Celebrate Mothers Day with a taste of Mrs. Saradough's mouth watering maple walnut sourdough recipe

Fresh baked organic Maple Walnut Sourdough from Mrs. Saradough

I LOVE taking care of my fellow moms every day, but Mother's Day hits me right in the feels. It gives me a chance to reflect on my journey as a mother and to shower all the moms out there with praise, love and solidarity (cause it's tough out there in the trenches, right ladies?).

Mrs. Saradough's Maple Walnut bread is as inviting as a slow Sunday morning

One of the ways I take care of myself both mentally and physically is through the process of baking sourdough bread. I never expected it to blow up and become a business like it did this past year. All I was really looking for was a way to heal my mind and my body from all the postpartum stuff that hit me like a ton of bricks.

gut health: Moms and sourdough are more powerful than anyone ever imagined

Sourdough has been the gift that's kept on giving. It's crazy that science is still finding new health benefits in sourdough, adding to the long list of reasons I won't eat any other bread. Did you know that they recently found lactobacillus in sourdough bread? If you're not jumping out of your seat with excitement right now, let me get you up to speed.

Lactobacillus is a healthy gut bacteria that can be found in mother's milk and sourdough bread.

Lactobacillus is the same healthy gut bacteria that is found in mother's milk. When I heard that I was blown away. Do you realize what this means? WE (moms) are uniquely able to make this beneficial bacteria INSIDE our bodies but once we stop producing breast milk, we can continue to bless our families and communities with gut health just by baking up some sourdough!

Sourdough has also allowed my mind to heal from all the horomonal damage I experienced during pregnancy, child birth and everything after. My body and brain had a terrible time adjusting to life after gestation. My old neural pathways were fried. My doctor recommended I create new ones by finding a hobby that was ritualistic and required extreme organization and focus. It also needed to be something that I'd never really done before. And while I've casually baked cookies and sweets for pleasure over the years, sourdough is a totally new skill that started to develop in the latter part of 2023.

That's a quick glimpse into how sourdough has helped me be the best me I can be so I can be the best mom to my amazing daughter. I wonder, what's something that you do for yourself to help you show up as the best version of you for your children? If it's nothing right now, maybe sourdough could be a step in the right direction. This simple maple walnut sourdough recipe is an easy way to boost the flavor on an already delicious and nutritious household staple and get you moving towards your best momming.

I have other blog posts and upcoming trainings to share my tips on how to start your sourdough (from scratch or a starter) so I'm not going to spend time on that in this post. In this description, I'm only going focus on that part of the process where I add my inclusions.

In my maple walnut sourdough, I use my classic sourdough as the base. In fact, most of my flavored sourdough starts with my classic and I add from there. It's a great way to try out a ton of tasty options without making it too complicated.

Organic walnuts portioned and ready to be toasted for the star of this year's Mothers Day menu, Maple Walnut sourdough

first step: toast your nuts!

First, I start by toasting my nuts in the oven at 350 degrees for 5-10 minutes. Why you ask? There are a couple key reasons I toast my nuts when baking anything. One is that I'm trying to coax out the warm, earthy flavors from the walnuts. There's a depth of flavor that you can't quite get from raw nuts. Gently browning the walnuts caramelizes some of the natural sugars and the heat creates a chemical reaction called the Maillard reaction which creates complex, savory nutty flavors.

I also toast my nuts because it aids in digestion and just like fermnting flour to make sourdough, don't we want to take it easy on our guts? Mom's carry so much stress in their guts, we need to help our microbiota any way we can.

Sometimes I toast my nuts in the oven, sometimes I toast them in the pan on the stove top. Either way, waking up the full flavor of your nuts requires a little extra effort that is totally worth it.

step 2: make it maple

Next, I add my maple syrup. I use a high quality organic maple syrup in my coffee, in my milk (you're welcome) and on my sourdough pancakes, so why would I use anything else in my maple walnut recipe? Save the cheap, chemical laden crap for another time. For this recipe, break out the good stuff.

I've been crushing on this organic artisan maple syrup aged in bourbon barrels to give it a rich and smoky finish. I put it on my EVERYTHING so I definitely put it in my Maple Walnut sourdough.

When adding maple syrup (or any liquid) to your sourdough, you'll need to adjust your hydration. That means you have to take into account how much water and other liquids you'll be adding to the dough so the dough will rise properly and not become too difficult to work with.

This could be trial and error based on your methods, your climate and other factors, but a simple tip would be to start with a 1:1 replacement and then adjust from there, taking into account the flavor and texture of the dough.

No main character energy here! In this recipe I used white chocolate chips sparingly. I wanted the sweetness to support the flavors of the maple and walnuts without any of the flavor coming through.

add more sweetness if that's your thing

I wanted my sourdough to be extra sweet for mothers day, so I added white chocolate chips to my recipe, but just enough to enhance the maple flavors. I usually say "measure with your heart" when it comes to inclusions, but with this one, maybe half a heart. In my opinion, you don't want this to become a white chocolate sourdough with a hint of maple and walnut.

Since we've all got different baking methods (dutch oven, open bake, clamshell, and more), pop your bread in the oven and let it do its thing. You, of course, will have to do your thing too.

When this maple walnut sourdough comes out of the oven, the aroma is simply intoxicating. It smells like a mountain cabin filled with breakfast. It smells like a Sunday morning brunch that you didn't make and you don't have to clean up. If only it were true.

if your bread is purple, don't panic.

One startling surprise is that there's a chemical reaction that happens somewhere in the baking process that turns the dough from it's normal golden brown to a light purple color. Sometimes it's faint, like a light lavendar color, and appears marbled and other times the color is quite bold. It can like I used Ube (purple yam) flour to bake but I promise, it's just another exciting scientific experience that is a feast for the eyes as well as the tastebuds.

Are you planning to bake for mothers day? If so, do you think you'll try this recipe or share it with a friend? Whatever your plans are, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Crusty maple walnut sourdough bread on Mothers Day. Does it get any better?