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I have been making Pesto Sauce for several times. I like to use it to cook with pasta or sometimes just use as dip for bread. After seeing few Pesto Bread posts in Instagram, I also made this Twisted Pesto Sourdough Bread. The base of the bread is my favourite "Sourdough Shokupan Bread using Sweet Stiff Starter" recipe.

The bread turned out so delicious and soft.

Please scroll down to the bottom to read the General Notes which may help you to yield a better bread if you are a beginner.

If you have any questions regarding this recipe or any other post, please leave me a comment in the “LEAVE A COMMENT” link and I will reply you as soon as possible. Do tag me on Instagram @Bakewithpaws if you attempt on this recipe.

How To Make Twisted Pesto Sourdough Bread

Yields: 1 loaf

INGREDIENTS:

Sweet Stiff Starter:

60g sourdough starter (100% Hydration), use at its peak

180g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)

75g water or 90g milk

30g sugar (I used organic brown sugar)

Main Dough:

140g bread flour (I used Japan High Gluten Flour)

All sweet stiff starter (above)

10g brown sugar (I used organic brown sugar)

1 tsp (6g) salt

20g milk powder (omit if SST is fed with milk)

45g cold egg, whisked (from 1 egg)

65g - 85g water/milk, cold (I used 65g of water)

25g butter, room temperature

Filling:

70g Homemade Pesto Sauce

Some grated parmesan cheese

Egg Wash: (Optional)
1 egg + 1 tbsp water

Utensil:

Non Stick Loaf Pan (21.3 cm X 11.2 cm X 5.8 cm)

I think it will be better if bake in 450g loaf pan (21.3 X 12.2 X 11.5 cm / 8.4" X 4.8" X 4.5")

METHOD:

Sweet Stiff Starter

In a bowl of stand mixer, dilute starter with water, stir in sugar and add in bread flour. Mix with paddle attachment until well mixed and all come together. It can be done by hand mixing too.
Cover and let it ferment until tripled. I prepared a night before and leave it in aircond room (approximately 24 - 25C room temperature) overnight until tripled. It took about 8 - 9 hours depending on your starter. It should take around 4 - 6 hours to get triple at room temperature at 28C - 30C.
However, if you feed your starter with milk, the starter will take longer time to proof and very much depend on your stater. Mine took about 9 - 10 hours to proof overnight. And the starter did not rise until triple in size compared feeding with water. It rose almost 2.5 to 3 in size. It is because natural yeast takes longer time to digest the milk than it does in water.

Main Dough:

Put all ingredients (except butter) into a bowl of stand mixer. I usually torn the stiff starter slightly first.
Slightly combine the mixture by hand with the paddle attachment before turning on the machine so that the flour will not splash out. Using the paddle attachment, mix for 2 minutes or until all incorporated. This step is critical to prevent an uneven mixed dough as the stiff starter is rather hard and a dough hook may not be able to mix it well enough.
Change to hook attachment and knead for another 3 minutes or until the dough comes together. Add in butter and continue knead for 10 - 12 minutes or until the dough is silky and smooth and until reach window pane stage. The whole kneading process, I stopped few times to scrape down the dough from the hook to be sure it is evenly kneaded and also to prevent the motor from overheating.

1st Proofing/Resting:

Round up the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes in the same bowl. The dough rose slighlty.

Shaping:

Transfer the dough to a clean floured surface.
Roll out into a rectangle roughly about 10" X 14"
Spread the pesto over the dough, then scatter cheese over.
Roll the dough up tightly from one of the shorter sides like a swiss roll.
Cut it in half lengthwise with a sharp knife. Then twist the two dough together with filling layers are facing upwards. Please watch the video.
Place the twisted dough in the loaf pan.

Final Proofing :

Let it proof at warm place until the dough double in size. This one took approximately 2 1/2 hours at room temperature of 28C - 29C. The duration of proofing depends on your ambient temperature and starter.

Baking:

Preheat oven at 160 - 170 C (top & bottom heat) or 180 - 190C (top and bottom heat) for 10 - 15 minutes.
Brush with egg wash and bake in a preheated oven for about 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Remove bread from oven and let it cool on rack.

Sweet Stiff Starter

Main Dough

GENERAL NOTES:

SOURDOUGH STARTER

Please click this link for "How To Make Sourdough Starter" and "Sourdough Maintenance"

A healthy starter is very crucial as advised by Baking with Gina. It is advisable to feed your starter regularly if you want your bread to rise nicely and to use the starter (levain) at its peak. A starter that is fed regularly will be more active in general. If the mother starter is not strong, the bread dough will not rise a lot even though the starter is used at its peak.

GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT & WINDOWPANE TEST

Gluten forms when flour comes in contact with water. Hydration of the flour causes the sticky and stretchy protein to form, giving structure to the bread. This makes your bread trap air and rise.

Gluten in dough can be developed by autolyse, resting, kneading or folding.

The windowpane test is used to determine whether the dough has been sufficiently kneaded. By gently pulling the dough (or you may pinch off some dough) and trying to stretch it into a thin membrane. If you are able to stretch the dough paper thin and translucent without tearing, then the gluten is fully developed. However, if you can stretch it without tearing but the membrane is not transparent, then the gluten is not yet fully developed.

However, from my experience not all the recipe can achieve a thin and translucent window pane stage easily. For example low hydration and low fat dough. For such recipes, a reasonable window pane is good enough and it can be left to rest. Gluten will continue to develop while resting. Exercising restraint to not over-knead the dough prevents the gluten from being overworked and broken. Some of you may have experienced the dough breaking during the second proofing. It is because the dough is over kneaded.

The total kneading time for me is usually 15 minutes at low speeds except brioche dough with high fat percentage or dough using liquid fat which usually takes a little longer (maybe 18-20 mins).

From my experience, I found that high hydration dough with high percentage of fat will be easy to stretch and achieve a paper thin windowpane stage.

MILK POWDER

Why do I use milk powder?

Milk or milk powder will enhance the flavour of the bread and makes the bread texture softer due to the fat content of the milk.
Milk powder is shelf stable and you can have it anytime when you want to use. Unlike liquid milk you need to finish within a certain time before it spoils.

KNEADING TIME

For kneading, please regard the timing provided as an indication only. It is only meant as a guide. Timing may differ depending on the brand of flour and electric mixer used. The protein content may vary from one brand of flour to another.

FLOUR

The right flour plays a very important role in bread making. To achieve fluffy, soft and light bread, I used Japan High Gluten Flour in most of my bread baking. The protein content is around 12 - 13%.

HYDRATION

The liquid measurement given is also a guide. It is advisable to always reserve some liquid and not add it all in one go. This would give you the opportunity to adjust if necessary. If dough is too dry, add the reserve liquid one tablespoon at a time until the right consistency. This is because each flour absorbs water and hydrates differently.

PROOFING

Please note that the proofing timing may also vary depending on your climate, environment, flour and your starter.

If you are unable to judge by just looking at the dough, you can do the finger poke test:

Proofing:

Lightly press the side of the proved dough with your finger. If it bounces back immediately without any indentation, it means the dough is under proved and needs more time before baking.
If the indentation stays and it doesn’t bounce back, it means it has been over proved.
If the indentation slowly bounces back and leave a small indentation, it is ready to bake.
There will be a final burst of rising once the bread is placed to bake in the oven and it is called oven spring.

WRINKLE TOP OR SHRINKING

If your bread collapses or gets wrinkled on top after removing from oven, it could be because your dough over proved during the second proofing. Please proof until the tip of the dough just reaches the rim of the pan, around 80% - 90% in size.

BAKING TEMPERATURE AND TIME

Do also note that the baking temperature and timing provided are what works for my oven and should also be regarded as a guide only. Every oven behaves a little differently, so please adjust accordingly for your oven.