Sunday, July 6, 2008

Ye olde Tomato wheat oat hemp bread



Guided by the lordly wisdom of Tim and his King Arthur's Glorious Roundtable Wheat Bread recipe, I forged in my oven a loaf of wondrous flavor and texture the likes of which Camelot itself has never known. The tale of its noble origins:

  • 1 dozen(ish) sundried tomatoes
  • 1 1/3 cups water (the very same water that softens the tomatoes!)
  • 2 packets active dry yeast (not instant)
  • 5 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup whole oats
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup soymilk
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (substitute with honey, molasses, or syrup)
  • 1/2 cup hemp protein powder (optional)

There's an element of sorcery in the measurement of these ingredients; there's no need to be precise. The devil is in the details, they say, and I have no taste for devilish breads.

Tomato prep: Soften sun dried tomatoes overnight in water. Save that water, friend. It becomes the color of an afanc's* blood; adding it to the dough gives the bread its scarlet tint and earthen flavor.

The following 'morn, slice the tomatoes into small bits, then combine all ingredients into a deep bowl. The following steps share those of Tim's kingly bread, so follows are his words, minced with those found on a King Arthur's Whole Wheat Flour bag:

Mixing: Stir the dough until it starts to leave the side of the bowl. (I put the water and the sugar/honey in the bowl, mix it up until it's blended, then dump the yeast on it and let sit for 5 minutes and let the yeast "work". After that, I dump the rest of the ingredients in, saving the flour for last). Transfer the dough to a lightly greased surface, oil your hands and knead it for 6 to 8 minutes (I do 10-15, the longer you knead, the less crumbly the bread will be) or until it becomes smooth and supple. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise till puffy though not necessarily double in bulk, about 60 minutes, depending on the warmth of the kitchen (You'll be able to tell, push the dough down a bit and if it springs back, you're good).

Shaping: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled surface and shape it into a [hearty] log. Place the log in a lightly greased loaf pan, cover the pan loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap, and allow the bread to rise for about 30 to 60 minutes, or until it's crowned about 1 inch above the edge of the pan (Whatever size the bread is when you put it in the oven, is how big it will be, so I let it get nice and puffy).

Brent adds: I lack a bread pan. I let the dough rise in a deep bowl, then baked it in a large, flat, broiling pan. The bread, freed from its constraints, grew to mammoth proportions!

Baking: Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. Test it for doneness by removing it from the pan and thumping it on the bottom (I leave it in the pan and tap the top with a long butter knife a few times, it should sound hollow), or measuring its interior temp, it should be 190 degrees at the center. Remove the bread from the oven, turn it out of the pan and cool on a rack before slicing (I'd say at least 20 minutes or more...you don't want to cut it too early).

Brent adds: I removed the bread from the hearth a bit early, while it was still a bit moist. This made for a most glorious cuisinary experience that ripened with each day of passing. Enjoy with soft cheese, or dipped in cabbage-beet-soup.

*Afanc: Demonic lake monster from Welsh mythology - part crocodile, part beaver, part dwarf. Some say the creature was slain by King Arthur himself. Arthur's steed dragged the beast from the deep, allowing it to be killed. -BBC: Wales History

1 comment:

Vampiric Aphid said...

Glad your first loaf came out worthy of ingestion. I commend you for jumping right in, as I've practiced 3-4 times on the basic Glorious Roundtable recipe. I have a hot pepper nearly ripened, and plan on making a chedder jalapeno wheat bread soon.