Help with Ancient Egyptian, 100% emmer, sourdough loaf?
I'm trying to make a reasonably authentic loaf of ancient egyptian bread, using 100% emmer wheat flour, and ancient Giza sourdough culture from Ed Wood's International Sourdough.
I've tried adapting a spelt sourdough recipe with little success, and I am now attempting to use this recipe [pdf].
I'm still a novice bread baker, so I'm looking for pretty specific steps on how to go about doing this. Am I on the right track with that recipe? I can't find a whole lot of information on working with 100% emmer flour.
I guess one of the obstacles here is that I'm not entirely sure what the difference between a bad loaf and an authentic loaf will look like. There are reasonably good sources on ingredients, equipment and methodology, but it's hard to tell what a finished loaf of bread was supposed to be like a few thousand years ago.
In any case, I appreciate any help or insight anyone can offer on the subject!
Used khorasan wheat.
Pretty straight forward. Follow the recipe and soaker is optional.
Do you have to make any adjustments to the final dough if you leave out the soaker?
do you wish one loaf or two loaves option? BTW love your name :)
Thanks. I always thought it was a great username, but I guess I had to use it on a bread forum (or an anthropology forum) to find someone else who thinks it's clever :)
I've prepped for two loaves. My starter and soaker have been sitting overnight (about 12 hours now). I only prepped the soaker because I wasn't sure how to change the recipe to omit it. Thank you, I appreciate the help!
then include it. I think it'll be good. Infact you have inspired me to try this again. Plus, having read through it again (been a while now) I see it's even easier then I first thought.
Yes! It'd take someone who is interested in baking to appreciate it :)
I'll email you soon.
This might be worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYTuNXq1eBk
Although it's about ancient Italian bread rather than (probably older!) Egyptian bread.
I've not used Emmer myself, but do use Khorasan wheat. I think Emmer is lower in gluten than your average strong bread flour though. (Khorasan is relatively high and makes good easy bread)
I'm not sure about the "soaker" part - my own sourdough spelt is very simple - flour 100% (30/70 mix of wholemeal/white spelt), spelt starter - 40% @ 100% hydration, water 50%, salt 1.5%. I also add honey at 8% but if omitting it, bump the water to compensate. Spelt is rather soft and tends to flow into a pancake, so I always prove in bannetons...
The recipe you have suggests baking after the first rise - which might be due to a lower gluten content - so mix into a tin, rise, bake.. ? (that's also what the chap in the video above does, although he just left it to pancake...)
And the proof of the pudding is in the eating - is it edible :-) Can you slice and butter it? But what were the ancient Egyptians using it for - dipping in hummus?
-Gordon
Thanks for the link, interesting stuff.
I think If I try this again, I'll add honey next time, since honey was a huge part of ancient Egyptian cusine and culture. Makes sense that they might include it in their bread. I didn't mix it into a shaped tin for baking, bu considering how flat the bread turned out it might not be a bad idea. I believe I've read the ancient Egyptians used shaped cones of some sort for baking.
Final verdict: edible, but I think we've come a long way in the past few thousand years.
(also, I'm pretty sure a lot of the ancient Egyptians' bread ended up in their beer!)
It has qualities of einkorn (earthy bitterness) but handles better like wheat.
Khorasan has a stretchy gluten so while it is strong it is suited for flat breads and it is a lot sweeter than emmer.
I'm pretty sure that khorasan was used by ancient Egytians. I do enjoy baking with it.
Emmer is the earliest cultivated ancient ancestor of the modern wheat. Einkorn is an older wheat variety but not a direct ancestor. I think!
So who knows just how much leavening the ancient bread actually got - just watched this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUqGxg4z7rQ
and I've made chupatis in the past - that didn't look that dissimilar to that.
Another Egyptian flatbread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HecGYHhCcIg
Looks like you take it out of the fire pit then beat it up a little just to make sure its fully dead...
This was another interesting read: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/bread.htm
-Gordon
Certainly our leavening techniques have been improver and refined over the centuries. Perhaps early civilisations had a 'crude' leavened bread born from early 'sourdough'. They quickly discovered barm from beer making process and from barm came the modern bakers yeast. Sourdough was always a speciality bread and mankind has been looking for quicker more efficient ways ever since.
Thanks for the links.
Well my first loaf just finished cooling.
The dough was very wet after bulk fermentation, and it didn't hold much of a shape at all. I didn't really expect any different, as emmer has very little gluten.
I baked it in a dutch oven at 400f, 20 minutes covered and 25 uncovered. It didn't rise much, if at all, during baking. The final product was a fairly dense, almost cakey bread. The emmer wheat berries from the soaker were crunchy. Not sure if they were supposed to be. It's slightly sweet, and slightly sour.
Overall, it's edible, but it's not great. Would be better without the hard/crunchy emmer berries in it.
I think you might've gotten something close to what the ancients had as leavened bread. Yes, Emmer is an interesting grain with many flavours going on. Quite complex. More difficult to appreciate Emmer than Khorasan or Spelt.
I'm curious... you mention that you didn't have great success with spelt. What recipe did you follow and how did it turn out? Shame because spelt makes a great tasty bread but due to it proofing much quicker than wheat you have to reduce the times.