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Recipe help for pistachio and raisin bread

brødfyr's picture
brødfyr

Recipe help for pistachio and raisin bread

Hi, I am hoping to reproduce some bread I had in a restaurant one time. The bread contained pistachio nuts and raisins but wasn't sweet and went very well with cheese. Goats cheese, blue cheese etc

Does anyone have a recipe for such a bread or can give any advice and how I should concoct a formula for it? In terms of suggestions for types of flour, hydration, additional sugar etc.

Thanks in advance

odinraider's picture
odinraider

It would be difficult to suggest reproducing a recipe without any info on it. What kind of restaurant was it? Indian? Italian? German? 

With the current info, and based on my own preferences, I would do maybe a 70 -72% hydration sourdough with a small sweet starter, and a flour mix of 10% rye, 85% bread flour, and 5% whole wheat. I would keep the add - ins to a small percent, no more than 10% each. Maybe whack the pistachios with an iron pan to break them up a bit. Also, were the raisins chewy, or juicy and plump? Plump probably means a presoak. I would have them chewy so as not to upset the hyrdation level. No extra sugar, but for sweetness if it were wanted, maybe a bit of honey, say 2%. 1.5% salt. A long, slow ferment before adding the fruit and nuts, putting them in just before shaping. My final formula would look something like this:

Starter (fed and ready, at 100%): 200 grams

Bread flour: 850 grams

Rye flour: 100 grams

Whole wheat flour: 50 grams

Salt: 15 grams

Water: 792 grams, divided.  Soften the rye and whole wheat in about 200 grams the night before. Soften the salt in about 50 grams during the autolyse.

Directions would be to soak the rye in the fridge the night before, and feed up the starter.

Autolyse the bread flour with the remaining water and the starter sponge for 20-30 minutes. Add the rye / whole wheat mixture and salt, work to combine.

Let bulk ferment about 5 hours, giving a stretch and fold every 45 minutes for the first three hours.

During the last stretch and fold, incorporate fruit and nuts. Fold into the dough.

Shape and proof about 2 hours, maybe three, at about 68-72F degrees.

Bake in a prehearted oven, at 450F degrees, until done.

Hmmm...now I must try this out myself.

Matt

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

sweet bread you can take your favorite bread and thrown some nuts and dried fruits in it and see how it comes out.   I love pistachios and dried fruits in bread here is my most recent one.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/30661/world-bread-day-sd-multigrain-figs-anise-pistachios-and-sprouts#comments

We were talking about how few pistachios  bread recipes there are but any bread that has nuts in it ....will work.  The search box might help too.

 

brødfyr's picture
brødfyr

Thank you for the detailed response. The restaurant was one of these "modern european" type of restaurants, lots of small courses of really good tasty food.

I don't think the bread was sweeter than the raisins would make it but I can't be completely sure after so much rich food beforehand. The raisins were not really plump but they were also not dry, I guess the dough would provide enough hydration for this without the need for any presoaking.

I have a wheat sourdough starter which I use regularly, would I need to add sugar to make it a sweet starter? I'm a bit unsure about adding more sweetness to it anyway, the bread was perfect with cheese and port. Think some experimentation will be required :) Thanks for the recipe ideas

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and don't want to add any sugar ( I don't want to),  we make sure to use the re-hydration left over water in the bread as part of the liquid.  It is amazing how sweet this water is, yeast love thaat,  yet doesn't make the bread sweet.  Just soak the raisins in a little extra hot water and then as you plump the raisins and you make much of your bread liquid too.

odinraider's picture
odinraider

Sorry for not clarifying. When I say "sweet" starter, I mean one that is young and has not taken on the sour characteristics common when starters mature and Lactobacillus profligates the yeasts. The starter, and subsequent bread, have a slightly sweet smell and taste. Similar to, yet vastly different than, commercial yeast. Definitely no sugar added. Essentially, use it after you've fed it but before it gets funky.

Matt

 

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Heisann!

Ser du er fra Stavanger, brødfyr, så jeg lurer på hvor du spiste? Jeg er en Kleppbu selv, ser du... :-)

You can find a few interesting sourdough and straight/preferment nut-and-dried fruit formulas in the textbook "Bread" by Hamelman. One example is the "Golden Raisin and Walnut Bread" in chapter four (if you don't have the book yet, you can find a preview of this chapter at the publisher: http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/72/04711685/0471168572.pdf). You probably would want to adjust the weight of nuts if you're replacing walnuts with pistachios; have a go with some 7% - 8% in terms of baker's % instead of the 16% proposed in the original formula by Hamelman? If you want to leaven the bread with your starter, putting some 16% - 18% of the flour in the starter build sounds about right to me.

I would suggest soaking the raisins overnight, however - this makes them plump up and become more juicy. Drain them well in a colander before adding them to the dough at the very last stages of mixing.

Lykke til :D

brødfyr's picture
brødfyr

Thanks for the recipe ideas, I have just moved house so haven't had any chance to try anything out yet. Hopefully I can get the kitchen sorted out soon and get around to this. For now I have to buy bread from the store.... :(

Hansjoakim, jeg er fra England, men bor i Stavanger nå. Restauranten heter Tango Bar og Kjøkken og det ligger i Stavanger Sentrum. Veldig god mat og vin, litt dyrt men kan ikke klage om det.

I don't have the Hamelman book, yet... but it looks quite useful from the preview. May have to try to find it at the book store