It’s Wild Garlic (aka Ramps, aka Ransom, aka deliciousness to forage) season, and while I found some “fresh” (ok, fresh at the farmer’s market this time; I haven’t had my usual opportunities to walk in the woods), I also made quite a bit of pesto last year already that I then froze to use this year. I love ramps (German: Bärlauch) and because it has such as short season, it feels like a treat to manage to have made this bread. Great for dipping in some good olive oil and salt, it also made a mighty fine panini last night.
Don’t have Wild Garlic pesto? This recipe will work best as well with basil and garlic pesto or garlic scape pesto.
Ingredients
for the bread dough
1/2 cup (115g) ripe (fed) sourdough starter
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups bread flour
For the filling
20 ramps roughly chopped (aka wild garlic)
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tsp kosher salt
black pepper to taste
Directions
First make your pesto as it can be made up to 7 days in advance. Add the ramps, olive oil, pine nuts, kosher salt and pepper to a blender or food processor. Pulse until there are no big chunks remaining, but there should still be some texture to the pesto (i.e. you don’t want to completely puree it). Pesto can be stored like this (essentially “raw”) in the refrigerator for up to a week. The olive oil may separate out, but it can be stirred back in.
To make the bread dough, combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix and stir everything together to make a sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed with the paddle attachment for 30 to 60 seconds. If you don’t have a mixer, just stir with a big spoon or dough whisk until everything is combined.
Transfer to an equally large, lightly sprayed with baking spray bowl or 6-quart food-safe bucket, also lightly sprayed with baking spray. Cover it with the bucket’s lid or a piece of plastic wrap, and let it rise for 1 hour. Gently pick up the dough and fold it over on itself several times, cover it again, and let it rise for another hour. Repeat the rising-folding process one more time (for a total of 3 hours), folding it again after the last hour. Then, place the bucket or bowl in the refrigerator, and let the dough rest for at least 8 hours (or up to 48 hours).
Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it liberally with flour. Rub flour on your hands and scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl, gathering it in your hands as best you can (it may feel kind of fluid and not at all like regular bread dough), kneading and forming it into a circular loaf on the parchment paper. Don’t worry if it still looks a little rough in places. This lends to the rustic look of this loaf. spread it to a rough rectangle. Spread filling on one side and roll together, ending with the seam on the bottom. You might want to flour and place the shaped bread on a new piece of floured parchment, but you don’t have to.
Once you have it shaped, the loaf needs to undergo a second rise (much shorter than the first). Sprinkle flour over the top of the loaf and loosely cover it with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming over the dough. The flour also prevents the plastic wrap from sticking to the dough so when you take it off at the end of the rise, it doesn’t disturb the dough and wreck the rustic shape you’ve created. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes. Your oven will also be preheating during this time (and so will your pot).
Next, shape the dough to fit the vessel in which you’ll bake it: in my case, a 6-quart oval cast iron Dutch oven. Place the shaped dough into a rising basket or even a parchment paper sling. Let the loaf warm to room temperature and rise; this should take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. It won’t appear to rise upwards that much, but will relax and expand.
With a rack positioned in the middle, start preheating the oven to 450F one hour before you’re ready to bake. Place your Dutch over into the oven to heat as well.
Remove the Dutch oven from the oven carefully — it is screaming hot! — and place your loaf in it. Just before baking, dust the loaf with a fine coat of flour and use a lame or a sharp knife to make one or several 1/2” deep slashes through its top surface. Return loaf to oven and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the cover of the Dutch oven and bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the bread is deep golden brown and crusty, and a digital thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads at least 210F. Remove the bread from the oven and transfer it to a rack to cool completely.
