Saturday, March 31, 2012
Baking bread - Linseed-sesame bread
One of the first things I started doing myself in Namibia, was bread. And not, because you don't get good bread in Namibia, you do. With the German past and still present influence, you will hardly miss the German culinary world. There are not only plenty German restaurants in Namibia, but also the typical occupations like baker and butcher, the Germans are famous for, are either influenced by or in hand of Germans. Beside Namibia importing wast of German products for the "feel at home" sensation.
But it was a new challenge. I asked myself, is it possible to bake bread at home as good as you can buy at the bakery or even better? Well, I don't know, if it's better, but at least as good as and I know, what ingredients I'm using. The main motive for me cooking, was being aware of the ingredients I'm using. After the birth of our daughter even more than ever.
I remember I baked my first breads without a yeast sponge or sour dough. They are tasty, the day you bake them and if you're lucky even the day after. But we need mostly a bit longer, to finish a bread. I remember reading millions of recipes and various websites about baking bread, one of them very helpful from a German baker (Bäcker Süpke's Welt).
The preparation of bread spread to two days or more kind of scared me off. And to be honest, when I was baking bread, then I needed it now or never, always somehow last minute. But after throwing away, I don't remember how many halves of breads, me, who is very aware of being poor and having nothing to eat and of the poverty in our country, I realised, that I have to change my bread baking behaviour. And I did and was rewarded with fantastic bread, sometimes even ready in only one day.
My first sour dough I made from a ready to buy sachet. It was a German product, I don't know if you can buy ready sour dough all over the world. You can always do your starter yourself.
The linseed-sesame bread was again part of my birthday gift for my mum in law. I know, I'm late with my publishing, but I was sick and not really in the mood of writing. No excuse.
So let's start, we don't want to waste any more time. One more thing, I only bake small breads, as I like eating them as fresh as possible. Please join me!
Linseed - sesame bread
Ingredients
Sour dough (regular sponge)
250 g brown bread flour
300ml lukewarm water
75g sour dough or mother dough
1 pkg instant yeast
1 tsp sugar
Main dough
250 g brown bread flour
1 tsp salt
50 g linseed
50 g sesame seed
Preparation
Bring your sour dough to 30°C, by mixing it with part of your lukewarm water (I store it always in a small jar in the fridge and just fill then up with lukewarm water and shake till combined. If it reaches 30 °C I can"t tell, but it seems to be enough).
Mix the yeast with the rest of the water and sugar, till resolved and let to rest for around 5 minutes. Foam will build on the surface.
Mix the flour with the yeast-water mix and your sour dough, till smooth. The dough is now more a batter, very fluid. Cover and put aside to rest for minimum 3 hours.
If you're in a hurry, you can proceed with bread baking, if not let it rest in the fridge for 12 hours and bake your bread then. If you one day try out both options, you will see the difference in the aroma. But both variations are tasty.
Whatever option you use, before you go on with the main dough, don't forget to put ca 8 tbsp of your new sour dough into a jar. If you know, you'll bake your next bread in the next two, three weeks, you can put the jar into the fridge, if you're not planing on baking bread for a longer period, put it in the deep freezer.
If your regular sponge is coming out the fridge, bring it first to room temperature. Then mix in the salt evenly and knead in the flour till smooth. Add at the and the seeds and knead till evenly spread. Cover and let rest for 60 min or the dough doubles the size.
Knead again the big air bubbles out and form your loaf or fill into your bread pan. Cover with a kitchen towel and put aside to rise. You can leave it up to an hour, so that the dough is noticeable risen. I let it rise, till the oven is hot.
Preheat the oven to 225°C. Put a heat resistant bowl filled with water into the oven.
Bake for 20 min, then reduce the heat to 200°C and bake for another 20 min. Take out the oven and let it rest for 5 min, take it then out the pan and let it rest to cool. Enjoy!
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