Time for a nice sourdough bread with sesame and poppy seeds. We already had one with poppy seeds and one with sesame but none with both! Why? No idea, so here we go!

Seeds are super tasty and healthy, using them can provide a whole new flavour to your sourdough bread and change the texture. It is a nice way of playing around and we just like the taste of both seeds.

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

Steps Work time Waiting time
Mix ~15 minutes
Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold ~10 minutes 2,5 hours
Pre-shape ~5 minutes 15 minutes
Shape ~5 minutes
Proof 10-12 hours
Score ~5 minutes
Bake ~5 minutes 40 minutes
Cool 2 hours

After about 16 hours you will have a beautiful and tasty sourdough bread with sesame and poppy seeds.

Total ingredients

Weight Ingredient
110 g Mature sourdough starter – From high gluten flour
450 g All-purpose flour
10 g Salt
10 g Honey
2 g Yeast – Fresh
300 g Water
~20 g Poppy seeds
~20 g Sesame seeds

You will have a dough of about 880 g in total (sesame and poppy seeds not included).

Make sure to have a mature sourdough starter that is active and healthy. If you think your starter is not, then you can add 2 g of fresh yeast to help with the rise.

Difficulty

simple recipe for a sourdough bread with sesame and poppy seeds.

Have a look at our sourdough bread for beginners recipe that contains a lot of details for the different steps you will be executing here.

Baking tools

round banneton proofing basket is recommended for a nice round shape.

You can also have a look at our should have baking tools to find some more baking tools we are constantly using.

Steps

1. Mix

Weight Ingredient
110 g Mature sourdough starter – From high gluten flour
450 g All-purpose flour
10 g Salt
10 g Honey
2 g Yeast – Fresh (optional)
300 g Water – 25°C (77°F)
  • Mix all of the mentioned ingredients in a stand mixer for 5 minutes on speed level one and 8 minutes on speed level two
  • The dough should be smooth after mixing and not stick to the bowl a lot

2. Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold

  • Cover the dough and let it rest for a total of 2,5 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
  • During that time stretch & fold the dough every 30 minutes (3 times in total) and after the 3rd time, let it ferment further for 1 hour until 2,5 hours are reached in total
  • After each stretch and fold put it back to the bowl and cover it again so it doesn’t dry out

3. Pre-shape

  • Get the dough in shape by roughly rounding it
  • Afterwards look for a dry spot on your surface and flour it
  • Transfer the pre-shaped dough ball on the floured surface
  • Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 15 minutes
  • Tip: If you realize that the dough starts sticking to your hand or bench knife, just clean the bench knife of any dough and flour it a bit again

4. Shape

Weight Ingredient
~20 g Poppy seeds
~20 g Sesame seeds
  • Shape your dough by rounding it
  • Afterwards dip your hands in water and damp the top and sides of the dough with them
  • Now take the sesame and poppy seeds and sprinkle them all over the top and sides of the dough

5. Proof

  • Dust your proofing basket with all-purpose flour
  • Put your previously shaped dough seam-side-up in the dusted proofing basket
  • Let it proof for 10 to 12 hours in the fridge at 5-8°C (41-46,4°F)

6. Proof

  • Cover a pizza peel with parchment paper
  • Take your proofed dough out of the fridge
  • Gently take your dough out of the proofing basket by flipping it upside down on the pizza peel
  • With a bread lame make a cross cut (about 2-3 cm deep) on top of the dough

7. Bake

  • Preheat oven to 250°C (482°F) for ~45 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
  • Put the loaf in the oven, create steam and bake for 40 minutes
  • After 10 minutes lower the temperature to 220°C (428°F), let the steam out by opening the oven door for ~45 seconds and close it again

8. Cool

  • Let your sourdough bread with sesame and poppy seeds cool for 2 hours on some kind of grid

Conclusion

Crust

This sourdough bread has a soft crust which is only slightly crunchy thanks to the seeds.

Crumb

You can tell that this bread has a higher hydration of about 70% as the crumb is quite soft, smooth and a little moist.

Taste

To summarize the taste one could say it is mostly mild. The seeds on the crust are a nice addition to the soft and smooth crumb. The typical sourdough taste is very light. When chewing this bread or adding butter, it is almost creamy which is really nice.

Goes good with

This lovely mild sourdough bread can be combined with everything. It is very nice with cream cheese and a little marmalade (raspberry or strawberry) on top. Honey and butter is a great combination for this bread too.

Gallery