
Purple Sweet Potato Semolina Sourdough
Updated: Jun 7, 2021
Hurray! IKEA finally opened an outlet near my home! But still, I decided to abandon the everlasting queue forming outside the store, since I'm running late, and ended up at Don Don Donki instead. Hurriedly grabbed some fresh groceries and my favourite Japanese purple sweet potato before heading home to fix a quick lunch for the family.
If you noticed, I'm always thrilled to use purple sweet potato for my bakes. Other than using it to make bread, it can also be made into delectable desserts, cook with porridge, or simply roast and eat it on its own.
Here's another enhanced version of my purple sweet potato sourdough with added semolina, which produces a more earthy and pleasant aroma. Hope you like this recipe!


Baker's Percentage
For Basic Sourdough
90% Japanese Bread Flour 180g
10% Semolina Flour 20g
70% Water 140g
20% Levain 40g
2% Sea Salt 4g
For Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough
90% Japanese Bread Flour 180g
10% Semolina Flour 20g
70% Water 140g
30% Purple Sweet Potato 60g
20% Levain 40g
2% Sea Salt 4g
Method
1. During the initial stage, both dough will be prepared separately (before lamination). Start by steaming purple sweet potato for approx. 20 minutes, mash it and set it aside to cool.
For Basic Dough:
Autolyse flour and water for 1-2 hours
Add levain, rest for 30 minutes
Add salt, rest for 15 minutes
Stretch and fold, once and rest for 30 minutes
Pinch a small amount of dough into *Aliquot Jar
Coil fold 2 sets, 30-40 minutes interval
For Purple Sweet Potato Dough:
Autolyse flour and water for 1-2 hours
Add levain, rest for 30 minutes
Add salt, mashed purple sweet potato and rest for 15 minutes
Stretch and fold, once and rest for 30 minutes
Pinch a small amount of dough into *Aliquot Jar
Coil fold 2 sets, 30-40 minutes interval
2. Combination of Basic and Purple Sweet Potato Dough
At 3rd set of coil fold, combine basic, purple sweet potato dough together and rest for 30-40 minutes
Coil fold 2 sets, 30-40 minutes interval and rest the dough for at least 1 hour before shaping
Preshape the dough and bench rest for 20 minutes
Shape the dough and proof the dough in the banneton basket for 10-20 minutes
Cold retard for 12-16 hours at 1-3°C
3. And finally, it's ready to be baked
Place dutch oven in the oven and preheat at 250°C for 30 minutes
Bake covered at 250°C for 23 minutes, and bake another 17 minutes at 230°C uncovered
Cool for at least 6 hours before slicing
Note
Total bulk time 6 hours at 25°C
Masuda Cananda100 was used as Japanese Bread Flour (Protein 13.2%), the product can be found at our shop, simply click "Order Form" to get them!
Observing Bulk Fermentation Progress with Aliquot Jar

Basically, the meaning of an aliquot is a portion/sample taken of a larger whole for analysis purpose. Aliquot Jar is a small portion of the main dough in a jar instrument. I'm using a shot glass to mimic a test tube, you can always use any glass or whichever jar you have at home, for your own observation.
This dough was taken after the salt is added. The bottom line was to marked the beginning process, when the sample dough rises to the upper marking (we often called it 50% marking), it indicates the end of bulk fermentation process and the dough is ready for pre-shape or shaping.
There are no hard and fast rules how much sample dough to extract for observation. Start by marking the bottom line when the sample dough is placed into the instrument. In the illustration, the marking is approx. 2cm at the beginning. The upper line will be marked 1cm above from the bottom line, which is the indication of 50% marking (2cm x 50% = 1cm). Do give it a try and let us know your experience.
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