Pesto and Parmesan Artisan Sourdough

There’s a strong chance that you ended up here because of this very recipe. When I shared this on Instagram, it completely blew up. And for good reason, it’s absolutely amazing.

For this recipe, you could absolutely make your own pesto, but I’m just using a jarred version. I would recommend shredding a block of Parmesan cheese though. That really is going to add to the flavor in the recipe.

We will start with my basic sourdough recipe.

Beginner Sourdough Recipe

125g active starter (purchase Grow-rilla here)
365g warm water
500g bread flour
12g salt

First, mix your starter and water until it forms a white milky liquid. Then add in all of the flour and the salt. Use a danish whisk to mix the dough as thoroughly as possible. Once you think you have mixed it well enough and all of the flour is combined go ahead and mix a couple more minutes.

Cover the bowl and let your dough rest for 30 minutes. Next you are going to perform your first set of coil folds. With wet hands, you are going to grab the dough, pulling it away from the bowl and folding it underneath itself a couple times before turning the bowl and doing it again. This is going to start to turn the dough into a ball shape, giving it structure.

You are going to do two sets of coil folds before you add in the inclusions of the pesto and Parmesan.

For the inclusions

About 3 Tablespoons pesto
80g fresh grated Parmesan

Once you’re ready to add your inclusions, you’re going to take about a tablespoon of the pesto and spread it over the top of the dough. On top of that you’re going to take about 1/3 of your Parmesan cheese and spread it on top. Then using wet hands, you are going to use both of your hands to pull the dough up and over top of itself, covering all of the inclusions.

You’re going to repeat this process two more times, and then you are going to go back to your coil folds to form the dough back into a ball with all of the inclusions on the inside.

Cover the dough and let it rest another 30 minutes. Then you will do another coil fold. Letting the dough rest another 30 minutes before the final coil fold.

Now you’ll finish bulk fermentation. For me this is typically about 1 to 2 hours after my last coil fold. It is going to depend greatly on the strength of your starter and how warm the environment. Your dough is in. If your starter strength is only doubling then it may not be strong enough yet leaven good loaves. If your house is very cold, it may take much longer for your loaves to ferment. Remember, bulk fermentation starts from the moment you mix the dough until you do your first shaping. So always keep track of that time.

Once your dough is ready, you will do a first simple shaping by pulling all the edges of the dough to the center and swiftly flipping the dough over with a wet binge scraper. It helps a lot to wet your hands in the surface of a counter, just a little bit during this time. Let you do rest a 30 minutes before doing the final shaping.

For this final shaping with slightly wet hands and a wet bench scraper, you’re going to swiftly flip the dough over and stretch it into a square. Then you are going to take the top of the dough folded halfway down. Then grab both sides of the dough and cross into the middle. Then you are going to grab the remaining dough one side after the other and make a stitch kind of like a zipper all the way to the tip. Then you’re going to take that tip and roll the dough into a log pinching the sides and then using a little bit of tension from the counter to pull the dough toward you. Then you’re going to dust it with rice flour, and place it into a banneton the seam side up. Wait about 10 minutes and then stitch the dough. Cover and refrigerate two hours up to overnight.

When you are ready to bake the dough, preheat your oven to 425° with a Dutch oven inside at least 30 minutes. I like to use parchment paper to line the Dutch oven.

You can at this point do your decorative scoring but just be sure to make a larger expansion score about a quarter to a half inch deep. Then you are going to bake 30 minutes with the lid on and after 30 minutes, remove the lid and continue to bake about 15 more minutes. Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and wait at least an hour before slicing.

This bread makes excellent Panini’s. I highly recommend trying that but honestly, it’s good just as it is. If you try this loaf tag me on Instagram @.Sweetandspicymacros