Last Updated on November 26, 2025 by Sarah
This sourdough fruit loaf, packed with walnuts, dates, and apricots, is the perfect bread for autumn. Sweet, nutty, and with a wonderfully soft crumb, it’s both comforting and impressive. If you’re looking for a sourdough bread recipe to delight your guests over the holidays, this loaf is a must-try.
Why You Will Love this Sourdough Fruit Loaf Recipe
When autumn comes around, I find myself baking sourdough over and over again. While we all love sourdough bread here, making the same loaf every time can get very boring! This sourdough fruit loaf helps me to break out of the routine and enjoy something a little bit different.
The walnuts, dates and apricots provide the perfect balance of nuttiness, sweetness and slight tartness that go so well in a whole wheat sourdough loaf. For extra nutrition and flavour, I love to use fresh milled flour to make bread.
We love to eat this sourdough fruit and nut bread toasted with salted butter for a cosy, filling breakfast. Another of our favourite ways to eat it is with cheese for a snack or as an appetiser. Or why not wrap it up and gift it to a loved one over the holidays – it would make a thoughtful (and delicious!) present.
This is not a beginner recipe! If you are new to sourdough, you can check out my simple whole wheat sourdough for full instructions on making bread with shop-bought flour. If you prefer to mill your own flour, I have complete instructions with lots of tips in my 100% whole wheat artisan sourdough bread recipe. You can use either of those recipes as the base for this bread.
Ingredients Needed to Make This Sourdough Fruit Loaf
- 500g wheat berries, milled (I use the equivalent of soft red wheat) or whole wheat flour
- 400ml filtered water (Note: see below for some important information)
- 50g active sourdough starter
- 10g salt
- 50g walnuts
- 50g dried apricots
- 50g dates
Ingredient Tips and Substitutions
Wheat Berries or whole wheat flour
The wheat berries or flour you use will have a huge impact on the overall outcome of your bread. Here in France, I can only get soft wheat and, while I don’t know the exact variety, I think that it is red wheat. If you use a different kind of wheat, you will probably need to alter the water content as some wheat absorbs more water that others. The lower the gluten content of your wheat, the less water you will need. This will take some trial and error on your part to find the exact amount of water that is required for the wheat you are using.
If using shop bought whole wheat flour, I recommend starting at 370ml water and gradually adding more if you feel like the dough is too stiff, or if there is a lot of dry flour left when you mix the ingredients together.
Filtered Water
It is very important to use filtered, or unchlorinated water in this recipe, as chlorine will inhibit the bacteria from growing. We need the bacteria from the sourdough to grow so that the dough will ferment and rise!
Active Sourdough Starter
I like to feed my starter the night before with a very small amount of starter and a large amount of flour and water (for example, 25g starter, 100g flour, 100g filtered water). This gives me a very strong starter that is ready to make bread in the morning. You will have more starter than you need for this recipe, but I love to use up that extra starter in recipes such as these muffins.
If you are looking to create a sourdough starter from scratch, The Clever Carrot has a great tutorial.
Salt
10g seems like a lot of salt, but it is necessary for this amount of bread. I prefer to use sea salt flakes, as it contains more minerals that are essential to our health. I prefer to avoid refined table salt wherever possible.
Dried fruit and nuts
I love to use walnuts, dates and apricots in this recipe as their flavours balance so well. Other possibilities would be pecans, raisins or figs.
Using hazelnuts or almonds is also a possibility, but be aware that these nuts are much harder and, in my opinion, are not so pleasant in a bread.
Be sure to cut up your fruit and nuts so that they will be evenly distributed through the loaf.
How to Make Sourdough Fruit Loaf recipe with Walnuts, Dates & Apricots
This is not a beginner recipe. I will not go into detail here about how to make sourdough bread. If you want a detailed recipe for sourdough with shop bought whole wheat flour, check out this recipe. If you prefer to mill your own flour, this recipe is for you!
Prepare starter (night before):
Feed your starter so it’s strong and bubbly by baking time.
Optional – Mill flour:
Grind wheat berries just before using.
Mix dough:
In a large bowl, combine flour, water, starter, and salt until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 30–60 minutes.
Stretch & fold:
Over the next hour or two, perform 2 sets of stretch and folds.
Prepare Fruit and Nuts:
Cut the dates and almonds into 4 pieces. Break up the walnuts into 4 pieces and gently toast in a pan for around 5 mins or until you can begin to smell the walnuts toasting. Leave to cool for at least 15 mins.
Laminate and add the fruit and nuts:
Tip the dough onto a damp surface and stretch into a rectangle. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts evenly over the dough. Fold the top third of the dough into the middle, repeat with the bottom third, then the right hand third and the left hand third. You will end up with a coil of dough.
If you want to see what this looks like, check out this video.
Bulk ferment:
Leave dough covered until domed and springy to the touch (do not wait for it to double).
Shape:
Tip onto a damp or lightly floured surface. Shape into a batard and place in a lined banneton. If possible, try and tuck any pieces of fruit or nut under the surface of the dough so that it does not burn during baking.
Cold ferment:
Refrigerate 4–12 hrs.
Bake:
Preheat oven to 230°C with a shallow pan inside. Tip dough onto a tray, score, and reduce oven to 200°C. Bake 20 mins with steam (fill hot pan with boiling water), then remove pan and bake a further 20 mins. The internal temperature of the bread should be 98°C when ready.
Cool:
Leave loaf to cool at least 45 minutes before slicing.
My favourite way to eat this bread is toasted with salted butter and a little bit of cheese!
How to Store Sourdough Fruit Bread
This bread will store on the counter for several days, although it is usually best eaten within 3 days. If it dries out, toast it – it tastes just as good.
Be aware that, since this bread contains fruit, it may go mouldy quicker than normal sourdough bread.
You can also freeze this bread either whole or sliced. If frozen whole, it will take several hours to defrost on the counter. Or you could reheat it from frozen in the oven at 150°C for about 15-20 mins.
In my experience, it is easier to slice the bread before freezing it. This enables you to take out just the amount of bread you need and a single slice of bread will defrost a lot quicker than a whole loaf. You can also place a piece of frozen bread directly in the toaster (you will normally need to increase the amount of time you toast it for).
FAQs
How long does this sourdough fruit loaf keep?
This bread keeps for several days at room temperature on the counter. It will usually start to go slightly stale after about 3 days.
Is this bread gluten free?
No, this bread contains gluten.
Is this bread dairy free?
Yes this bread is completely dairy free.
Can I freeze it?
Yes this sourdough fruit loaf can be frozen and reheated whole or sliced.
What are some other possible add-ins?
You can try figs, raisins or pecans if you prefer, but I have to say, my favourites are walnuts, apricots and dates.
What should I do if my dough over ferments?
If you think that your dough has over fermented, don’t throw it out! You can either carry on and bake it as normal (the bread will be flatter and quite sour, but still very tasty!) or, if you dough will no longer hold its shape, you can bake it in a cake tin.
Can I use sourdough discard to make this sourdough fruit loaf?
When making bread, I always recommend using an active sourdough starter. Having said that, it is possible to make bread with discard, as long as it is not too old. Be aware that your bread may take longer to rise and the end result will probably not be as light and well-risen.
How do I keep the fruit and nuts from sinking in the bread?
In my experience, fruit and nuts do not sink in sourdough bread like they would in a cake because the dough is a lot more dense than a cake batter.
Did you try this recipe? I’d love to hear how it turned out for you. Leave a comment below and let me know your variation or serving idea — it’s always encouraging to see how these recipes fit into other family kitchens.
Sourdough Fruit Loaf recipe with Walnuts, Dates & Apricots
Ingredients
- 500 g wheat berries milled (I use the equivalent of soft red wheat) or whole wheat flour
- 400 ml filtered water see notes for some important information
- 50 g active sourdough starter
- 10 g salt
- 50 g walnuts
- 50 g dried apricots
- 50 g dates
Instructions
Prepare starter (night before):
- Feed your starter so it’s strong and bubbly by baking time.
Optional – Mill flour:
- Grind wheat berries just before using.
Mix dough:
- In a large bowl, combine flour, water, starter, and salt until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest 30–60 minutes.
Stretch & fold:
- Over the next hour or two, perform 2 sets of stretch and folds.
Prepare Fruit and Nuts:
- Cut the dates and almonds into 4 pieces. Break up the walnuts into 4 pieces and gently toast in a pan for around 5 mins or until you can begin to smell the walnuts toasting. Leave to cool for at least 15 mins.
Laminate and add the fruit and nuts:
- Tip the dough onto a damp surface and stretch into a rectangle. Sprinkle the fruit and nuts evenly over the dough. Fold the top third of the dough into the middle, repeat with the bottom third, then the right hand third and the left hand third. You will end up with a coil of dough.
Bulk ferment:
- Leave dough covered until domed and springy to the touch (do not wait for it to double).
Shape:
- Tip onto a damp or lightly floured surface. Shape into a batard and place in a lined banneton. If possible, try and tuck any pieces of fruit or nut under the surface of the dough so that it does not burn during baking.
Cold ferment:
- Refrigerate 4–12 hrs.
Bake:
- Preheat oven to 230°C with a shallow pan inside. Tip dough onto a tray, score, and reduce oven to 200°C. Bake 20 mins with steam (fill hot pan with boiling water), then remove pan and bake a further 20 mins. The internal temperature of the bread should be 98°C when ready.
Cool:
- Leave loaf to cool at least 45 minutes before slicing.
- My favourite way to eat this bread is toasted with salted butter and a little bit of cheese!
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