Looking for good walnut bread recipe

[simdelish]

I would like to make a sort of walnut bread to include on our cheese plate. I am not looking for a supersweet breakfast/coffee cake type bread, rather one that is more savory, to complement the candied nuts, rhubarb chutney and quince paste currently on the plate with four cheeses. (It could also be maybe a walnut-fig bread or somesuch... you know what I'm going for...)

I know I have had similar in another restaurant or two, but I can't seem to find anything even close, searching through all my books, the library, and the internet. Does anyone have any advice on where I might look, or perhaps have a recipe to share?

[ludja]

Walnut bread with cheese is an excellent combination. In the Bay area I often buy Acme's Walnut Wheat Bread to serve with cheese as do many local good restaurants.

I have made a good, non-sweet, walnut bread that might work for you. It's in Carol Field's "The Italian Baker". It uses all white flour so it is an easier dough to work with than one with whole wheat flour and it uses packaged yeast. I don't have the cookbook though (yet!); I took it out of the library.

I'm also curious to hear if people know of a good, non-sweet walnut-wheat recipe.

[JeanneCake]

This is adapted from Linda Collister's Baking book - originally it was Nut and Raisin Bread but since I didn't like the raisins....

450 g stoneground whole wheat bread flour

230 g unbleached white bread flour

2 1/2 tsp salt

15 g fresh yeast

340 ml cold tap water (I use bottled because of the water in our area)

1 1/2 TBL honey

extra flour for kneading

170 g raisins

170 g nuts (toasted)

Mix flours and salt in a bowl, make a well in the center. Mix into a paste the yeast and half of the water and all the honey. Pour into the flour and mix just enough of the flour to make a sort of "sponge" or thick batter; let it sit for 15 mins. Then add the rest of the cold water and gradually work in the remaining flour until you get a nice soft dough (you might need more water or more flour, depending). Knead until smooth and elastic, then sprinkle the nuts and knead in (I like to spread it out a bit like pizza) until evenly distributed. Shape into a ball, into a greased bowl; let rise til doubled; punch down, knead, shape into two loaves and let rise again on baking sheet til doubled. Oven at 425, slash the tops; bake 15 mins then lower temp to 375 and bake til done.

I like to make rolls out of this instead of loaves (I was looking to replicate the walnut raisin rolls at the local organic market; this comes close. I did use to use golden raisins in it but I hate when they burn if they're on the outside so now I don't. I like a lot of nuts so I usually use about 350 grams or so of roughly chopped nuts).

[Mette]

450 g stoneground whole wheat bread flour

A quick question - does this flour have cracked grains of wheat in it as well as the floury parts or is it similar to graham flour.

Thanks

/Mette

[JeanneCake]

I've been using the King Arthur brand whole wheat flour which is definitely similar to graham flour - (it doesn't have any cracked grains in it), but the original recipe calls for the stoneground whole wheat. Although I'm sure you can, I've also not used dry yeast in this recipe, too much fun playing with the fresh I get from the whole foods store... come to think of it, I wonder if the King Arthur site has some recipes for walnut bread King Arthur

[yslee]

I can't recommend highly enough Steve Sullivan's Walnut Bread in Baking with Julia. It's based on his Mixed Starter Bread (itself splendid) and absolutely packed with walnuts. I make it specifically to eat with bleu d'auvergne, and then I buy more cheese the finish the bread.

[ludja]

I can't recommend highly enough Steve Sullivan's Walnut Bread in Baking with Julia. It's based on his Mixed Starter Bread (itself splendid) and absolutely packed with walnuts. I make it specifically to eat with bleu d'auvergne, and then I buy more cheese the finish the bread.

←

Oohh, this may be something I would also like to try; Steve Sullivan being the founder of Acme Bread. Does it use whole wheat flour?

Thanks!

[Mette]

I've been using the King Arthur brand whole wheat flour which is definitely similar to graham flour - (it doesn't have any cracked grains in it), but the original recipe calls for the stoneground whole wheat.  Although I'm sure you can, I've also not used dry yeast in this recipe, too much fun playing with the fresh I get from the whole foods store...  come to think of it, I wonder if the King Arthur site has some recipes for walnut bread King Arthur

←

Thanks for the info. Being in sunny Copenhagen the ingredients here are somewhat different than stateside. And I'm always pleased when I see 'foreign' recipes using fresh yeast, much more redily available here than dried. I'll definately try this loaf - I quite like walnut bread for various sandwiches.

Thanks again

/Mette

[jackal10]

I made my standard wholewheat sourdough with added walnut pieces and some walnut oil.

In Bakers Percentages (by weight relative to the total flour)

Starter

Flour 15%

Water 15%

Sourdough mother yeast 3%

Ferment at 85F for 4 hours

Dough

All the starter 33%

Wholewheat flour 60%

Rye flour 12.5%

Spelt flour 12.5%

Water 70%

Walnut pieces 30%

Salt 2%

Walnut oil 1%

[yslee]

Oohh, this may be something I would also like to try; Steve Sullivan being the founder of Acme Bread.  Does it use whole wheat flour?

Thanks!

←

No, it's an entirely white flour bread but it's one of the most flavorful I've tried (even without the walnuts). It occurs to me that the Baking with Julia thread may contain a discussion of it (but I haven't searched yet; my dial-up connection is extra sluggish today).

[ludja]

Oohh, this may be something I would also like to try; Steve Sullivan being the founder of Acme Bread.  Does it use whole wheat flour?

Thanks!

←

No, it's an entirely white flour bread but it's one of the most flavorful I've tried (even without the walnuts). It occurs to me that the Baking with Julia thread may contain a discussion of it (but I haven't searched yet; my dial-up connection is extra sluggish today).

←

Thanks for the tip, yslee. I found some discussion on the walnut bread starting here, on page 10 and continuing thru page 11. (I didn't look further for right now).

[devlin]

I'd like to second the suggestion in the linked-to thread to add roquefort or some sort of blue cheese to the walnut bread. Fabulous.

[simdelish]

Thanks everyone. (My dial-up has been extra frustrating lately too, I would have replied sooner!) I am a restaurant pc only doing desserts and the occasional item for the hot side like gorgonzola wafers for the filet, parmesan shells,etc... not a bakery, so I have limitations on time and ingredients to do something like a walnut bread.

I tried Carol Field's recipe last week (I had that book, but forgot to look. It was buried in my pile of books beside!). It was really quick and easy, and everyone scarfed it up. I thought what I made would get us through the weekend -- 2 very large loaves, but our baguette order came in short, so they used my walnut bread in the bread basket as well as for the cheese course. All gone in one night. The bread was delicious, a lot of walnuts per loaf(a whopping 2 cups). The directions said coarsely chopped,which I orginally after baking but before eating thought I might do much finer the next time, but after cutting into it, I much prefered the coarse chop. It was a little softer than I'd like, but definitely a keeper. And easy because it didn't require wheat flour.

I looked long and hard at the Steve Sullivan recipe in BwJ, but wow, much more complicated than I need to get (mixed starter, including a knob of pizza dough, something a bakery doing bread every day would have, but not me!) Ditto with Jackal's recipe. I do want that sourdough consistency, but I can't fool with so many steps, nor can I make one dough first to then just pull off a knob to use in another... I will try to see what the BwJ thread says and advises. Until then, still looking! thanks again.