Peruvian Amaranth Loaf... I Wouldn't Wanna Live By This Bread Alone

Today's Bread recipe was the peruvian amaranth loaf. I ordered amaranth flour online and waited a week for it to get here then I spent days reading blogs about how best to bake, knead and shape loaves so that when I got around to using my specialty flour it would be worth it. So today i laid out my ingredients, waited patiently as my yeast bloomed and foamed and slowly added in my flour until the dough was just firm enough to handle and even tried a new method of kneading thats kind of a lift and slap method that worked really well. See link below...

http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/03/bertinet_sweetdough

I was hoping the wetter dough would ensure that the crumb of this loaf would have larger holes in than the other loafs that I made and it did... slightly. It turned out to be the best looking dough i have made yet as a matter of fact. I also bought a fancy french bread loaf pan so that my loaves would hold a better shape because I have had problems with my loaves just kind of spreading out when proofed on a peel and then slid onto the baking stone in my oven. The peruvian amaranth loaf was scored, proofed and waiting to be baked. About the time that I slid the bread into the oven I realized that sitting on the counter was a little bowl with about a teaspoon and half of salt in it, salt that was supposed to be in bread that was now shut in the oven. I sat down at my computer and searched for exactly was purpose salt played in bread making and luckily the only other reason, besides taste, that salt is added to bread is to tighten the crumb and I didn't want that anyway 

The oven was full of steam and that was good, I expected my bread to experience a lot of oven spring in the first few minutes of baking I was wrong. The nice full shape the bread had when proofing all but deflated when I came back to turn the bread midbake... I just don't know what I am doing wrong (and I still don't, I haven't gotten around to reading about it yet) I suppose that there isn't anything wrong with slightly flattened bread but its just not pretty. So, I waited and waited on it to bake which is the hardest part for me, I think. I always take the bread out a few minutes too soon, as soon as I see the crust start to darken I get antsy but I waited. I took it out of the oven and waited some more as it cooled. Finally it was time to sample the peruvian amaranth loaf. 

Disappointment. 

Its not bad by any means and I think it is really missing that salt but it still needed something else. It might be good with some cheese melted on it or toasted and smeared with peanut butter, the amaranth flour already gave the bread a nutty flavor. I might try the recipe again just to see if the salt makes a huge difference. I'll also be searching the internet for more amaranth flour recipes to see if I can find one that isn't as bland maybe with some other grains in it. For now the peruvian amaranth loaf will be photographed, blogged about and picked at until I'm tired of trying to find uses for it. Tomorrow I start fooling around with sourdough. My starter is finally fermented enough and begging to be let out of its little covered bowl in the corner. Lets hope this experiment goes a little better and is a little tastier. 

The word amaranth translated from greek means unfading flower. And it really is a pretty little thing. And here are some pretty word that talk about amaranth flowers or at least unfading flowers that will make this post not seem as meaningless...


a song I sand in the choir at church:


I am dwelling on the mountain,
Where the golden sunlight gleams
O’er a land whose wondrous beauty
Far exceeds my fondest dreams;
Where the air is pure, ethereal,
Laden with the breath of flow’rs,
They are blooming by the fountain,
’Neath the amaranthine bow’rs.
Is not this the land of Beulah?
Blessed, blessed land of light,
Where the flowers bloom forever,
And the sun is always bright!


and a fable:

A Rose and an Amaranth blossomed side by side in a garden,

and the Amaranth said to her neighbour,

"How I envy you your beauty and your sweet scent!

No wonder you are such a universal favourite."

But the Rose replied with a shade of sadness in her voice,

"Ah, my dear friend, I bloom but for a time:

my petals soon wither and fall, and then I die.

But your flowers never fade, even if they are cut;

for they are everlasting.

The Wrong Hobby For Someone With No Patience

I'm about a month or so into obsession with my newest hobby, bread making. This is a favorite of my many hobbies, mostly because I get to eat the results and because I have always had a place in my heart for bread. It wasn't until I started making my own, however, that that place in my heart started taking over and now there are stacks of books in every corner, left over bread crusts in every cabinet that I cant bear to throw away and dried dough permanently lodged under my finger nails. Bread is such a happy comforting thing.

My mama used to take my sisters and I to the library after school when we were young. We'd spend all afternoon pouring over the shelves and picking out only the best books to take home. Mama would load them all up in a sack she made designated for toting books back and forth to the library. After we had made our selections and piled back into the car, mama would stop by the grocery store for whatever few things that she needed for dinner and bag of cheese bread from the bakery. By the time we got home, all us girls would be sick from reading in the car and stuffed with cheese bread. Bread is such simple plain thing but I have more colorful memories than just that one wrapped around homemade challah, thanksgiving dinner rolls, baking cinnamon rolls and dense banana bread.

There is so much to learn and so much you cant learn from books when making bread. Half of what I need to know about kneading and baking has to learned by experience and gauged touch and feel. This isn't my preferred method of learning. I like a set of plain rules, steps and do's and dont's. If I didn't like to eat as much as I do I would've given up on this baking thing already. There haven't been any major disasters yet, almost every thing that has come out of my oven has been edible so that means I will probably continue baking, at least a few loaves a week, until my pants don't fit. Then I will know I am doing things right.