Mostly Whole Wheat

The most recent loaf--last of 2007!

(Mostly) Whole Wheat Bread
Org. Whole Wheat Bread Flour
Stuzman Farms Org. Whole Wheat Flour
Daily Grind Cornmeal
Soy Milk
Columbus Pale Ale
Ground Flax Seeds
Hemp Seeds
Org. unbleached flour
Honey
Org. Canola Oil
Kosher Salt
Giza Starter
12/29/07 Baked 12/30/07

This batch really had oven spring, as you can tell from the Brobdingnagian growth on the loaf; wasn't rising much, so I put it in the oven and baked. This was the result! Used both soy milk and ale because I ran out of soy milk and didn't want to open a new quart--the Giza starter is from Sourdoughs International, while the honey is from Kentucky, the gift of a visiting Kentucky playwright (thanks, Nancy!)

More Rye-Whole Wheat

Made this up starting Friday, so aged the barm 48 hours before mixing the dough and baking--

Rye/Whole Wheat

Org. Rye flour
Org. whole wheat flour
Org. whole wheat bread flour
Daily Grind cornmeal
Oat flour
Soy powder
Ground flax seeds
Ground sunflower seeds
Hemp seeds
Org. gluten
Soy milk
Blyth Honey
kosher salt
San Francisco starter

12/1/07

and made another squash soup--this time from Eric Turner's Millenium cookbook--squash with star anise, topped with sesame seed/star anise cream. So wonderfully delicious that there was none to put away--

oh, and a first! Cleveland playwright Faye Sholitan tells me that she used details from this blog in the draft of a play that was given a staged reading just before Thanksgiving at the Cleveland Public Theatre--and that 'agave nectar' got a laugh! Should I ask for royalties?

On soup and other things

haven't had to make bread for the last couple of weeks--still Struan in the freezer, as well as an informal whole wheat rye I put together shortly afterwards, when Ann said she really wanted a sandwich loaf. Fairly simple:

Whole Wheat/Rye

Org. Rye flour
Org. whole wheat flour
Daily Grind cornmeal
Soy milk
Honey
Org. sea salt
King Arthur “New England” starter

11/12/07


We spent the Thanksgiving weekend cooking--mainly soups, using our new crockpot, which we then canned.



Ann did potato/leek, a favorite adapted by Mollie Katzan, then her own Verde, inspired by a green soup from Whole World Restaurant here in Columbus, but made of whatever greens are in season. I did a couple of squash soups, since there was a great buy on squash locally last week, so I got a couple. Made a Butternut/pear/ginger soup, from a recipe in Deborah Madison's soup cookbook, a winter stew with Delicata and Kambocha squash with red lentils, from a recipe found on an animal rights' organization flyer, and Mollie Katzan's Firecracker Chili, slightly modified. Put up fifteen quarts of soup among us, and Ann got to try out the new 7 quart slow cooker that we charged out on Black Friday to get cheaply. Kitchen smelled fantastically by the time we were done!

Multi Grain Struan--again

another multi-grain struan, from Peter Reinhart's whole wheat recipe. Had to hurry these a bit, as it was getting very late at night--so the rise not as complete as it might have been, and not quite as browned as the last batch. Ah, well. Taste still splendid--



the ingredients in this particular iteration:

Whole Wheat Struan

Whole grains:
Barley
Millet
Steel cut oats
Oat flakes
Wheat flakes
Hops
(soaked overnight, then added to the biga
King Arthur Whole Wheat
Ground flax seed
Soy Milk
Kosher Salt
Agave nectar
Organic canola oil
King Arthur “New England” Starter

Rye pumpernickel

spent the morning at a rally for Barack Obama; he gave an inspiring speech.

photo by Ann Alaia Woods

Therefore, no new loaf this week--so here's a recipe from last year:

Rye-Pumpernickel

Org. whole wheat flour
First clear flour
Org. pumpernickel flour
Rye Blend flour
Corn meal
Millet flour
Barley flour
Teff flour
Ground flax seed
Hemp seed
Barley malt
New England starter
Canola oil
Kosher salt

--and here's Obama coming in for a handshake; photo by Ann Alaia Woods, who did also get to shake his hand--

Multi Grain Struan

Finally got to try baking from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads;
tried the multi-grain struan, Reinhart's signature bread.


Whole Wheat Struan

Whole grains:
Barley
Millet
Quinoa
Oat flakes
Wheat flakes
Hemp seed
King Arthur Whole Wheat
Ground flax seed
Saranac Pale Ale
Soy Milk
Skim Milk
Kosher Salt
Sorghum
Organic canola oil
King Arthur “New England” Starter

the mixed dough


the dough formed, after first rising


a loaf formed and sliced, before second rising


second loaf formed


the 'turban loaf' baked and cooling


the crumb


loaves are terrific--and Peter's method simple to follow. Thanks!

Barley Honey Bread of Lesbos, sort of . . .

wanted to recreate bread from ancient Greece for a graduate seminar I'm currently teaching in Greek, Roman, and Medieval theatre. A fourth century BCE Sicilian-Greek gourmet, Archestratos of Gela, praised the honey-sweetened barley bread of Lesbos in his book, Hedypatheia (Life of Luxury). According to legend, the bread of Lesbos was so famed that Hermes regularly got bread there for the other gods. There are, of course, no recipes. Herewith a reconstruction, entirely guesswork, in the absence of anything like firm records:



the loaf version

Desi Indian Barley flour, in a three to one ratio with
King Arthur Traditional whole wheat flour
Wildflower honey, from a beekeeper in NE Franklin county
Sea salt
Olive oil
Giza sourdough




and a flatbread of the same dough


There was no dry yeast in antiquity, of course; the sourdough used here was collected in the ancient Egyptian site of Giza and obtained from Sourdoughs International. Barley flour was used by the Greeks for everyday bread; Solon at one point says that leavened bread was only used on feast days; in Peace, Aristophanes has a character refer to eating only barley bread, with the sense being that of a diet of bread and water. Also obviously, no refined or enriched bleached (or unbleached, for that matter) white flour would have been available. I also added a bit of wheat gluten to help there be a rise, even for a flat bread—which, again, would have been pretty much the norm for everyday use. The Egyptians of the period (and much earlier) used conical earthenware pots to bake loaves of bread in; I’m not aware of any similar ware in classical Athens.