Hatch Green Chile and Roasted Garlic Sourdough Bread
If you want sourdough bread bursting with a southwestern flair, you have it right here. Packed with flavor, ingredients include the Hatch green chiles, freshly toasted and ground pasilla chiles and cumin, and of course the roasted garlic. The overall flavor turned out nicely balanced. The cumin is roughly ground so that every now and then you catch a little burst of its flavor. The pasilla chile, paprika and oregano are just barely in the background. Not one of the ingredients overpowers any of the others. Many times I’ll make a regular bread version first to get a rough idea of how much of each ingredient to use. Sourdoughs take at least 2 days while the simpler breads only take a few hours. Since I can only make sourdough bread on weekends, it saves me from going weekend to weekend coming up with a good recipe. For instance, I knew I had to make changes on the amount of green chiles and comino after I tried the tester.
Hatch green chiles make their way to Austin during August for a couple of weeks. Roasters that look like giant bingo cages are brought in to roast hundreds, probably thousands of pounds of chiles. The green peppers are grandly promoted in some of our supermarkets with all kinds of products featuring the chiles. You’ll find tortilla chips, all kinds of salsas, breads, dips, beverages, and much more proudly displayed for sale. What’s the big deal about these chiles? Because of the unique growing conditions, authentic Hatch green chiles are distinct in flavor and quality and must come from a certain area around Hatch, New Mexico. The small town in New Mexico has a festival devoted to the famed chile every year around Labor day. I’ve never been to it, but a friend co-worker who lived in New Mexico talks enthusiastically about it and the chiles. Do you see fresh Hatch green chiles in your town during this time as well? I wonder how far they travel in the U.S.
Instead of presenting a detailed step by step recipe, I’ll just list the ingredients and give a general description of the procedure. I’ll be happy to go over it in more detail if someone is curious.
This will make 2 medium size loaves
Levain:
1 1/2 teaspoons starter refreshed 8 hours before
100 grams bread flour
100 grams water (70 degrees F.)
Final Dough:
All of the levain
600 grams bread flour
200 grams whole wheat flour
400 grams water (78 degrees)
2 garlic bulbs
5 Hatch green chiles
1 tablespoon pasilla chile powder
1 teaspoon comino powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon paprika
18 grams salt
The night before I baked, I made the levain. I also roasted the green chiles and garlic bulbs to have ready the next morning.
On the morning of the baking, I peeled the green chiles and removed the seeds. I also toasted a pasilla pepper and some whole comino to grind. This could be done the night before as well.
I prepared the dough adding all the ingredients except salt. The levain is dissolved in water, the flours are mixed, then the rest of the ingredients are added except salt. The dough is left to autolyse for 30 minutes. I then added the salt and let it ferment for about 4 hours in a plastic container, giving it turns every half hour for 3 hours. For some reason this dough took longer to smooth out and become airy. It might have to do with all the diced green chiles that were in it.
I divided the dough into 2 portions and shaped them. I placed them in bannetons and gave them about a 4 hour final proof. They are placed on parchment paper and scored.
I baked them at 475 degrees in a convection oven for 10 minutes, misting them with water 3 or 4 times during this period. I then lowered the oven to 405 degrees and continued to bake them for about 20 minutes.
Notes: I took cloves from 1 1/2 of the 2 roasted garlic bulbs and mashed them before adding them to the dough. I added the remaining cloves whole.
You can substitute all the spices in the recipe with your favorite chile powder.
You can substitute the Hatch green chile with Anaheim peppers though it probably won’t taste the same. Poblano peppers are another option.
Besides croutons, this loaf makes great sandwich bread.
I’m going to take this to Angie’s Fiesta Friday and share this. I’m very sure I’ll find a lot of tasty food over there.
Bread and Tortillas 
Looks and sounds fabulous!!!
Thank you Elaine!
This is so awesome Gerard! Chillies and roasted garlic?? Wow!! Must have been so flavorful!
Thanks Sonal! I wish you could have tried it!
I have to get back to baking soon Gerard! Still in the settling mode!!
I’ve never heard of hatch green chilies. I will have to keep an eye out for them. My local Meijer carries a lot of different peppers so it’s possible they have them. I like the way you decorated the bread. It looks very attractive! I’m going to make more of my Irish soda bread today. I’m going to add 1 cup of oats to it and see if that improves the flavor besides the nutritional value. Last time I baked the bread in a 9x5x3 pan and it worked just fine. It’s amazing how many things you can do to a basic recipe. Looks delicious Gerard! Pass the butter!
Thank you Marcella! It sure is how amazing how much you can change a basic recipe to suit your needs or taste. I like adding grains like oats or millet to bread to make it more nutritional. There is always something new to try.
This looks and sounds like a delicious bread. I love sourdough anyway, and the additions sound great.
Thank you, it worked out for me! Sometimes sourdough is the only way to go. I appreciate the visit to my site! .
This must have amazing flavor with those chilies and garlic! Two things I love!
They are two of my favorites as well. Thank you very much!
yumm
I don’t understand your grams; 100 grams, 200 grams, 400 grams, 600 grams = to how much to measuring to tsp, Tbs, C what n the world I know this sounds crazy but I have no idea how much grams are n I don’t think I’am the only one. I would love to make this bread, but I can’t unless I understand the grams. Please let me know thank you
Hi Cristina, First of all, Thank you very much for visiting my sight and interest in the recipe! I learned many tips and techniques on sourdough bread making through Chad Robertson’s marvelous book, “Tartine Bread”. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in sourdough baking. He uses grams for more precision, so I bought a gram/ounce scale to make for easy measuring.
I looked online for grams to cups conversion and it seems no two were in agreement. It has to do with the size of the cup. I bet sifting the flour also makes a difference.
I personally measured and converted the amounts for this recipe myself and are as follows:
I used a 2 cup measuring cup with 1/8 cup markings. If you don’t have one I’m sure you can approximate close enough. Besides, since the conversions were visually determined, we are not talking about scientific precision here!
100 grams bread flour = 5/8 cup
100 grams water = 3/8 cup
600 grams bread flour = 3 3/4 cups
200 grams whole wheat flour = 1 1/2 cups
400 grams water = 1 1/2 cups
Something I’ve learned in my baking is that different brands of flour may need slightly more or less water to get to the same moisture level. You may have to adjust the amount of water to get it to your liking. I tend to leave my doughs moist.
Thank you again for your interest. I hope you make the bread. Please let me know how it comes out.
Gerard
Why such a small amount of starter? 1.5 teaspoons?
Hi there, Thanks for visiting and following! I am always amazed at how small amount of starter is required for this recipe. The dough first ferments for 3 to 4 hours. Then it is shaped and proofed 3 to 4 hours. That gives alot of time for the levain to do its magic. The starter must be vigorous, refreshed only about 8 hours before. A basic recipe could be made without the garlic and chiles, adjusting the bread flour and whole wheat flour to your liking.
This recipe has never failed me.
Gerard