Pear, walnut & Gorgonzola sourdough

These full-flavoured loaves have been very much a firm favourite in our house for many years and while it is great as a non-sourdough bread, the sourdough version is seriously terrific. Of all the flavoured breads I make, this is one I make more than any other.

Pear, walnut & Gorgonzola sourdough boule

The recipe guidelines for the non-sourdough version are below the main recipe.

Wish-list time:

Very high up in my list of ambitions in life is to have a bake of mine sold commercially; of all my bakes this is the one that would be top of my wishlist to go out there for folk to buy, ideally by an artisan bakery so that the flavours are just how it would taste if making it at home.

Well, it doesn’t harm to dream!!

Pear, walnut and Gorgonzola sourdough loaves

About the recipe:

I adore the flavour combination of walnuts, pears and blue cheese, especially in a salad, so I developed this particular recipe to reflect these flavours.

The Gorgonzola comes through without dominating, but the tangy flavour of the sourdough and the sweetness of the pear shine. Combined with small bursts of walnuts, you get what I think is a stunning bread.

Slight variations:

Very few of my recipes are set in stone and I get much joy tweaking my bakes from time to time. For this bread I occasionally use different blue cheeses, reducing or increasing the amount depending on the strength of the cheese, but I would tend to err on the side of caution in terms of the cheese!

You can blitz the walnuts to a powder and incorporate them with the flour at the start, but this does tend to make the bread take on a purple tinge: I think it can look quite attractive but I know how divided opinion can be! So to avoid purplification, work in fairly finely chopped walnuts once the dough has been kneaded.

Pear, walnut & Gorgonzola sourdough

I sometimes make these without the walnuts – as in some of the pictures in this post – and it still tastes excellent.

From time to time I sprinkle grated cheese on top of the loaves just as they go into the oven: the crisp cheese layer you then get is wonderful!

Fuller details on sourdoughs, including making a starter, are in my sourdough post.

As the basis of a light lunch:

For a simple lunch or supper, try a toasted slice of this bread topped with a poached egg, served on a small bed of lightly dressed rocket and radicchio with a few crisp bacon lardons and some toasted walnuts: the oozing yolk as it drips over the toast and salad, with the saltiness of the bacon is wonderful.

Recipe: pear, walnut & Gorgonzola Sourdough (makes 2 loaves)

• 1 quantity of sourdough (recipe here : you can use all white flour or a mix of white, wholemeal, spelt etc…)
• 80g walnuts, finely chopped but not powdered
• about 150g Gorgonzola, crumbled
• 2 large pears, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

(1) Make up the sourdough as in the main sourdough recipe here, adding the walnuts to the flour at the start, but leaving out the cheese and pears for now.

(2) Work through the recipe until the dough has had its bulk fermentation, and then turn out onto a lightly floured surface.

(3) Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and cut into two portions. Pat each out gently, stretching a little to give a rough rectangle -going carefully so as not to deflate the dough too much.

(4) Crumble the Gorgonzola and chopped pears over the surface of each, leaving a little border around the dough edge. Gently pat them into the dough so that they don’t spill everywhere when you roll up the dough.

flattened out with pear and Gorgonzola on top

(5) Fold over the edges a little and roll up fairly tightly to form a long sausage-shaped dough. Turn the dough over and pinch along the seal down the length of the dough.

fold in the edges a little and then roll up

pinch edges together to form a long sausage shape

(6) Pat the top down with your hands or with a rolling pin to flatten it a little and bring the bottom half over the top, to give a fairly neat rectangle. Then roll this up from the bottom to give a loaf shape. Place in a well floured banneton. Repeat with the other piece of dough and the other half of the Gorgonzola and pear.

flattened out and folded over itself

rolled up and ready to put into a banneton to prove

(7) Cover  and leave at room temperature for a couple of hours, by which time the dough will have regained some of its volume and bounce.

(8) Pop the dough into the fridge for up to 24 hours.

(8) Turn out, score and bake as in the main sourdough recipe for a total time of up to 45-50 minutes.

Ready to prove

Pear, walnut & Gorgonzola sourdough boule

 

For mini loaves:

I occasionally use the dough to make one main loaf and several mini loaves.

Once you have incorporated the Gorgonzola and the pears, gently stretch out one of the sausages of dough to make it longer and thinner.

Cut into 12 portions and pop into well greased mini loaf tins, ideally base-lined with greaseproof.

Cover and leave until risen just to the tops of the tins before baking at 220C (fan) for 20-30 minutes.

(II) Roll up lemgthways

(III) Cut into 12 portions

(IV) Pop into mini loaf tins, prove & bake