The Fresh Loaf

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Karin's Aroma Bread gets Tipsy

Alpana's picture
Alpana

Karin's Aroma Bread gets Tipsy

When Karin posted her Aroma Bread, I promptly added it to my bucket list. This was one bread that I had to try out. With my family putting an embargo on nuts, seeds & grains in bread, I had to put it on hold. Later dabrownman posted his version1 and version2 of this tantalizing bread, nudging me further. Yesterday marked six months of my starting to bake bread (one attempt in 2006 is not counted). What started on a lark or more out of my love of trying a new gadget (bread machine in this case), has come a long way and become way too much fun & serious. It is no longer about playing with an appliance - I have actually realised that I love the feel of sticky, squishy dough and watching oven spring on bread has become an infinite sense of pleasure and accomplishment. So I decided to make this bread only for myself and what I would love in a bread if only I was to eat (no worries about rest as I have made Leader's Semolina Sandwich Bread for them).

I decided to go with IY as it has been a long time since I have made a bread with commercial yeast, YW being my staple these days. Sorghum was my choice for whole berries, but I cooked them in rice cooker instead of cold soaker in Karin's recipe.

For the aroma spice blend I toasted 2 tablespoons of coriander seeds, 1 tablespoon of cumin seeds & 1 teaspoon on schezwan pepper and used my grinder to powder them.

After putting my berries to cook, I made a short trip to grocery store. While roaming the aisle, I chanced upon Kirin beer from Japan, which is pretty good. I though using Kirin beer in Karin's bread (corny, isn't it?) would be perfect. So that became the liquid. After reaching home, I measured the can contents and they came to around 325 gms. I was thinking of adding a slight sweet note to bread, where you can't taste the sweetness, but will balance the spices and beer. So Coca cola want in to bridge the deficit of 150 gms.

When the berries had cooled down and beer+cola had chilled, I mixed up the dough. I didn't have coarse cornmeal, so went with coarse semolina. I forgot Karin's instructions & put the cooked berries along with dry stuff at the outset. No idea how it affected the bread, but will remember next time.

My dough was ready in around 6-7 hours, but I had time to proceed only after 8 hours. As I am fairly confident of forgiving time lines of no knead bread, it was not an issue. Folded over the dough in 4 folds and kept it to proof in a linen towel in a colander as my round banneton is too small. Pre heated my claypot at 250C. My second proof was 30 minutes as usual. Kept in claypot with lid on for 30 minutes and then without the lid for 25 minutes with oven turned down to 230C. And yes, I once again attempted to score!

Excellent oven spring and nice crispy crust. It has survived my shaping & scoring quite well. Kept it to cool overnight & sliced today morning. The crumb :

I ate it as is, toasted and with EVOO. The spices, the seeds and berries and the nuttiness of spelt is superb. Not sure if beer & cola made any difference as I cannot recognise them, but I have not made this without them so wouldn't know.

If all things on my bucket list are this good, I better start ticking off items soon! Thanks, Karin, for  this one :)

Comments

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

really freaked me out.  What a a great photo!  It should win Floyd's TFL 'Picture of the Year' award if he ever creates that award category.  I would feature it on the home page just as a piece of art!

The thing about aroma bread is that it has to have a pronounced terrific spice smell.  Coriander and cumin fit the bill but the schezwan pepper is a stroke of genius as is subbing the semolina for the corn meal.  My apprentice couldn't figure out the fabulous, yellowish, brown color of the crust but now we think it was the semolina at work.  It happens every time we put in the mix - a great crust thing about semolina beside the sweetness it provides.  The beer and cola for the liquid sounds at least partially German and a welcome change.  i like all the changes that make this bread yours..

I still have no idea what sorghum tastes like but I am going to get my rice cooker out of the garage to cook grains fro bread.

One of your next versions of this bread should be to add in a bunch of nuts and seeds.  Maria Speck's bread, as well as Karin's take on it and my couple of attempts at it, is that when it is sliced, one is quick to note that is chock full of seeds and nuts, mainly flax, sesame and sunflower but it could easily be poppy, hemp or pumpkin or any other combination.  I think that you will like these additions in your version, as much as I do in mine - but my apprentice is fairly seedy and quite nutty,   Some of this may have rubbed of on me over the years :-)

Happy baking Alpana!

 

Alpana's picture
Alpana

The photo is result of my daughter dabbling in iPhone apps. I usually leave her photo makeovers for my FB, but I thought this one did not take away focus from the bread. Schezwan pepper was last minute choice. I wanted to put the spices that we prefer and was going along black pepper when I thought schezwan will give a better colour. Do you think the yellow colour is of semolina? Because I made Leader's 100% semolina bread and was expecting yellow crumb and this is what I got a milk white one. What is your guess? Is it because I did intensive kneading for the loaf and this one is no knead?

I will love to add diff seeds & nuts. Only poppy seeds & hemp seeds are not possible as they are banned in Singapore :). 

You will like sorghum (will be sold as jowar in Indian stores and will be much cheaper than buying in gluten free section). It has a sweet & nutty flavour. Spelt reminded me of it.

Glad you liked this bread. It is special :)

 

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Can't wait to try to sprout it!  My great uncle used to plant it in Kansas and called it Milo.   He planted it for feed for the livestock,  He also mashed it, fermented it and made grain alcohol out of it - for medicinal purposed of course.  You can also make a kind of molasses out of it.  

Alpana's picture
Alpana

These millets form a staple diet of rural western parts of India, which do not have the rich, fertile soil of northern parts to grow wheat. So while in western India, urban areas eat chapatis, naans & parathas, the villages mainly use millet flatbreads as their carbs, though I think it is changing nowadays. The health benefits are recent knowledge. The sifted bran makes ideal cattle feed. The cattle there would love to be on your uncle's ranch to get entire millets for their own!

The flatbreads made from these flours are quite interesting. And molasses are made in many millet growing homes to go with the flatbreads for breakfast. A diff version of pancakes with maple syrup, I guess.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

the crust came from the semolina.  That yellowish brown is a sure give away that semolina is in there somewhere.  Not sure why it didn't come through more in the crumb except it must have been a small amount? The crumb color is a gorgeous darker brown in the photos so the semolina was just probably overshadowed?  The srust color reflected the color of the crumb so maybe it wasn't the semolina coming through there either ! 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I agree....beautiful photography and bread.  Very nice job on the adaptation.  

Regards

Ian

Alpana's picture
Alpana

Couldn't have found a better bread to use the leftover whole spelt. Next stop will be kamut or amarnath. What do you suggest? Thanks for your kind remarks. 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Go with the Kamut.  I love this flour....the other one not so much..

Alpana's picture
Alpana

Kamut, it will be! Thanks, Ian.

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Nice bread, Alpana!

I don't mind the looks, if it contains all of those ingredients, it must be fantastic!

-Khalid

Alpana's picture
Alpana

It is quite a tasty bread. Thanks for liking it, Khalid.