Monday, February 27, 2012

Floating Sesame Loaf


This floating sesame loaf is the second bread that Hanaa and I made for our bread baketogether (BBT) which is adapted from the book, Ancient Grains for Modern Meals by Maria Speck.  This is so unlike the other breads that I've made before in that it requires you to dunk the ball of dough in a pot of cold water and wait for it to rise to the surface before removing.  Even after making this bread, I actually still don't know exactly what this procedure does to the dough -- Does it contribute something to the dough's gluten development?  Is it done only to provide more hydration and a thick crust?  All I know is that the dough ends up floating because of the carbon dioxide released by the yeast.


The dough prior to dunking in the pot

Waiting for the dough to float

After about 8 minutes, the dough rose to the surface

I think this would classify as a no-knead bread as it only requires a few turns after removing the dough from the pot.  It doesn't have the long rest periods that no-knead breads require though but maybe the soaking of the dough in water does something to mimic what the overnight rest period achieves?  Again, I can only speculate.  

I think I should've slashed the dough wider but the small opening of the cuts indicate a low rise and poor oven spring.


I like anything with sesame seeds in them but somehow this one lacked some flavor that I was expecting out of a loaf with this much seeds in them.  I found it somewhat bland which probably makes it a bread to eat with something really savory and flavorful and not on its own.  But I'm glad that I was able to make this bread as it in a way, introduced me to the no-knead bread baking technique which I plan to explore really soon.

*This bread has been Yeastspotted*

9 comments:

  1. What a shame it lacked flavour, it surely looks fantastic!!

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  2. I have never heard of such a technique - very interesting.
    The loaf looks beautiful - too bad the flavor wasn't there for you.

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    1. Hi Cher :-) yes it was an interesting technique and I've yet to find out what it actually does to the dough LOL I'm sure this bread would be good to some but I guess these types of breads isn't for me. I'm more a fan of a light, fluffy and enriched breads :-)

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  3. Your bread turned out great. Too bad the sesame seeds didn't give it enough flavor. Although I can't eat sesame seeds, I'm thinking maybe grinding the sesame seeds would distribute more sesame flavor throughout the bread. Not sure though. I hope to have my post up soon. It was another fun BBT!! :o)

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    1. I actually thought of grinding the seeds but I figured that it wouldn't be necessary since there's so much of them in both the dough and crust. But I agree, I think it would bring more flavor to the bread. We grind toasted sesame seeds whenever we make our native delicacy which is boiled glutinous rice patties coated in grated coconut and topped with a mixture of ground sesame seeds and sugar. But regardless of the outcome, it was very fun to make and at least I'm familiarizing myself with other bread baking techniques :-) Looking forward to our next BBT! :-)

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  4. Very interesting - I've had that book in my Amazon Cart for about two months now. I'd like to give this a try so maybe I'll pull the trigger. The technique is unique!

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    1. LOL I also have this book in my Amazon cart Christy! I got really curious about this book when I made this loaf and when I checked the table of contents in Amazon, it seems to have a lot of interesting and healthy recipes that uses ingredients that I can easily buy here. I think I'm going to buy it next week! :-)

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  5. What an interesting technique! Would love to get my hands on that book ... and a slice of this bread.
    Beautiful loaf.

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