pull Apart Bread recipe where this recipe is simplified yet you get tons of flavor and fantastic texture
  • This is perfect for those who are just getting started with sourdough baking and want to learn how to best incorporate black garlic into their bread
  • We will go into tips and tricks to help you have a perfect rise to your bread, so you are left with a fluffy and tall loaf- no flat disks here!

What You Need To Make this Recipe

  • Black Garlic– ideally black garlic paste, or you can create a paste by mashing cloves of black garlic
  • Bread Flour– beginners should use a refined bread flour. To make seitan with whole grain bread flour where some of the bran is ground into the flour you will want to autolyze your dough for longer. Using all-purpose flour may add in complications as well since it is lower in protein compared to bread flour and may not rise as well. Gluten is made from the wheat protein and helps your bread rise when baked- using a low protein flour will lead to a flat bread.
  • Sourdough Starter– To make sourdough bread you will need to have a sourdough starter. You can make this yourself or purchase it from a local bakery. There are also places online where you can order sourdough starter as well
  • Salt– regular sea salt is all you need for this recipe. That being said, get creative and use a flavored salt! Smoked salt is fabulous in this recipe. Flavored salts like Kimchi salt, Lawery’s Savory Salt, or even more garlic salt are also great choices.
  • Water– regular tap water does the job. For the best results use filtered water since chlorine can negatively impact the health of your sourdough starter. You can get creative and substitute the water with water kefir for an ultra tangy loaf. For a softer loaf consider using aquafaba in place of the water, it can make the loaf slightly more dense however. If you are feeling really creative, you can substitute the water and the salt with the brine from one of your ferments! It will make the loaf taste extra tangy, but the flavors are awesome.
    Imagine this- you use pickle brine in place of your water and salt in this bread with the black garlic swirl- then you use that bread for grilled cheese. You can have a lot of fun with this recipe!

How to Shape Your Black Garlic Sourdough

The best way to shape your sourdough loaf with swirls of black garlic is to stretch it out like below. Then you cover a thin layer of black garlic purée created by either blending or mashing 2 heads of black garlic. From there you fold over each edge of the dough into the center and roll it into a loaf. This laminates layers of black garlic swirls into your bread.

From there, you want to dust the exterior of the bread with some kind of starch, wheat, tapioca, rice- whatever you have on hand. The starch will prevent the dough from sticking.

Frequently Asked Questions About Black Garlic Sourdough

  • What is Black Garlic?
    • Black Garlic is garlic that is aged at a low heat. Think of it as slow cooked extra caramelized garlic. It becomes black due to the maillard reaction where the low heat slow cooks the garlic. The flavor becomes fruity like a prune with a deep round flavor. Slow cooking garlic makes the antioxidants more bio available giving you more health benefits compared to standard raw sauted garlic.
  • Where Can I Find Black Garlic?
    • You will find black garlic in gourmet and specialty cooking shops. Black Garlic is also at health food grocery stores, some farmers markets, and it is available online. You can also make black garlic by wrapping up a few heads of garlic in parchment paper, then foil, and placing it in a slow cooker under keep warm for 2-3 weeks.

Love to Bake Sourdough Bread?:

Two halves of black garlic sourdough bread stacked on top of each other on a wooden cutting board

Black Garlic Sourdough

How to make a soft and fluffy sourdough bread that is swirled with black garlic.
Print Recipe
CourseBaking
CuisineAmerican
Keywordbread
Prep Time12 hours
Cook Time1 hour 10 minutes
Servings12
Calories191kcal

Equipment

  • Bread Sling Optional, parchment paper works too
  • Razer Blade

Ingredients

Instructions

Autolyze the Dough *See Notes*

  • Mix together the flour and water in a large bowl, let rest for about 45 minutes
  • Stretch the dough over itself, rotate the bowl and repeat for each side (4 stretches and folds)
    Let rest for another 30 minutes

Incorporate the Sourdough Starter and Salt

  • Spread about 1/5th of the sourdough starter (90 grams) over the dough and sprinkle over roughly 1/5 of the salt (12 grams) over the dough
    Grab the dough and stretch it and gently fold it in
    Repeat the process of adding the salt and sourdough to the dough and folding it in until it is all incorporated
    *Think of this like lamination where you layer the ingredients to combine*
  • Let the dough rest for another 45 minutes

Incorporate the Black Garlic

  • Lightly flour (all purpose flour) a surface and spread out your dough into a large and thin rectangle
    Evenly spread your black garlic purée over the dough
    Now fold the dough over itself and shape the loaf
    *See article above for step-by-step directions on shaping your dough*

Bulk Fermentation

  • Place the dough in a prepared banneton and place in the refrigerator overnight (6-48 hours).
    This is called the 'bulk ferment', and you can let it hangout in the fridge for up to 48 hours. The longer you let it ferment in the refrigerator the tangier the bread will become (and easier to digest for you). However, a longer fermentation for the dough may give you a less fluffy and less tall loaf.
    Do a shorter fermentation for a taller, rounder loaf. Do a longer fermentation for a more flavorful and easier on the tummy loaf.

Bake Your Bread

  • Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F (260C)
    While your oven is preheating, add in your dutch oven to the oven and let it heat up for 20 minutes.
    Remove your bread from the refrigerator and using a razer blade, score the surface
  • Remove your dutch oven from your oven and line with either parchment paper or a bread sling.
    Add in the bread, cover the dutch oven and bake for 10 minutes
    Remove bread from oven and do a second score over where you scored previously, this helps prevent unwanted cracks in your bread.
    Cover your bread in the dutch oven, reduce heat to 450F, and bake for another 30 minutes
    Remove the lid from the dutch oven (At this point you can spray your bread with a spray bottle (helps make the bread more crusty), slide in a baking sheet in the rack below your dutch oven and bake for 10 more minutes
  • Remove the bread from the dutch oven and let it cool on a cooling rack. Let it fully cool for about 2 hours before slicing into the bread. Slicing into your bread while it's hot makes the interior of the bread gummy and it doesn't store as well.
    Store in a bread box for up to 1 week. If it starts to get hard from sitting out run some water over the loaf and bake it again, alternatively you can turn the stale bread into croutons, or blend it into bread crumbs.

Notes

  • If using whole wheat bread flour, increase the autolyze time up to 3 hours. The bran in the flour can disrupt the gluten when you are stretching and folding it. To help build your gluten up let it autolyze for longer. This step is not necessary for refined bread flour that has the bran removed from the flour. 

Nutrition

Calories: 191kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 0.1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 391mg | Potassium: 59mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 0.5mg

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By on July 19th, 2024

About Jessica Flowers

Jess Flowers is a multimedia specialist who creates vegan recipes using local and wild ingredients. Being plant based for over a decade, it is her mission to share delicious recipes that are made without animal products!

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