Rustic Sourdough Walnut Bread

This soft and sweet walnut bread contains no yeast and is ideal for beginners. The base is a wheat bread with brown flour and wholegrain rye flour, which is spiced up with whole walnuts. The nuts are soaked in hot water. This provides additional moisture and ensures that the bread stays fresh for longer and has an open crumb.

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This simple sourdough bread does not require yeast or pre-dough. To make the dough, all the ingredients are mixed together and stretched and folded once or twice. After the dough has rested, the walnuts are folded into the bread dough. The dough then rests in a proofing basket in the fridge overnight. The next morning, you can bake the bread until crispy. As the walnut bread only contains a small amount of rye, you only need to leave it to cool briefly and you can enjoy it straight away.

Why you will love this walnut bread

The walnut bread is made using only natural sourdough and contains no yeast. You don’t need to make a pre-dough (just soak the walnuts) and the dough is easy to shape – the perfect bread for beginners. Your starter does not need to be freshly fed for this recipe. If you have refreshed it in the last five or six days, you can use the sourdough starter straight from the fridge. In addition to walnuts, the sourdough bread contains brown flour and wholemeal rye flour. This ensures a dark crust and a rich aroma.

What you need for soft sourdough walnut bread

  • Wheat flour: bread flour or typ 550
  • Brown flour is wheat flour that still contains part of the outer husk. This makes the crumb heartier and the crust darker. If you don’t have rye flour, you can also replace it with bread flour in this recipe.
  • Whole grain rye flour: I prefer to grind my whole grain flours with my grain mill*. Freshly ground flours have more flavour and more nutrients than supermarket flours. However, they do not keep for long and should always be used immediately after grinding. If you don’t have the possibility to grind your own flour, you can of course also use store-bought flour.
  • Water: Cold in summer and lukewarm in winter.
  • Salt for the flavour.
  • Sourdough starter: The sourdough doesn’t have to be freshly fed, but it shouldn’t have been more than a week since it was last refreshed. If you have discard left over, I have the right recipes for you here. I feed my sourdough with equal parts water and flour. For the flour, I use a mixture of wheat flour and wholegrain rye flour. If you feed your sourdough with a different water-to-flour ratio, you will need to adjust the amount of water in the recipe accordingly.
  • Walnuts or other nuts and hot water for soaking.
walnut bread with sourdough

In three steps: How to make sourdough walnut bread

Mix the dough

Soak the walnuts in hot water*. Place the rye flour, brown flour and wheat flour in a bowl with the water, sourdough starter and salt and mix* to form a dough.

Cover the dough and leave to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Then stretch and fold the dough once. Leave to rest for a further 30 minutes.

Fold the walnuts into the dough

Wet the work surface and your hands with water. Place the dough on the work surface and carefully stretch it out to form a rectangle with your hands. Drain the walnuts thoroughly and spread over the dough.

Fold the short side of the dough in by about a third. Fold the two long sides over to the middle and roll up the dough from the short side. Tranfer the dough back in the bowl and leave to rest for a further four to eight hours, depending on the temperature.

Shape and bake the walnut bread

Shape the dough into a round or long shape, place in a floured proofing basket* and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven and baking stone* to 270 degrees. Reduce the temperature to 230 degrees, score* the bread and bake for 20 minutes with steam*. After 20 minutes, release the steam, reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.

Possible schedule for sourdough walnut bread

Day 1 2 p.m.Mix* all the ingredients to form a dough, cover and leave to rest.
Soak* the walnuts.
2.30 p.m.Stretch and fold the dough once.
3 p.m.Drain the walnuts and incorporate them into the dough. Leave the dough to rest.
Between 8 and 9 pmShape the dough, place in a proofing basket* and refrigerate overnight.
Day 29 amPreheat the oven with the baking stone and steam tray.
9.30 a.m.Bake the walnut bread for about 20 minutes with steam and 30 minutes without steam until golden brown.
Simple recipe for walnut sourdough bread

Helpful tools – My recommendations

The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.

  • A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
  • A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
  • A kitchen scale*.
  • With this sharp baker’s knife*, you can make precise cuts in your bread and get creative with intricate scoring patterns.
  • You can use a stainless steel dough knife* to cut your dough pieces or shape your loaves.
  • You can bake beautiful loaves with proofing baskets. There are round proofing baskets* and oval proofing baskets*. If you want to bake several loaves at the same time, I would recommend oval baskets. They take up less space in the fridge and oven.
  • A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
  • Baking steel* to make your bread, rolls and pizza nice and crispy.
  • When baking bread in a Dutch oven*, you can do without baking steel and a steam tray because the Dutch oven has the perfect climate.
  • A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
  • A stainless steel kettle* with different temperature settings for soaking ingredients.
  • A sharp bread knife*.
  • A stainless steel toaster* for slices of bread, toast and rolls.

You can find more product recommendations here.

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Cranberry Sourdough Bread with Hazelnuts

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Recipe: Rustic Sourdough Walnut Bread

The walnut bread is made using only natural sourdough and contains no yeast. You don’t need to make a pre-dough (just soak the walnuts) and the dough is easy to shape – the perfect bread for beginners. Your starter does not need to be freshly fed for this recipe. If you have refreshed it in the last five or six days, you can use the sourdough starter straight from the fridge. In addition to walnuts, the sourdough bread contains brown flour and wholegrain rye flour. This ensures a dark crust and a rich aroma.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Resting Time 7 hours
Course sourdough bread
Cuisine German
Servings 1 Loaf of bread

Ingredients
  

  • 300 g wheat flour
  • 90 g brown flour or wheat flour type 1050
  • 90 g rye flour whole grain
  • 330 g water
  • 10 g salt
  • 50 g sourdough starter
  • 100 g walnuts or other nuts

Instructions
 

Day 1

  • Soak the walnuts in hot water*.
  • Place the flours, water, starter and salt in a bowl and mix* to form a dough.
  • Cover the dough and leave to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
  • Stretch and fold the dough after 30 minutes. Leave to rest for a further 30 minutes.
  • Moisten the work surface and hands with water. Place the dough on the work surface and carefully stretch it into a rectangle using your hands.
  • Drain the walnuts and spread on the dough.
  • Fold the short side of the dough in by about a third. Fold the two long sides over to the middle and roll up the dough from the short side.
  • Return the dough to the bowl and leave to rest for a further 4 to 8 hours, depending on the temperature.
  • Shape the dough into a round or long shape, place in a floured proofing basket* and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2

  • Preheat the oven and baking stone* to 270 degrees. Reduce the temperature to 230 degrees, score the bread and bake for 20 minutes with steam. After 20 minutes, release the steam, reduce the temperature to 200 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes.
Keyword no yeast, overnight, with brown flour, with sourdough

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walnut bread with sourdough

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I’m Theresa and I bake – preferably with sourdough. I share my favorite recipes with you on my blog Krümelig.

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