Toasted Raisin Cranberry Slices

I love hors d'oeuvres but quite frankly do not enjoy making them at all. I find them time consuming and finicky to make and they are the last thing I think about when I am having people over for dinner. Eventually however, I do have to think about what to serve as a pre- dinner course so when the idea to serve baked brie or cambozola on crispy slices of raisin cranberry bread came to me I was quite pleased with myself and wondered why I hadn't though about this sooner. I would make the bread in advance, toast the sliced bread and store them in the freezer until I needed them, then just arrange them and the cheese on a platter and voila easy peasy.

I have several recipes for raisin cranberry bread that I enjoy making but for this particular bread I used a recipe I have for a Sourdough Multigrain Bread and tweeked it a bit by omitting the mixed grains and seeds and adding the dried fruit to it. I suppose now that this recipe has been so altered I really should call it Sourdough Cranberry Raisin Baguettes as it has little resemblance to the former. The dough comes together quite nicely, and instead of shaping the dough in boules as I normally would, I shaped them into baguettes so that when sliced you have small rounds of crispy bread to top with cheese.

I didn't take of photo of prepared platter of crispy bread thins and cambozola or of my guests enjoying them so you'll have to take my word they were pretty good.

I have since then tweeked this recipe again to Sourdough Cranberry Walnut Baguettes and again I shaped the dough into baguettes only this time I didn't bother to toast the slices and they were a very nice accompaniment to baked brie.
Yeastspotted.

Sourdough Raisin Cranberry Baguettes

500 grams unbleached all-purpose flour

150 grams liquid sourdough starter made with whole-wheat flour, refreshed 12 hours earlier
½ teaspoon instant yeast

20 grams olive oil
1⅞ tsp. salt
280 grams water, at room temperature
50 grams raisins
50 grams dried cranberries

In the bowl of the mixer, mix water and sourdough starter. Add flour, and instant yeast.
Mix for a minute to form a rough mass. Turn mixer off and let the dough rest for 20 minutes. Add salt, raisin and cranberries mix for 5 minutes on #4 setting.
Place the dough in a container that has been sprayed with Pam or oiled. Allow to rise until almost doubled.
Divide the dough into 2 portions and form into a ball and allow to rise again covered until almost doubled.
Form balls of dough into baguettes, place on parchment paper and allow to rise until doubled or well puffed.
One hour before baking preheat the oven to 450°F.
Place the baguettes on the baking stone and throw in about 4 or 5 ice cubes on a cast iron pan set on the floor of the oven to create steam.
Bake the bread for about 25 minutes rotating halfway through baking.
Cool bread before slicing.