I'll let you in on a little secret - I can't stand quinoa. Boiled, re-fried, steamed... the taste and texture is just off for me. I will deem it passable in flour or puffed form (I do like puffed quinoa and rice cakes, for example). However, mom takes the cake - er, bread - when it comes to embracing grains of all kinds, and when I had the last of a bag of quinoa sitting around in the pantry after making pilaf she suggested I use it as "bits" in bread. As fate would have it, that morning I stumbled across a loaf with quinoa on Mel's Kitchen Cafe and after taking stock of the pantry and fridge situation I decided to try it with a few tweaks.
First, and probably most obviously at this point, I made the whole recipe 100% whole grain. Mom and I are huge fans of the nutty flavour and increased nutrition of using whole grains in bread - and every time I make a batch I'm reminded of the "good old days" when I could eat it, so I know it's still a winner. I also only had red quinoa on hand so I used it instead of white, and with a glut of soy "dairy" in the fridge I made those the main liquids. For a little extra flavour I tossed in a bit of toasted sesame oil as well - you can never go wrong with that when "nutty" is the goal!
These loaves rose high, and rose quickly due to the warmth in my kitchen (between mom and I we had stove and oven on quite a bit that day) so the bread did flatten a bit in the oven (and spilled over the sides a bit). Next time I will keep a better eye on it, but appearances aside these loaves were everything we hoped for - soft, tender with a delicate crunch and full of sweet and nutty flavour. They fit perfectly in the toaster and made excellent BLTs too from what I heard!
What are your favourite grains to bake with? Any I should try? Let me know in the comments!
Honeyed Quinoa Loaf
Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Makes 3 loaves
2 1/4 cups water
1 cup uncooked quinoa (I used red), rinsed
8 1/3 cups whole wheat bread flour (or 8 cups regular whole wheat + 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten) (optional, see note)
3 tbsp ground flax seed
1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
2 cups soy creamer, warmed
1 cup soy milk, warmed
1/2 cup honey
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp salt
- Bring the water to a boil in a saucepan and add the quinoa. Reduce heat and simmer 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand until just slightly warm, about 45 minutes.
- Combine the flour, flax seed, yeast, creamer, milk and honey in a stand mixer and mix with the dough hook for 4 minutes on low speed. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Drain any remaining water from the quinoa and stir in the oils and salt.
- Add the quinoa mixture to the dough and mix / knead well for another 8 minutes, until dough is smooth and elastic. Add no more than an extra 1/4 cup flour if necessary - I didn't need any.
- Cover and let rise 1 hour, until doubled.
- Divide dough into three parts and shape lightly with damp hands. Place each into a greased loaf pan.
- Cover and let rest 40 minutes, until the dough just crests the rim of the pans.
- Heat the oven to 400F.
- Place the loaves in the oven and immediately reduce the heat to 350F.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Turn out immediately and cool on a wire rack.
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