Last weekend we had visitors.
And visitors always demand bread in this house.
So I baked some "Schwaebische Seelen" with my newly arrived and freshly milled spelt.
They are a German speciality from the south-west.
Made from a very wet dough which gets bulk fermented over night, then tipped on a wet surface and cut into long narrow strips. In some areas they are twisted, in others they are just flat. Very tricky to handle, you must have wet hands!
They get coarse salt and caraway seeds sprinkled on top and get baked in a very hot oven so they don't dry out. (Have tried some with sesame too - very nice!)
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5453-1/DSCN1784F.jpg[/img]
When I had one big baking sheet full of them there was a little bit of dough left, just enough to fit into the palm of my hand. What to do with that little bit of dough?
I looked around the kitchen for any clues and saw some leftover steamed pumpkin from last nights dinner - I always wanted to bake a pumpkin bread!
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So I peeled the baked pumpkin, mashed it coarsely with a fork, added 2 eggs and some salt, a bit of sunflower oil (which gave me the idea to add some sunflower seeds too). Into that mix I tried to incorporate my handful of dough which made for a very interesting experience and required quite a bit more of the lovely spelt. So the flour mill got switched on again.
Once I was happy with the consistency of the dough I started wondering how that little bit of sourdough which was in my original dough would rise this huge boule!
So I left it in the warm kitchen to do its thing and went gardening.
In the afternoon I shaped it, using even more flour, as the dough had become quite sloppy again, and with great difficulty as it was VERY sticky, put it into my one and only banneton (which of course was too small).
In the evening it was declared fit for baking. So ready or not - into the oven it went. It was so sloppy that I didn't dare slashing it and it did it itself in the end.
This is what came out of the oven:
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5455-1/DSCN1904F.jpg[/img]
The next morning we cut it:
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5457-1/DSCN1905F.jpg[/img]
And despite its ordeal it looked ok. Not too high, but some good sized holes in it.
It made some very nice accompaniement to some fried fish and salad on Sunday night:
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/5459-1/DSCN1908F.jpg[/img]
'tis the season for pumpkins! Looks yum and yum!! I really love the dramatic colour pumpkin brings to breads.
I made [url=http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/3535/Recipe.cfm]this cake[/url] from half a pumpkin, reduced the sugar by 30% and used macadamia nuts, a must-try recipe...really really good. The other half of the pumpkin I made pumpkin creme brulee. Why do I do this to myself? Each time I lose 2 lbs, I make something which helps me gain it back.
That cake looks very good TP.
Must see if I find another pumpkin in the shed...
The early seasons ones are flowering now and some more of the store variety will get planted next week. If they all fruit accordingly we will need a truck and trailer to get them to the house and we will eat nothing but pumpkin all next winter...