A little while back I baked Hamelman's Vollkornbrot and I also happened to have some home made almond butter which somehow ended on a slice of that bread. I guess "butter?" "bread?" it somehow made a connection in my brain. To my surprise I enjoyed the combination very much. There were more such slices to follow. I was enjoying it so much that eventually I got to thinking if almond butter could go into instead of onto this bread. I did some searching but the only things I found were about spreading almond butter instead of using it as one of the ingredients.
Has anyone baked a dark rye bread with almond butter? Would it even be worth trying? If yes, how much almond butter could be added and would any other adjustment need to be made?
Worth trying - of course. How much to add is up to your tastes. Just adjust for it and you'll be fine. Enjoy!
you could find a recipe that calls for butter or some other fat and try substituting an equal quantity of almond butter in place of the fat. That would give you a starting point.
You’ll need to consider the flavors of the other ingredients, of course, to ensure that they are harmonious.
Paul
Please don't give me any ideas as this one is probably best left for a mad scientist. Which I'm not. Usually.
Joking aside, one thing that is making me doubt success is the apparent enhanced sourness which I don't care much for. However, those loaves are white wheat loaves so maybe a dark rye loaf would mute it thanks to the better buffering capacity. I'll have to bake a test loaf when I make almond butter.
Elaine Boddy wrote about using nut butters in bread, and this inspired me to try peanut, macadamia and also mixed nut butter in bread.
You get a nice smell during baking and a soft crumb, need to sometimes add more than you expect to notice the flavour properly.
-Jon
Somehow that one did not come up in my searches.
One thing that I find interesting is the elevated sourness reported on the blog. Your loaves look great but I don't see any mention of the sour taste. Did you find them to be extra sour? I can't say that I care for sourness in bread (maybe a little) but since I'm thinking about using it in a dark rye loaf maybe the heavy flours would tame it thanks to their better buffering capacity. Only one way to find out. This one gives me something to go off of and I'll try it when I make some almond butter.
For the most recent bread, I can't recall if sourness was such a problem. I'll have to dig up my baking notes for my peanut and macadamia nut butter breads, as I can't recall if they were sour or not!
When it comes to nut butters, probably best to treat them similarly to adding an oil to the loaf, and bearing that in mind perhaps consider working off rye recipes with oil in them as a basis.
-Jon
Edit: found my old notes but they don't mention sour. They do say that macadamia nut butter went better than peanut butter though.
I've never baked bread with any kind of nut butter, but unlike dairy butter, nut butter is very hygroscopic(?). That means that it tries to absorb water, hence the slightly clawing sensation in the mouth when one eats a dollop of peanut butter straight from the jar and why tahini goes all white and fluffy with mixed with lemon juice.
I'm wondering whether this would cause the hydration of the bread to go a little haywire and the recipes hydration needing some revisions upwards.
I have used tahini for non dairy cinnamon rolls and it was nice, so I think using nut butters for lamination might be another good way to incorporate them in to breads.
However, since I'm thinking about incorporating the nut butters in a dark rye loaf I'm unsure of how to accomplish that. Never saw a recipe for dark rye bread that incorporated lamination in the process. Could be trailblazing time!