Thursday, November 4, 2010

Vegan MoFo Day 4: Caraway Bread


I have a small green "Cookery Book" from the Lukas Klinik in Switzerland, dated 1978. The Lukas Klinik is an anthroposophical facility for persons with cancer. I have made a number of recipes from this book, as well as from the Lukas Klinik's 2008 cookbook. However, I don't recall ever trying any of their breads. Caraway is a common ingredient in their recipes, especially in the 1978 book, so I decided to try the caraway bread. Here is the recipe, with the only changes being agave and soy yogurt instead of honey and quark:

100 g cracked wheat (I cracked some wheat in my Vita-Mix)
400 g whole wheat flour
1 t salt
1/2 t caraway seeds
3 dl water
1 T linseed (flax) oil
20 g yeast
1 T agave
1 T well drained soy yogurt

Combine wet ingredients and then add the dry ones. Let rise overnight. Shape, place in a greased loaf pan, allow to rise, and then bake in a low oven for 2 hours.

Now, maybe it was me and the European measurements, but the flour/water ratio seemed off and I wound up adding a fair bit more flour. I was out of flax oil, but found some walnut oil in the fridge, which added a nice effect. If making it again, I would up the amounts of both caraway and salt. The kitchen seemed too warm to leave this out on the counter, so I let it rest overnight in the fridge. Also, I was unsure what a "low oven" might be, and did not have 2 hours. Thus, I baked it for 55 minutes at 350 F. I have noticed long baking times at low temperatures in other anthroposophical/biodynamic cookbooks, and I am interested in experimenting to see if it changes the results.



4 comments:

panda with cookie said...

Oh, this is the bread you were talking about. It would be good with some marmite and peanut butter. Hearty winter food.

Amey said...

there was a story on NPR recently, about cooking meat specifically, where the fellow was specifically discussing the benefit of slow cooking at low heat. It's an interesting idea for bread. I imagine it might help get more rise, since the yeast wouldn't get powerblasted right off the start. Hm! thought provoking!

JohnP said...

panda, it is most excellent with marmite and peanut butter. i can confirm from personal experience.

amey, i am most interested to experiment further with long, slow baking, esp if i can find some better directions to get me started.

Monique a.k.a. Mo said...

Caraway bread sounds awesome!