The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

My unplanned experiment in buckwheat sourdough

bnom's picture
bnom

My unplanned experiment in buckwheat sourdough

The problem with buying specialty flours from the bulk food section is distinquishing the bags from another in my pantry. Those little scribbles on the twist ties don't really help.  Anyway, on Sunday I thought I'd make a rye using my rye sourdough starter. It wasn't until the flour hit the water that I began to notice the greyish color. Ah, this is that buckwheat I bought.

I've never cooked with buckwheat before. The first bread shown is a buckwheat sourdough--it's quite dark, partly because of the grain and mostly because I let it go too long. Nevertheless it was a delicious bread...a perfect complement to the mushroom soup I'd made. (sorry, I didn't use a recipe or weigh my ingredients on this loaf).

Buckwheat bread with rye starter (any my curious cat Bailey):

Then Wednesday, when I reached for my sourdough starter that I had fed on Sunday, I realized that I had accidentally fed it with buckwheat nstead of the rye flour I intended.. It had a sour grassy smell and I was afraid I'd ruined a very good starter. But I decided to use the bulk of it, 300 grams, in a rye bread. I was very happy with it. It has a complex and pleasing flavor, but the buckwheat and white flours toned down the rye.

Rye bread with buckwheat starter:

 

 

Comments

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

on the bread and knows what's good.  I clicked on the photo and I can really see how lovely the loaf presents itself.   Do you have some rough ball park ideas about how much of the various flours you used? 

The buckwheat starter did a very good job raising the loaves.  Which goes to show that a non-gluten starter (with no rise) is also a capable one.

Here are some more ideas using buckwheat starters & four

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6120/buckwheat-starter

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/17056/32310-pain-au-sarrasin-buckwheat-bread

bnom's picture
bnom

Thanks Mini.

On the buckwheat bread using the rye sourdough starter, I probably used about 200 grams of buckwheat. 

When I added the buckwheat to my starter, that was probably 100 grams. 

On the second loaf using the buckwheat starter, I think I used about 200 grams of medium rye.

While I liked the buckwheat bread, I don't think I'd intentionally make a buckwheat starter again. It reminded me too much of wet hay.

Barbara

Charles Luce's picture
Charles Luce

I'd like to share that I've been making GF breads w/ a pure buckwheat leaven for several years. I love buckwheat, always have. Over about 9 months the leaven will become really cheesy, but if you can stomach it, you can use it.

Do I detect that you're in the Pacific NW? I'm doing a GF sourdough workshop there next month - Vancouver WA to be precise.

Good luck with the buckwheat. Hope Bailey doesn't eat all of it!

Charles

bnom's picture
bnom

I'm in Seattle, about 3 hours north of Vancouver. That's cool that you're doing a workshop.  Who's sponsoring it? 

Maybe Bailey is gluten intolerant...he shows no interest in eating my bread, but he does stick his head into photos a lot though.

Charles Luce's picture
Charles Luce

The one in Vancouver is in a private home - part of my regular workshop series (see site) I'll also be on Bainbridge Island to show my techniques to a new GF bakery.  What Bailey is doing we celiacs call "Drive By Sniffing" - enjoying what few pleasures we can obtain from the wheat-eaters kitchens!!! :-) 

Charles

008cats's picture
008cats

Great boules - nice kitty! 

Just wanted to mention that I had the same trouble distinguishing between bags of flour from the bulk store. Now I carry a pen with me - a sharpie if it is for plastic bags. This allows me to knot the bags and not use the tags!

008cats's picture
008cats

My cats, who will eat anything from sweet potatos to tomatos, will not have anything to do with sourdough. At last! Something just for me!