Two buckwheat loaves

[shewhomust]

The last two loaves I made have both contained a proportion of buckwheat. I was a bit hesitant about this, as none of my bread recipes mention buckwheat, and the bag has been at the back of the drawer for quite a long time. In fact, "quite a long time" is several years: it must be, because I bought the flour in France, and when did I last have an opportunity to do that? I buy buckwheat flour (sarrasin or blé noir to make savoury pancakes, as they do in Brittany, and just had to check that buckwheat really is the English name. My French/English dictionary won't tell me the French for 'buckwheat', but it's willing to tell me the English for sarrasin, so that's all right. Books tell you that flour becomes rancid if you keep it too long, but I've never noticed any problems.

Proportions were: the usual starter, made with white flour, plus a third each of (wholemeal) spelt, buckwheat and the crunchy wholemeal from Lode Mill.

First time round, I used sunflour oil, and added sunflower seeds at the last kneading, so that most of them were on the crust, for added crunch. I ran out of time, so it didn't have as long for the final rise as I would have liked, but it wasn't too dense, and had a good nutty flavour. It made excellent toast, but it was too crumbly to make good sandwiches (they tasted fine, but tended to disintegrate).

Next time, having remembered to buy some sesame seeds, I used sesame oil, and I may have been too mean with it (it's quite strongly flavoured, and I didn't want to overdo it) as the resultant loaf had a rather cracked crust. It tasted fine, but bits fell off when I sliced it. I meant to give it longer to rise in the tin, but forgot to do this before we went out for tea with J., so this loaf, too, had a short final rise; despite which it rose very nicely in the oven, and the sesame seeds made a very tasty crust.

That was the end of the bag of flour; no more buckwheat loaves until I've been to France to stock up again.

And in other culinary news, dinner was a gammon joint with Jersey new potatoes, asparagus and Provençal rosé, with raspberries to follow. Despite the grey clouds, I am trying to will it to be summer - we head north on Thursday.

Comments

provencal rose

[pigshitpoet.livejournal.com]

that must be why most stuff off the shelf is made with canola motor oil..

to avoid the crumble..

; )

i love buckwheat pancakes, with blueberries! great with berry fruit and maple syrup!

Re: provencal rose

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Mmm, pancakes!

Re: provencal rose

[pigshitpoet.livejournal.com]

mmmm.. maple syrup and blueberries..

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

There's no gluten in buckwheat, which is why it's one of the flours I use in breadmaking. I think spelt is quite low in gluten, though as it's not gluten-free I don't know too much about it. So, you've made yourself a relatively low gluten loaf, hence the tendency to crumble. I use xanthan gum in my baking to add some of the stickiness gluten would normally provide. I also add yoghurt to scones and to bread for moistness, which I think may also help hold things together.

My gluten free bread is great for the first 24 hours, okay for the second 24 hours but only good for toasting thereafter. And the longer you keep it, the more it loses structural integrity.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

OK, I knew buckwheat was low in gluten, bur not that it had none at all. And I've had mixed information about spelt flour, so that's helpful.

So next time, either I skip the spelt and use all wheatflour with the buckwheat, or I resign myself to eating all of the loaf as breakfast toast (such a sacrifice!). Thanks.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Don't know about Jersey new potatoes or sourdough but you can't go wrong with asparagus and Provençale rosé; it always provokes the sun to shine (which may just happen secretely, hidden by clouds).

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Maybe a rainbow, at least?