Local Bread Part 2

I baked the other half of my batch of experimental wheat-free 100% local multigrain bread Monday. Thought about adding more yeast, but decided it was too much bother at that late stage.

The Process:

Last week: Created the half batch of dough (using this process) and put it in the fridge.

Sun 8 p.m.: Took it out of the fridge. It was quite bubbly, with a nice sour/yeast aroma. Added enough rye flour to start kneading. Kneaded with corn flour (which means this loaf has less rye and more corn than the first loaf), and left the dough a bit softer. Left in a warmish place to rise overnight (covered by the recommended triple layer of muslin, with the middle layer damp.)

Mon 7 a.m.: Kneaded in a little more corn flour, shaped and scored loaf lengthwise, left in a warmish place to rise. (Dampened the middle layer again.)

Mon 5 p.m.: Heated oven to 425 degrees (it's a convection oven, so I often reduce the recommended temp by 25 degrees) and baked 35 minutes (5 minutes longer than the first time.)

The Result

This loaf is less dense than the first, with a color that shows more yellow & less gray. The corn flavor is detectable behind the rye/sourdough flavor. The lengthwise scoring worked better than the crosswise scoring that I did the first time (the first loaf cracked on both sides, so it was mushroom-shaped in cross-section, and the sticky-outy pieces tended to break off when I was cutting it.) I'm noticing that it has a similar texture to eastern european breads that are typically cut very thin, so I'm cutting my slices very thin too. It holds together nicely.

Overall, I like this version better.

Big disappointment afterward, though. Sophia and I both had stuffy noses after eating the second loaf. There are several possible explanations. One is that we're having a delayed reaction to the rye (these breads are the first time I've tried the local rye flour.) We've eaten imported rye crackers in the past with impunity, though, as well as cracked rye bread made from whole grain rye, so this seems relatively unlikely. A second is that the new batch of flour (which we picked up Saturday and used in the second loaf) might have wheat in it. That's a fairly common problem, when an alternative flour is ground in the same facility as wheat flour. A third possibility, which also seems unlikely due to the lack of other symptoms, is that we might be coming down with something. Or, we could both be reacting to a new pollen source or some other environmental allergy. We ate outdoors that night, so there might have been something on the breeze.

I wish these things were simple to diagnose, but they're not. For the time being, we're going to lay off the rye flour; maybe we'll experiment again once our symptoms clear up.

Fruit Drinks

I forgot to list some really yummy drinks that we've had the past couple days. The first was Seaberry (Daring Drake) juice, sweetened with honey (Greenstar bulk local.) We ran the berries through the juicer then mixed the juice 1:3 with water and added honey to taste. It was surprisingly good; very distinctive flavor. The other was hot grape juice: a mixture of wild (from the community garden deer fence) and Concord (from the arbor over the sandbox) grapes, simmered in water to release the juice, then strained. I don't think we added any sweetener to this one.

9/13 Menus:

breakfast: sprouted steel-cut oatmeal with homemade raisins, with honey (Greenstar bulk local) and almond milk (exception)

school lunch: multigrain bread (Cayuga Pure grains) with jelly (Kestrel Perch berries, honey) and honey, buffalo snack sticks (Glenwood Farms), grapes (arbor, Thornbush Farms), sweet pepper (garden)

my lunch: multigrain bread with peanut butter and jelly, raspberries (garden), sweet pepper

snack: plums (Sabol's Farm, Black Diamond)

dinner: chili (kidney beans (Cayuga Pure), lamburger (Northlands), veggies (garden, Early Morning)); multigrain bread (new loaf)

bedtime snack: corn fritters (corn (Sabol's Farm), flour mix (Cayuga Pure and Birkett Mills), eggs (Sabol's), almond milk (exception)) with maple syrup (Schoolyard Sugarbush)

Sophia didn't like the corn fritters :^( but Greg and I thought they were yummy. The chili is one of our standard winter staples; sometimes I make it vegetarian and sometimes I add in whatever kind of meat we happen to have handy. It's good either way.

9/14 Menus:

breakfast: waffles (Cayuga Pure grains, almond meal (exception), eggs (back yard chickens)); red currant/maple syrup (Kestrel Perch/Schoolyard Sugarbush), raspberries (garden)

school lunch: chili (leftover), raspberries (garden), cucumber slices (a friend's garden)

my lunch: chili, plums, cucumber

snack: grapes (Thornbush Farms)

dinner: lamburgers (Northlands), roasted beets (garden), rainbow chard (garden), creamed spinach (Blue Heron, with Meadow Creek butter, Cayuga Pure barley flour, and almond milk)

snack: peanuts (exception), dried watermelon (garden)