My first test of Essene Flat Bread is done. The results are, well, flat. It was to be expected, after all. Lord knows I have made flatter breads, both on purpose or not, before. I am going to approach the bread from my usual observational criteria of food: taste, smell, (aroma would sound so much better), texture, looks and context. General notes on preparation will follow.
Taste - It tastes good. A slightly sweet flavour, in part from the maple syrup I added, but also definately from the wheat berries. It has a wheaty taste, but not floury. Before I ground it up in the food processor I was afraid it would taste grassy since I could smell a hint of it from the sprouting. I was concerned that I had oversprouted past the required 1/8th of an inch, but once I poured out the sprouts I realized some had sprouted even less than the 1/16th of an inch suggested in the recipe. I could taste a hint of the salt, which in my books is ok, especially since its the lovely grainy, french sea salt, but the flatbread could easily go with less than the teaspoon suggested.
Smell - Very nice, a pure wheat smell, not yeasty, (obviously), nor grassy as feared. I have had some organic stone ground whole flours that smelled quite grassy when wet, which seems weird to me, (Any comments on this would be appreciated).
Texture - with a thin crust on the bottom and top, and a chewy interior that brought to mind porridge. It is not unpleasant. It is, on the other hand not common to our North American idea of bread, even unlevened flatbread such as roti.
Appearance - Well, it doesn't look great. At least not to me, but it is my first try, and I am already trying to figure out how to make it in a rectangular loaf like I used to buy in my health food days many, many years ago. Some of the appearance problems have to do with how I baked my first flat loaf, but more on that in preparation notes. I should add that with the oven temperature so low, there was no browning on the crust, which wouldn't have improved it's looks anyway. I think this bread has browning potential because of the sugar levels in the sprouted berries, and the addition of the maple syrup. I am assuming the low level baking temperature has something to do with maintaining the nutritional value of the berries, so may not mess with it too dramatically in future testings.
I have run out of time so I will finish this up tomorrow.
Taste - It tastes good. A slightly sweet flavour, in part from the maple syrup I added, but also definately from the wheat berries. It has a wheaty taste, but not floury. Before I ground it up in the food processor I was afraid it would taste grassy since I could smell a hint of it from the sprouting. I was concerned that I had oversprouted past the required 1/8th of an inch, but once I poured out the sprouts I realized some had sprouted even less than the 1/16th of an inch suggested in the recipe. I could taste a hint of the salt, which in my books is ok, especially since its the lovely grainy, french sea salt, but the flatbread could easily go with less than the teaspoon suggested.
Smell - Very nice, a pure wheat smell, not yeasty, (obviously), nor grassy as feared. I have had some organic stone ground whole flours that smelled quite grassy when wet, which seems weird to me, (Any comments on this would be appreciated).
Texture - with a thin crust on the bottom and top, and a chewy interior that brought to mind porridge. It is not unpleasant. It is, on the other hand not common to our North American idea of bread, even unlevened flatbread such as roti.
Appearance - Well, it doesn't look great. At least not to me, but it is my first try, and I am already trying to figure out how to make it in a rectangular loaf like I used to buy in my health food days many, many years ago. Some of the appearance problems have to do with how I baked my first flat loaf, but more on that in preparation notes. I should add that with the oven temperature so low, there was no browning on the crust, which wouldn't have improved it's looks anyway. I think this bread has browning potential because of the sugar levels in the sprouted berries, and the addition of the maple syrup. I am assuming the low level baking temperature has something to do with maintaining the nutritional value of the berries, so may not mess with it too dramatically in future testings.
I have run out of time so I will finish this up tomorrow.
posted by Underground Baker at 11:32 AM
1 Comments:
Nutritional value of the berries is protected by the low cooking temperature. I have had a nicely browned loaf in the past. My favourite part...perhaps you could blast the crust right at the end of the baking time?
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