Solar Eclipse Bread - A Crusty Sesame Bread for a Rare Event
This month Mini Oven challenged us fellow Fresh Loafers to create a special bread to commemorate the upcoming total eclipse of the sun. Spurred by astronomic ambitions I began to ponder how to go about this.
Just a new bread? Where was the connection to the total eclipse?
A two-toned dough? Once I baked a marbled rye bread and found its taste rather underwhelming.
Squid ink as a black dye? Not my cup of tea!
So it had to be a two-toned decoration. Black and white sesame seeds are in my pantry. Only a suitable recipe was missing. It couldn't be a loaf whose oven-spring would tear and destroy any decorative topping.
The answer was a flat bread that would spread more than rise.
I found a good starting point in Austrian baker Dietmar Kappl's Fladenbrot, [1] tweaking it to suit my needs: with a long, cold bulk fermentation and the introduction of a little whole grain flour (I tried it with rye and emmer - both tasted great).
To emulate the eclipse I needed a ring-shaped utensil to press the outline of the moon into the dough. A large yogurt tub had just the right diameter (11.5 cm/4.5 inches).
We were so happy with my crusty, nutty flat bread that I baked it again, two days later, for my customers at the natural food store that sells my breads.
To see the recipe [2] and pictures of the process, please visit my blog "Brot & Bread [2]".