Category: Levain

Apple Carrot Kraut Sourdough Rye Bread

9/19/2016

Revisionist baking Method monday

If you’re following along with my carrot/apple kraut adventures, we were gifted several boxes of McIntosh apples last week, so along with making sauce, butter, and drying them I decided to make some apple/carrot kraut. I’d used apples in cabbage kraut before with fresh cranberries and loved it. Then came another off-the-wall idea from reading around in Fermented Vegetables to design a recipe to make a apple/carrot kraut cake. I did and it was good, but I couldn’t get over the fact that it just tasted like a good carrot cake, because I couldn’t taste the sour at all.

A good trick huh, ha-ha: You love that cake you just ate a big slice of?... and surprise it’s sauerkraut cake! I just pulled that trick on my daughter and her boyfriend this morning, haha. They did love the cake, and didn’t believe it was made out of kraut, which neither likes. Anything to amuse myself.

But the whole cake experiment left me wanting to taste what kraut’s like in bread, thus this recipe. So what is carrot/apple kraut like in a sourdough rye bread? It’s good, think Reuben with the kraut already in the bread.
I made it a steamed bread, although I’m going to try a Boule in the oven next.
Overall I was happy and will make it again, it didn’t rise as high or as quickly as my regular steamed rye loaves, but only by a bit. It rose to the top of the loaf pan, and took an hour longer to get there. My guess is that the lacto-bacteria become very active from both the levain starter and kraut, creating an acid environment that’s a little too much for the yeasts to optimally thrive. The dough is also denser with the kraut and sunflower seed additions, so the yeasts were having to work harder, and in more difficult circumstances. I could have added the kraut right before proofing with the salt, and maybe I will next time.

It’s texture is like a whole grain sandwich bread. I especially like the oats, and the way they taste toasted. I like the bits of sunflower seeds. It’s a good toast/sandwich bread, great with sharp cheese, and mustard. The two sour hits, but with different flavor profiles are worth it; the rye sour and then the kraut sour.

Learn Here How to Bake Steamed Bread in a Slow Cooker

Slow Cooker Steamed Apple/Carrot Kraut Bread

Makes one sandwich loaf

Overnight Ingredients
1 ½ cup/136g oatmeal
¼ cup/30g ground flaxseed
1 cup/150g gluten free mix ( ⅔ cup sorghum flour and ⅓ cup potato starch)
2 cups/240g rye flour
½ cup/100g firm gluten free levain (or firm sourdough starter)
2 cups/200g apple/carrot kraut
½ cup/65g sunflower seeds
1 ⅓ cup/315ml filtered water

Morning Ingredients
2 teaspoons sea salt
1 tablespoon honey

Evening Instructions
I use a food processor for mixing, but it can be done by hand.
Grind flaxseed in a spice grinder and set aside
Measure oatmeal into food processor and spin until fine
Add gluten free flour, ground flaxseed, rye flour, sunflower seeds spin
Crumble firm levain over mix and spin for a minute.
Add kraut and pulse to briefly combine
Dump into a mixing bowl, add water, stir until combined, cover and let sit at room temperature 65-75F for 12 hours or until fermented.

Morning Instructions
Turn large oval slow cooker to high for 20 minutes with the lid on
Sprinkle salt over fermented dough
Add honey and combine with your hands thoroughly
Butter loaf pan, smooth batter into pan.
After 20 minutes, turn OFF slow cooker and set the loaf to proof inside.
It should reach the top of the pan within 2-3 hours.
Pour 3 cups water into the bottom of slow cooker and set to high for 4 hours.
The loaf is done after four hours, its internal temp. should be 202-205F.
Turn it out of the pan and let cool completely before slicing,
This bread slices well when it’s fresh. It also re-steams nicely when dried out, makes wonderful toast, freezes well pre sliced. Store in a cloth, or paper bag at room temperature.

Another interesting note:
we’ve
had
a
few
fruit
flies
in
the house
with
all
the apples
and
pears.
They're
after
this
bread but
not
anything
else
baked.
Which
makes
me feel
the bread's
super alive
sweet,
ripe and in
harmony
with
the season.

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Dosa: The Fermented Flatbread To Know

8/29/2016

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Revisionist Baking/ Method Monday

I love the rhythm and ease of these breads-something soaking,
something fermenting,
something on the griddle.
And, when they’re on the griddle I get to use my fancy French crepe spreader and
wooden flipper.

For several years I religiously followed the dosa recipe I had copied down from my favorite Indian cookbook The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi. Then one day I was out of urad dal, and white basmati rice, so I substituted split peas and pearl barley and guess what? They were wonderful. So I began to branch out, keeping the proportions and technique the same, but trying all manner of grains and legumes.

So far these are the grains and legumes I've used:

pearl barley, millet, long grain brown rice, short grain brown rice, and amaranth,
red lentils, black eyed peas, mung beans, and split peas.

This is a great way to use up little odds and ends of beans and grains.

I premix up baggies of odds and ends for dosas when I’m cleaning out grain and bean jars.

Makes one quart of batter enough for 12 dosas

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole grain or mix of grains
3/4 cup legumes
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 3/4 cup filtered water

Making Dosas
I follow a simple three day process
I say simple because while it takes time, it doesn’t take much of your time, and nothing you need to do is difficult.

Step One
Mix the grains and legumes together in a bowl
Cover them with water and let soak overnight. The mix will always be
a ratio of two parts grain to one part legume.

Step Two
Next day rinse the grain/legumes.
Measure out 1 3/4 cups water.
Add water and legume/grains to the food processor and blend for 6 minutes.

Step Three
You'll now have a wet smooth batter which tastes raw and beany. Let the batter sit out in the bowl, covered at a warm room temperature until it ferments and tastes slightly sour.
I usually let mine sit overnight because I like it nice and sour, but a shorter time works as well. It should have lost its beany taste, be slightly bubbly or puffed, and taste sour. On a warm day this could be as short as 4 hours. I’ve never had to leave mine longer than 12 hours.

Step Four
After it's fermented
Add 1 teaspoon of salt to the batter and stir   Pour into a quart sized mason jar. You can cook some up now, or store and use as needed in the fridge for up to a week.

Cooking Dosas
Heat a round cast iron griddle, or nonstick griddle or crepe pan on low for 10 minutes. Move the heat up to medium and oil the pan as for pancakes. I use butter or ghee for this, coconut oil tends to stick.
Oil the griddle before each dosa for a crisp bottom.
Pour 1/3 of a cup of the batter into the middle of the pan, take a deep breath, no hurry Spread it out as thin as possible with a crepe spreader, or the back of a large mixing spoon, pressing lightly, and moving outward in a continuous spiral motion. This takes some practice but your learning curves will taste great.
Cook for a couple of minutes per side.

Large thin sourdough griddle cakes are a staple here. We rotate weekly between
Brittany Buckwheat Crepes, Ethiopian Injera, and Southern Indian Dosas. Besides being absolutely delicious, they’re a nifty way to roll, wrap and bring food to the mouth.

I’m especially fond of the Indian Dosa,
because turning only a handful of grains and legumes mixed with water and some salt into a thin crepe like bread is magic. Each region of India has its favorite version of the dosa, and they vary in names and thickness: Paper thin crisp dosas from Tamil Nadu, vegetable laden poori from Gujarat. Cheela,velvety smooth from Uttar Pradesh. They are eaten throughout the day and are nourishing, inexpensive and easily digested. Served with myriad of fresh chutneys, dal soups, or stuffed with masala potatoes, the variations are endless, especially with all the different spices and herbs that can be added to the batters.
How do we eat our homemade dosas?
We fill them like a crepe and eat them with a fork, or roll them like a burrito and eat them with our hands. What I like best is to fold them into fourths, and tear, using the pieces to make little parcels for dal and fresh chutney, or my scrambled eggs and greens.

How To Make
1 inch nub of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 seeded and chopped jalapeño
1/ 4 cup roasted cashews
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice or vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup fresh coriander or mint or both
1 cup toasted shredded unsweetened coconut or fresh coconut.

In a food processor
Pulse ginger, garlic and jalapeño
Add cashews and pulse
Add other ingredients + 1/3 cup of water
pulse and correct to taste.

http://www.abluedotkitchen.com/kitchen-blog/ethiopian-wisdom-we-can-eat-injera-everyday

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All My Life-Rye Recipes Worth Having

8/17/2016

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Foodwise Wednesday

Putting Life in order

Fruit arrived today, a neighbor brought over a huge bag of apples from their tree; my husband picked up three boxes of 4-H peaches, pears, and nectarines. The apples are hanging out in the double sink, four big crockpots will cook them down in four hours, then I'll puree and set them again for another ten hours plus to cook down into butter. The other fruit will get a similar treatment--Summer into Butter. But, isn't that what we're all doing, cooking Summer's sweetness down into butter to eat all Winter?
I've put my rye thus far recipes together in one place, with all of this frantic fruit processing it's about all the blog I can handle. I'm happy to provide good workable recipes for rye, it seems to get a bum wrap, and it deserves more. With Love Enjoy!