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Wholemeal Crank

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  1. I posted a query in the sourdough starter topic about the experiments in baking bread using cultures recovered from ancient Egyptian pottery and looking for actual recipes that use ancient and heritage grains that would have been available as staples in Egypt at that time--einkorn, emmer, barley. Has anyone here got such a recipe or seen one?
  2. So I was listening to As it happens, and the other day they replayed this story: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5240203/what-does-bread-from-4-500-year-old-egyptian-yeast-taste-like-rich-with-overtones-of-brown-sugar-1.5240514 Basically, the story describes adventures in sourdough recovery from ancient Egyptian pottery (done under reasonably controlled conditions) and notes that they used barley and einkorn to bake bread with it because they did not have modern wheat in ancient Egypt. My most recent batch of sourdough starter had again gone awry after my first baking, and I needed to make another batch anyway, so I decided to see what happens if I follow the basic process from Peter's book in terms of quantity and proportions of flour and water and timing, but substitute barley and einkorn wheat for the flours (50:50 fresh home milled barley:einkorn, just because I could not find a more detailed reference yet). Basically, I'm curious to see if the starter generated is more like a regular wheat sourdough or different, because of the different grains, even if they were grown likely somewhere in the US or Canada, thousands of years and miles from ancient Egypt. The starter has been quick to develop and I've now got it ready to bake, and mixed up 1 part starter to 2 parts 50:50 water:flour, and will save some for my future starter and fill out the rest with more of the mixed flour, water and salt to make the first loaves. I've played with barley a little in unleavened flat breads (makes a nice breakfast 'toast' with peanut butter or jam), and a fraction of barley in a more conventional yeasted bread, but this is different, and I'd love to see an actual recipe suggesting proportions of the different grain flours and . But the signal to noise ratio in trying to google this is poor, because the original story from 2019 was very widely published and republished in every sort of new outlet, and the proliferation of sourdough baking and blogs during pandemic lockdown further overwhelms search results. Have any of you here seen an actual recipe shared/published by Blackley, Love, or their collaborators?
  3. And duh!, why didn't I think of this before: Caputo's lists several nibs from top chocolate makers including Marou from Vietnam. Not cheap, but I have liked so many of their chocolates that I might try some next time I'm ordering from them.
  4. I just discovered that they're available from Dandelion Chocolate as well, but as expected, not cheap. I decided to go with them because I have really enjoyed the specific Kokoa Kamili bar made from those beans, so I'm going to hope I like the nibs as well as the chocolate. I haven't had similar high percentage Valrhona's chocolate for a long time, but IIRC their roasts tend to be darker than my preference. But I'm really glad this is something major makers are still putting out, because it does add such a fine touch in the right recipes.
  5. Need to wake this topic up because Scharffenberger no longer is selling their cacao nibs. I have built them into a number of recipes (e.g., Five by Five Chocolate Cookies) as an interesting alternative to tree nuts and to add more cacao flavor to a recipe. Now that they're no longer available from Scharffenberger, I'm mostly seeing versions from companies whose emphasis is on natural/organic/whole ingredients, and having been burned by too many awful muddy chocolates from similar producers, I'm wary of ordering random brands. I want nibs that will actually taste good in my recipes, good enough for making into decent chocolate,and not stale, bland, badly roasted versions. Where do you get nibs you can trust?
  6. I have been playing with ammonium carbonate for a year or so, since I first bought some to use for my Lebkuchen experiments. I read about the cautions to use it in things that get baked thoroughly, to avoid the bitterness of incompletely evaporated ammonia in the finished products, so I’ve been careful to use it in things that are meant to be thin and crisp all the way through. This weekend I prepared a batch of crackers, based on little Salted Biscuits from the breads of France. I modified the recipe a little bit, with some malt and flake yeast for flavor, and of course I milled the flour fresh as I usually do. For 600 g flour , I used 2 teaspoons of ammonium carbonate. I rolled them out, less than an eighth of an inch thick, but probably a little more than a 16th of an inch, baked them at about 375° for eight minutes on silicone lined baking sheets over quarter inch baking steels in my convection oven, which was preheated with a couple of batches of cookies before I started the crackers. After the crackers were done, I put them back in the oven at about 200° for 90 minutes to fully dry and crisp up. And the result? Instead of adding a bit of lightness to what is usually a dense but delicious cracker, I got light and crisp crackers that feel fully dried, but have that have a horrible chemical taste that I assume represents that which was described as piss salt above. So the question is why? I did my best to get these things thoroughly dry and thoroughly baked. And the cookies that I baked at the same time, which were also made using ammonium carbonate, and were a little over an eighth of an inch thick, also double baked with that second long, low heating with the crackers, are delicious without a hint of that chemical taste. So now I’m puzzled why the thinner product, which, arguably, should be less likely to have in completely evaporated ammonia, clearly has ammonia left?
  7. I wanted to feature the dried cacao fruit I discovered this week at Whole Foods, little thin squares that seem like fruit leather, from 'Blue Stripes Urban Cacao', in 4 oz packages (the recipe uses one whole package). I've been curious about cacao pulp since as soon as I realized that the pulp was the original attraction of cacao for the indigenous people who discovered it, but since the pulp is key to traditional fermentation of the beans, I figured I'd have to go to a cacao farm to actually taste it. But in the last year, I've had a cacao fruit popsicle from Dick Taylor's Chocolates (only available at their factory store in Eureka), and a cacao fruit bar from them. I also bought some "Cacao Fruit Bites" found at a health food store, but was disappointed to find that Cacao Fruit was a minority ingredient in all of them. However, not only did this 100% cacao fruit pulp product appear on the shelf, but I saw this very interesting article that suggests the pulp may be less integral to bean processing than I'd suspected--so maybe I can enjoy some cacao fruit while feeling less guilty depriving some beans of what they need to maximize their potential....and maybe separating some of the pulp for this use can actually increase income for the farmers: <https://www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2022/acs-presspac-april-27-2022/new-coc oa-processing-method-produces-fruitier-more-flowery-dark-chocolate.html> I built these comparing several different recipes, including Chewy Chocolate Cookies from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book and some of my own previous versions trying to create a fudgy brownie-like cookie without making something too close to a flourless chocolate cake or even truffle. I also made them without gluten so I can share them with a colleague who is gluten-sensitive, and because teff is so very good in chocolates. The chia is to help them hold together with the gluten-free flours, and can be omitted if using a wheat flour with gluten. Mincing the cacao fruit is difficult because it is so sticky, so I use my favorite technique of letting the food processor do the work by adding the dried fruit with a portion of the flour, so the fruit bits get immediately flour coated as they are chopped, and you can get it quite fine that way. Five by Five Chocolate Cookies 3/4 cup / 170 grams unsalted butter (if what you have is salted, see adjustment below) 3/4 cup / 150 grams sugar 3 1/2 ounces / 100 grams unsweetened chocolate 3 large eggs 3 tablespoons / 45 grams water OR 1/4 cup buttermilk [1 teaspoon vanilla if not using vanilla bean] Milled together 225 grams teff 2 inches vanilla bean [OR use 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, added with the eggs and buttermilk or water] Alternatives for the fresh milled flour 1 1/2 cups / 225 grams teff flour 1 1/2 cups / 225 grams whole wheat pastry flour or soft wheat flour or all purpose flour 2 tablespoons / 12 grams buttermilk powder [omit if using buttermilk] 1/2 cup / 75 grams cocoa 10 grams ground chia seeds [omit if using wheat flour] 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt [omit if using salted butter] 4 ounces / 113 grams dried cacao fruit, minced 1/2 cup / 2 ounces or 60 grams cacao nibs 2 ounces / 56 grams finely chopped bittersweet chocolate (I used one bar of Dick Taylor's 70% Sambirano; 70% Scharffenberger is also delicious here) Melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together (I do it in the microwave on lower power to avoid scorching the chocolate, stirring often). Transfer to mixing bowl, and beat together with the sugar. Beat in the eggs, water or buttermilk, and vanilla if using. Take half of the flour and whirl in food processor with the dried cacao fruit until the fruit is very finely minced. This stuff is STICKY and the food processor struggles a bit to manage it; I have to stop and pick the gummy coating off the blade a few times to get it done. You can also chop it with a knife but it is hard work and the knife will need a lot of clearing too. Sift or whisk the flours, chia [if using gluten-free flours], salt, baking powder, buttermilk powder [if using] together, and add to the mixing bowl together with the the flour/cacao fruit, cacao nibs, and chopped chocolate. Stir together until well mixed, and let sit for several hours at room temperature, or overnight in the refrigerator to hydrate the flours. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F / 163 degrees C. Roll teaspoonsful of dough into small balls, flatten them a little, place them fairly close together on lightly greased or parchment or silpat lined baking sheets (they won't spread much). Bake 325 degrees for 12 minutes, until they are dry and a little firm on the outside but soft without being gooey on the inside. They're also flexible enough for refrigerator cookies, which take less work but a little longer for chilling. This is how I made them the second time, and I think it worked better: let sit for several hours at room temperature or in the refrigerator, to hydrate the flour and let the dough firm up enough to be shaped into rolls. Take about 1/3 of the dough and form into a roll, about 2 inches in diameter, and wrap in waxed paper or parchment or plastic wrap, and chill until quite firm for neat slicing (about 2 hours in freezer, overnight in refrigerator). When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F / 163° C. Slice the rolls 1/4 inch thick and place on prepared baking sheets (lightly greased, or lined with parchment or silpat). Bake 325°F for about 12 minutes, until they are a little dry and firm on the outside, should still be a little soft but not gooey inside. Also posted to my website. EDITED to update recipe: I found these work really well as icebox cookies, and decided to use a little less flour so they'd be less 'doughy'. I also shifted from 50:50 teff:oat to 100% teff.
  8. That sounds so intriguing that I am pondering, making a chocolate house for Christmas with chocolate glue… after all, Gingerbread shouldn’t have all the fun!
  9. And....I found I had some powdered whites stuck in the back of a cabinet, and that worked great. I put a sign on it stating it was for eating, but things went slowly until I ripped off a corner of the roof, and then people started to go for it. It's now about 1/3 gone, a good start for something that keeps for days, and can sit in the conference room until it is gone. Dark chocolate sounds great but I'll have to be more on top of things than I normally am to make something far enough in advance to do the chocolate, since I'm assuming it needs to set for a few hours before it is well enough solidified for decorating. Is that about right?
  10. I make gingerbread houses out of gingerbread that I will actually enjoy eating. One of the joys of Gingerbread, the “real” kind, is that all of those spices really do help preserve the gingerbread. I make the houses just a few days before the holiday, so if they don’t sit around for weeks to be gawked at and go stale nevertheless. And whenever possible (when I’m making it for myself or friends, and not necessarily with the help of a small person who demands the brightest candies), I decorate mine with dried fruit and nuts and minimal frosting, so that actually is something I would like to eat, and when I do them this way, and share them with other people, they will eat them. (Admittedly, the egg-white cement gets picked off most of the time....) And though I use hard wheat for the flour when making construction ginger bread, I mostly make it fit for construction by baking it thick enough that it has some stability when cut and sat on the edge, but still has enough fat and leavening and sugar to be reasonably tender.
  11. I basically agree with the above. I’m often trying to add flavor at that step, and I might use straight orange juice or lemon juice for a sweet bland fruit (raisins, some blueberries), but when, using a lot of fruit, sometimes that’s gonna get to tart or too strong, and it needs to be a mix of plain water and juice. I rarely go so far as to steam them, because that’s more trouble than pouring some boiling water over some dried fruit and letting it sit. But steaming definitely works and you’re less likely to end up with fruit that is almost dissolved the edges that can happen when you pour hot water over it and let it soak.
  12. do you pasteurized them with a Sou vide set up?
  13. this year it’s time to make a haunted gingerbread house for Halloween. I’ve always used egg white cement for the construction glue to hold the walls together. Does a cooked frosting that is safer to eat even for the immunocompromised work as well? Is it is quick setting? What is your favorite recipe for gluing/cementing the big pieces together? and of course this is definitely going to be 100% edible.
  14. One way to use them without worrying about hydration or not is to put them in a food processor with a couple of tablespoons of flour or sugar (subtracted from the dry ingredients for the recipe) and then process until the dried fruit is chopped to the degree of fineness that you desire, but still separate places because coated with flour and/or sugar and not just balled up in a paste. Unless you are using a lot of fruit, you should not need to make much adjustment to the liquid portion of the recipe. I do this for a quick breads, yeasted breads, cookies, cakes. My best yet take on 'fruitcake' uses this technique to maximize the fruitiness without the traditional candied citron. If you want to distinct larger pieces, or intact fruits, then I generally will rehydrate.
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