Cooked Kamut berries, now what?
Ongoing Kamut experiment... a short one.
Monday Morning:
I have 600g Kamut berries. Dirctions say how to cook, 2 cups water for 1 cup berries washed in sieve. I decided to use the rice cooker for my good 4 cups of grain. By washing, it was clear that the grain was better washed in a large bowl and water poured off the top to remove parts of hulls and dust. The berries are large enough to drain in a colander. I then let the rice cooker do the work with 1 tsp of salt. All the water was absorbed and the grain took on a caramel color with a nutty fragrance.
Now what? I was hoping to put this grain into a rye bread but I had to eat some first. Very chewy. Very chewy indeed! Now I'm not so sure I want it whole in my bread. I was eating chili for lunch so I combined some cooked grain into it. Uh, ok, not the best idea, but I did get a glimpse of the texture with other food. The tough chewy berries stood out. "Roughage" kept going through my head. I guess the blender is the next step, make the grains smaller. Will I come out with a pudding like substance? I have to think about this.... any ideas? (Meanwhile, starter is being refreshed.) I need some coffee.
Comments
You could try grinding them with a meat-type grinder and putting them in a struan-type bread.
--Pamela
had a rough time and I had to add 120g of water to 150g of cold cooked berries just to get some action. Still rather coarse. I think the berries may too hard to go thru a meat grinder. Worth a try. What the heck.... it worked! Thanks Pamela! My machine groaned and I had to run them thru twice because not all the berries got macerated but it worked!
At first they were too soft to grate so I dried some berries somewhat and they made it through my electric grater. So the rest are out sun drying. Seems the dryer the easier to grate. This yields a light fluffy flour like grated nuts. I keep nibbling on my samples. The grated berries do need to dry more if not used right away.
So... I came out with 3 sizes: Blender was the largest and wet (more like a dough) just short of chopping with a knife. Meat grinder makes medium size. Grater makes fine.
Description: Whole cooked berries top left, Blenderized with water, and Grated on the right. Below is cooked berries coming through the meat grinder.
The plan is to use the largest size (wet at 270g) in a dough tomorrow with water (300g) sd (125g) a little rye (50g) salt, and some bread flour (250-399.9g) to hold it all together. We shall see.
Mini
That's very interesting experiment that you're doing. I would like to know how things turn out for you. I like kamut because of the texture. I sprout them and eat them as part of my salad. Other than that I don't know what to do with them. Do you think I can grind the berries up using my grain mill? They are much softer than winter hard wheat so I worry that the grains will get stuck between my two stones. Please keep us posted on your findings.
Tuesday morning: (April 21, 2009)
Rye starter has actually doubled and peaked so I added the 50g rye flour to it to make a thick doughy paste (175g looking like a 100% hydration) and set it aside. I took the blenderized wheat and added 300g water and 200g AP wheat flour and let the mixer go at it for a minute, switched to dough hooks and added another 100g AP flour. I was debating adding oil. Maybe the cooked wheat doesn't need it. Will decide that after I see the finished crumb.
Bit by bit I added sourdough starter and let it blend in. I covered the bowl and just let it sit there. After 30 minutes, turned it out onto the counter top and sprinkled with a lightly rounded teaspoon of table salt and slowly kneaded in another 100g AP flour (total of 400g.) The dough was very sticky (due to the rye) and the bench scraper got it's work out. Placed the dough into an oiled bowl and covered to rise. After 3 hours, I did some folds. I decided the lumpy dough was firm enough to place into a well floured banneton and there it sits with oiled plastic wrap on top to prevent drying. The dough weighs in at 1100g.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the kitchen:
I left the cooked grains out to dry overnight and today...tried the grater...this was getting nowhere fast so I jumped to the meat grinder. Big mistake. As soon as the berries got into the machine there was a big "c r a c k". The gear attachment part cracked off, the only plastic part on it.... Guess I should have run the berries thru yesterday when they were wetter or soaked them again before trying today. Now they could go into a mill. Some of the larger cracked pieces resemble bulgar (almost transparent amber colored pieces) ...makes me wonder... Just looked it up. Yup, that's exactly what I made, bulgar, and it looks like it wouldn't gum up a mill. I don't have one, leider. (Got to still treat this stuff like a non-gluten flour) Maybe it will end up in a salad. Thanks athletrainer.
Beginning to think more and more that it is better to purchase the kamut as flour for breads. It has a sweet taste, like spelt. Hope the flavor shows up in the loaf. Very curious how hard those bits of berries will be in the crust.
Mini
The bread is in the oven with a very loose structure. Time to repeat... :(
Tuesday Evening:
As my refreshed starter was peaking, I decided to mix up another batch, this time with bread flour. (How did that happen?) And I noticed lots of differences! The dough pulled together in less time. It was stretchy (but still sticky) I didn't think I needed a mixer so I mixed it by hand and just used a spatula at first. I also added a tablespoon of oil and one teaspoon of brown sugar. Not really needed as the loaf, although flat, has a nice soft crumb texture and good flavour. (It was just lacking gluten!) The crust color is also lovely orange brown.
This new dough is now in the refrigerator retarding and will come out tomorrow to get warmed up, folded and bannatonized before baking. I got good feelings about this one....Thanks for tuning in,
Mini
This is all very interesting. I am keeping a close eye on what's happening in your kitchen! Do you happen to have a picture of your flat yet very tasty bread? I am curious.
Wednesday:
The second Kamut loaf has just successfully come out of the oven. Makes the first loaf look like a frisbee. Half of yesterday's loaf is gone already. So here they are: Loaf on left with bread flour (wheat 700) and the frisbee to the right made with AP flour (wheat 480 griffig) although it looks like there is a color difference, there is not. There is a texture difference!
Todays loaf took a long time to warm up, and then I folded it and let it rise some more. I heated my oven and when the oven reached 250°c I folded (but not stretched) the dough again, shaping it (wet hands) and placing it on parchment not giving it more than 10 minutes before it went in. (no banneton) I gave it an X score and covered it up. After 20 min I removed the cover , reduced the heat to 210°c and continued baking about 30 min longer.
Thursday:
I have to say that although the first loaf is flatter, it is the best tasting. The loaf made with bread flour may look fluffier but has more "chew" and feels heavier or gummy in my mouth and this retarded loaf has more sour. The first loaf is nuttier, breaks down faster on the tongue with sour more in the background coming as a pleasant after taste that lingers.
Mini
That's really interesting, Mini, that the flatter loaf is better tasting. Both look very delicious. I've never even tasted kamut, but you've got me wanting to try it!
--Pamela
Thanks for sharing, Mini!
I love the photo of your loaves. The one on the right reminds me of a miche, and since I don't eat with my eyes, so I'll go for taste anytime :) Would you say kamut is similar to spelt in taste?
It looks nice, green and warm where you are **dreamy, envious look**
Would you say kamut is similar to spelt in taste?
Yes I would. I would go so far as to say I like it better than spelt. I haven't lined up a variety of cooked berries but I suppose that would be a definite test. I'm going to sprout some kamut berries and see where that takes me. I'm very curious now about using Kamut flour if the price is right.
It could be that the taste differences lie in the "whole" outer shell of the grain. I regularly eat fresh young grain from the field and wheat is good but not my favorite.
That loaf on the right is 1 1/2 inches tall as most! We are having unbelievably warm short sleeve weather although it can drop to 7°c at night. I put an inverted bucket over my tomato when it sleeps. The lilacs are blooming and it sure is dreamy to take a rest stretching out in the garden. When the breezes change so do the fragrances, everything is blooming all at once. We could use some rain.
Mini
I really enjoyed your experiment. Makes me wonder what other flours I could try. I buy kamut berries from a whole food store. Unfortunately, kamut is one of the most expensive grains we can get here in Calgary. I have not try grinding kamut berries but maybe one day I will have enough courage to put them through my stones. My mill doesn't have problems grinding rye but of course rye is harder than kamut. I really like the chewy texture and nutty flavor of kamut berries once they're sprouted. I love nuts and tend to put too many in my salad. But I can go with a lot less nuts if I put kamut in my salad.
Speaking of weather, we have just had another blizzard yesterday. Spring doesn't arrived until after the May long weekend. Right now I am just using herbs from my Aero Garden. Can't wait to be able to plant more herbs out in the backyard. I plan on using a lot of them to make herb breads this summer.
Back to sprouting some. This organic bag says they're from Canada...a little dust in the bag so the bugs are trying to beat me to them... will use them up this week. It's just a little bag.
I got spelt berries too! They're Austrian. Home turf stuff. When I mix German and English words, I come out with dinkel berries. Why the name even sounds like fun! Dinkle Berries! Spelt sounds so stuffy. Two word could not be so far apart, not even at the same end of the alphabet! Well folks, I'm off to play with my Kamut & Dinkel Berries ...while the cold wind blows!
Tomorrow is Epiphany, I'll be waiting for three, ...the Magi, the Kamut and the Dinkle.... Smile for me. Oht! The Magi just showed up at the door. (pause) Here in Austria they are 3 children dressed as wise men and after a poem and song, a little donation, 20-C+M+B-10 is chalked above the entrance door. 2010 is the year and spread between one first initial for each of the wise men. Brings peace & harmony & all blessings on those who enter. Hey, every little bit helps. I got a Chinese colorful poster to hang up for the middle of February too, for the Chinese new year; peace, harmony and blessings on all those who enter. You can reverse a double wammy at my place. :)
Mini
when it boils. Wonderful! Hints lightly of spice cookies in the oven. I'm boiling some up and sprouting some. Tomorrow I will attempt to repeat the flat loaf pictured above (1100g) and put it into my clay baker for shape. There might be some sprouted berries coming in too. I've just washed the dust off 300g of berries and rolled them up in a dish towel to pat dry. They're in the oven naked on a cookie sheet with a fan and the light on. I will throw them into the blender soon to make some flour, something I do often with oats. Now to pep up my starter. The kamut grain aroma is fantastic in here! (and I haven't even browned any yet!)
I decided that because Kamut is high protein, and low in gluten, I would go about this differently. I wanteded more cohesion in the dough without adding more gluten that might rubberize it. I was going to use a form and not free stand the loaf. I listed all the ingredients first and then changed to a water roux method.
I decided to keep the cooked drained berries that just spent the night in the refrigerator but I would dry chop them in a kitchen machine. I put the water in a small saucepan and stirred in kamut flour, flour that I made from chopping up clean raw berries in my blender/chopper. This I heated and stirred constantly on med-hi until it just started to "blurp" or boil. Removed from the heat and transferred to a bowl where I added the cold chopped cooked berries stirring to cool it down.
When it reached 43°c I added the sourdough starter to blend and then wheat flour. As soon as all the flour was wet, I covered it and let it autolyse 30 minutes. I turned out the dough onto an oiled counter top, sprinkled it with salt and kneaded to blend and darn if it wasn't sticky! (Good ol' rye! Next time a wheat starter.) Used my bench scraper and kept rubbing off dough from my hands. Formed a loose ball weighing in at 1220g.
I turned the dough into an warm oiled bowl to start a 4 hour bulk rise. Started to stretch and fold into the second hour and did 4 folds. Oiling the bowl did not help much with stickiness as the dough was deteriorating fast. I dusted the loaf with some spelt flour and that helped. With the final fold I shaped the dough, rolled it lightly in flour and moved it into my terra cotta form pictured here. It was oiled from the last use so soaking it for 10 minutes seemed silly, the water just pearled off the inside. I dried it, filled it with dough and covered the dough with oiled plasticrap. I think I waited to long (2 hours) hoping it would rise and should have gotten the dough into the heat sooner, instead ended up with no oven spring. I had not baked a sd in the form before and was rather nervous and forgot to trust myself. After the bread was baked, I discovered maybe why the terra cotta form is soaked in water, the loaf was much darker on the fan side of the oven. I think soaking spreads out the heat on the inside baking surface resulting in even browning, that is, when the dough touches the terra cotta.
I put the lid on and set it into the cold oven. Set oven to 225°c (437°F) convection for 60 min. With a mold I didn't get to watch the oven spring. No fun. I kept looking at the oven wondering if I could find a glass form... Turns out it didn't fill the form... more folds... get it into the oven sooner.... It stuck a little, but just a little to the bottom form. I think letting it sit too long in the form resulted in the bubbly, sponge appearance. The cooled loaf was sealed into a plastic bag for 24 hours. It tastes Great!
The recipe:
Mini
got thrown into the rice cooker along with rice and chicken soup to cook. To be served with the chicken meat. The leftover rice & kamut is being made into fried rice as I type.