Making lovely, healthy bread

[PatJ]

Folks who bake with chia seeds, tell me your experiences! How much do you put in? What do you do in the way of soaking? What do you find it does to the bread?

You might like this post on the The Fresh Loaf (great baking site): Chia sourdough two ways

It includes info from a skilled baker who comments on percent of chia used in the bread, amount of water used, taste, texture, super-moist crumb... She uses the baker's percentage system for her recipes.

As far using heirloom grains, I use spelt very often because it's easy for me to get the grains locally. I also use red fife when it's available. Kamut/Khorasan has a nice flavor but gives me stomach discomfort after eating it for a couple of days, so I avoid it.

The annoying thing about using oats, rye flour, kamut flour, spelt flour or what have you is that they all reduce how much gluten is in the bread and how well it will rise, so you can only really use one at a time.

You can try adding a liitle (1/16 tsp) of ascorbic acid powder to your bread to strengthen the gluten and increase volume. It works like magic with fresh ground spelt, and helps red fife but not as much. Without the ascorbic acid spelt can be very elastic and doesn't hold onto gas bubbles as well as it does when AA is added.

Some useful baking sites: The Fresh Loaf, Sourdough.com

 

[Valentijn]

Folks who bake with chia seeds, tell me your experiences! How much do you put in? What do you do in the way of soaking? What do you find it does to the bread?

2 tablespoons of chia seeds with 1/2 cup of water. It needs to sit at least 15 minutes, and I usually stir it after 5-10 minutes. That's for a recipe with 2 cups flours and 1.5 cups starches.

 

[daisybell]

My favourite bread to make is soda bread... It's so easy and quick... No yeast so no proving time!

My basic recipe is
350g wholemeal flour or spelt flour
150g plain white flour
400ml plain yoghurt
1teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the yoghurt and mix to combine. Knead only enough to bring the mixture together, adjusting the flour or liquid as necessary. It should be slightly sticky. Form into a slightly flattened round, flour a baking tray and place the bread on it. Flour the top of the bread, and then score quite a deep cross.
Bake at 200 degrees centigrade for about 45 minutes.

Sometimes I turn the oven down after the first 30 and then leave it a bit longer to make sure it isn't too wet in the middle. If the loaf is too round, the middle is difficult to cook properly also.

I think this probably would work with any flour. It also works with buttermilk rather than yoghurt. I make my own yoghurt using milk powder for this, as it is signficantly cheaper.

 

[JaimeS]

For those of us who don't do well with dairy, it is worth noting that sometimes roasted, purreed squashes can be replacements. For example, I made a cheesecake in which half the ricotta was replaced by pumpkin puree and the consistency remained exactly the same. I've also added roasted squash to things when I want a buttery, warm flavor, and I'm sure some of these breads would be made incredibly delicious by replacing yogurt with pumpkin plus a few warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, or cardamom.

-J

 

[daisybell]

For those of us who don't do well with dairy, it is worth noting that sometimes roasted, purreed squashes can be replacements. For example, I made a cheesecake in which half the ricotta was replaced by pumpkin puree and the consistency remained exactly the same. I've also added roasted squash to things when I want a buttery, warm flavor, and I'm sure some of these breads would be made incredibly delicious by replacing yogurt with pumpkin plus a few warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, or cardamom.

-J

The soda bread wouldn't rise though without something acidic for the baking soda to react with....

 

[JaimeS]

The soda bread wouldn't rise though without something acidic for the baking soda to react with....

A little vinegar, a little lemon juice, maybe? My grandma used vinegar in her bread recipes.

 

[Calathea]

I was assuming the soda bread would work with soya yoghurt, was I wrong? I'm keen to try it, it sounds lovely and not too strenuous to make.

Tinned pumpkin puree is something I envy Americans for having easy access to, it sounds yummy. And there must be so much applesauce in the US! American vegan recipes are chock full of it! We barely have any over here, and it tends to have some sort of ingredient I don't want, such as huge amounts of metallic-tasting sweetener.

 

[JaimeS]

I was assuming the soda bread would work with soya yoghurt, was I wrong? I'm keen to try it, it sounds lovely and not too strenuous to make.

Tinned pumpkin puree is something I envy Americans for having easy access to, it sounds yummy. And there must be so much applesauce in the US! American vegan recipes are chock full of it! We barely have any over here, and it tends to have some sort of ingredient I don't want, such as huge amounts of metallic-tasting sweetener.

Pumpkin puree is weirdly pricy ($3.50 for a larger can, whereas other veggies would be a dollar or two less) but applesauce is ubiquitous.

-J

 

[daisybell]

I was assuming the soda bread would work with soya yoghurt, was I wrong? I'm keen to try it, it sounds lovely and not too strenuous to make.

Tinned pumpkin puree is something I envy Americans for having easy access to, it sounds yummy. And there must be so much applesauce in the US! American vegan recipes are chock full of it! We barely have any over here, and it tends to have some sort of ingredient I don't want, such as huge amounts of metallic-tasting sweetener.

I don't know of any reason it wouldn't work with soya yoghurt.... Let us know if you try it!

 

[JaimeS]

LOL, there are other things to replace dairy with rather than squash... I just like the idea! <3