Basic Sourdough Bread with Walnuts

The “liquid levain” I made from the instructions in Bouchon Bakery has served me well, but I wanted to explore using it in recipes not from the book. I decided to try using it to make one of Peter Reinhart’s sourdoughs.

Let’s jump to the end: here’s some photos of the wonderful walnut bread I ended up with:

I’m pleased with the oblong shapes, which I achieved thanks to bannetons I purchased from The Lucky Clover Trading Company. This site had a huge variety of proofing baskets for very good prices, despite the exchange rate, wholesale surcharge, and shipping.

Unfortunately, my memory on the details of this bread are hazy, and I lost the notes I kept. I’m pretty sure I took levain I had, using it in place of the barm, and building it up into a firm starter. I also think that the ferments were really long, as I was in and out of the house all day.