A fun week of baking challenges is coming to an end. This berry swirl bread was the perfect way to end the week. I thought I would share the recipe I made to create this bread, based on my favorite vegan sourdough sandwich bread, but then I added strawberry powder and honey and weighed ingredients, etc, etc.

But first, a quick little story about how I only recently remembered that I once worked at a bakery. How on earth did I forget about this moment (okay it was only a day) in my life until recently?

A few weeks ago I was on facetime with my cousin. She and I used to spend a lot of our summers together at basketball camps and swimming at their house. We reminisced about how we worked at a bakery for a day once. It was in a city I didn’t live in, and it was only for a day, and we can’t remember how it came about, but it did. I do however have a very good memory of the raspberry swirl bread that they made, and how much I loved it. I knew I had to try to bring it to life in my kitchen.

I thought it would look cute if it was pink, so I added some strawberry powder (freeze-dried strawberries all ground up). The pink didn’t really stick around, but the mild flavor was most welcome in the bread. But, it isn’t necessary and this bread will taste amazing without it. If I ever manage to not eat all of the bread the day I bake it, I am going to make it into French toast and cry of happiness.

Berry Swirl Sourdough Bread (vegan)

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

140g whole wheat flour

515g bread flour

225g sourdough starter

485g warm water

28g freeze-dried strawberries finely crushed (or add 15g more of flour if you don’t have strawberries)

40g honey or maple syrup

15g salt

10g olive oil

1/2 cup of berry preserves, (I prefer raspberry)

Directions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the whole wheat flour and 140g of the bread flour, sourdough starter, and water. Let it stand for about 4 hours.

2. Add the remaining 375g of bread flour, finely crushed freeze-dried strawberries, honey, salt, and olive oil.

3. Knead the dough with the bread hook for about 6-8 minutes. You can also do this by hand and will get quite the workout. The dough will start to pull away from the sides and form a ball on the hook, but will still feel a little sticky.

4. Shape into a ball and put it into an oiled bowl, cover it, and put it into the fridge overnight. [Alternatively, you can let it rise at room temperature until doubled (about two hours)]

5. Prep two loaf pans with oil or butter. Divide the dough into two. Shape one half of the dough into a rectangle about 6.5 inches x 16 inches, it will be about ¾ of an inch thick. Spread half of the preserves (I love raspberry) on it, keeping it about an inch from all sides. Starting on the short side of the rectangle, roll the dough up into a log, pinch it to seal, and pinch the sides to keep the jam in.

6. Put it in your loaf pan seam side down and cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap or a damp towel. Let it rise until about 1 inch above the edge of the loaf pan.

7. When your dough is just starting to rise past the edge of the loaf pan, preheat your oven to 400º.

8. Bake the loaves for 35-40 minutes. I like to cover the top with foil at about 25 minutes to keep the top from getting too brown.

9. Turn the cooked loaves out onto a cooling rack so that they don’t get soggy. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing.