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Experience beauty with extra nuttiness and crunch in your sourdough. Try this Multi Seed Sourdough Bread for a delicious unique experience!

For The Health Nut

Besides the most obvious reason that makes this bread so special; its looks, and the satisfying crunchiness and perfect nutty flavour that compliments the sourdough taste so well, there actually are a few health advantages too that might convince you to add seeds to your sourdough more often!

By making a Multi Seed Sourdough Bread, you are adding the following health benefits on top of the widely known sourdough benefits:

Health benefits of Pumpkin seeds, among many others:

Rich in Zinc, Magnesium, Copper and Selenium
Source of Vitamin E and Carotenoids
Healthy, unsaturated fats and fibre
Promote heart health
Powerful antioxidant

Health benefits of Sunflower seeds, among many others:

Especially high in Vitamin E and Selenium
Supports thyroid health
Fights inflamation
Good source of protein
Can help to lower cholesterol
Supports digestion
Cancer prevention properties

Health benefits of Flaxseeds, among many others:

Source of Omega-3
Full of minerals
Rich in fibre
Antioxidant
Lowers blood pressure
Aids healthy digestion

Health benefits of white Sesame seed, among many others:

Good source of B-vitamins
Source of fibre
High in protein
Lowers cholesterol
Improve cardiovascular health
Prevents anemia

Health benefits of black Sesame seed, among many others:

Packed with antioxidants
Source of calcium, zinc, iron, magnesium and vitamin B6.
Regulate blood pressure
Boost digestion
Promotes heart health

The Trick Of Adding (Dry) Inclusions

Adding inclusions can sometimes cause you some trouble, but it doesn’t have to.

Two things to consider: 1) Are your inclusions dry. 2) Does your inclusions have sharp edges that might damage the gluten structure.

Are your inclusions dry

Dry inclusions like, nuts seeds or oats can have a huge effect on your sourdough dough hydration. You might just end up with such a dry dough that does not want to be stretch at all and maybe really struggle to shape and as a result of a ‘stiff’ dough also be very dense after baking.

Some ways you can bypass this obstacle are:

Start with an extremely high hydration dough recipe.
Soak the inclusions for 1 hour in hot water, or overnight in cold water. Drain before adding to the dough.
Soak over night in cold water and use water as part of the water in dough recipe. For recipes like my Cranberry & Pecan Sourdough Bread (coming soon), this method gives a beautiful purple colour to the dough and final bread as the cranberries and pecans actually colour the water that it is soaked in.

Does your inclusions have sharp edges

This can be applicable to recipes with seeds, nuts, chopped chocolate (Sourdough Chocolate Bread with Pecans), or anything that can cut through the developing gluten network.

You have control over this by which method you choose of adding.

You can add inclusions with the second mix. This works for inclusions that are soft and won’t have an effect on the gluten development. Like this Cheesy Cheddar Sourdough Bread.
You can add the inclusions in with the 2nd or 3rd stretch and fold. This works well with inclusions with sharper edges. Just continue with stretch and folds and coil folds gently.
The last way to add inclusions are by laminating the dough. Once all the stretch and folds and coil folds are done and the dough had 30 – 60min time to relax, you can stretch the dough out on your wet counter with wet, VERY gentle hands. Stretch it as thin as possible without tearing the dough. Once well stretched, spread inclusions evenly across the dough. Fold 1/3 over the middle part from left to right. Fold the remaining 1/3 from right to left, roll dough from top to bottom down towards you. This will give you perfectly distributed inclusions with no tearing risk from stretching and folding with the inclusions inside. The only risk with this method is that you might loose some of the larger bubbles that formed, so just make sure to not do it too late in the process.

Equipment Handy For Baking Multi Seed Sourdough Bread

Ingredients For Multi Seed Sourdough Bread

365g Water
560g Unbleached White Bread Flour
50g Active Sourdough Starter
10g Salt
25g Melted Coconut oil

Inclusions

(soaked for 1h in boiling water)

20g Pumpkin seeds
20g Sunflower seeds
20g Sesame seeds
20g Black sesame seeds
20g Flax seeds

For topping

Another 20g total of dry seed mix

Method For Multi Seed Sourdough Bread

Mix water and flour until no dry flour is visible.
Cover and let sit for 20min to 2 hours.
Add sourdough starter, salt and oil and mix until no more oil is visible.
Mark side of container at dough level with a wet erase marker or tape.
Let rest for 15min and do 1 stretch and fold.
Wait 15 min, add inclusions and do 2nd stretch and fold.
Do 3 coil folds 30min apart.
Cover and let rise until 30 – 50% risen.
Divide if necessary and/or pre-shape.
Let rest for 10min and prepare proofing bowl with cloth and sprinkled with dry seed mix.
Final shape, make sure to not use too much flour as this will make it difficult to achieve good tension in the dough.
Put dough seam-side up in your proofing bowl and put in fridge for overnight.
The next day. Preheat oven to 265°C, if using a dutch oven, also heat the dutch oven, around 45 – 60min.
Once oven and dutch oven is at the correct temperature, remove dough from the fridge and place seam-side down on a piece of baking paper. Score dough with functional score and decorative scoring of your choice.
Place very carefully into the dutch oven and into the oven.
Bake for 30min with a closed lid then open the dutch oven lid and bake another 10 – 15min until desired golden brown colour.
For absolute best experience, wait at least 1 hour or until fully cooled before slicing.