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random musings of a crazy cat lady

Sunday, March 24, 2013

So Nasty!

Once tasted, some things can not be untasted.  Such was the case with the gluten free sourdough bread that I made last night/ this morning.
The recipe is from Bob's Red Mill, but they got it from somewhere else.  It called for a sourdough starter (made from yeast, water and rice flour), and included eggs, cottage cheese, and dried milk powder, as well as their gluten free flour blend.  I was intrigued by the high protein content of the bread.  Unfortunately, I never had the flour blend before. The main ingredient is garbanzo bean flour.  I love garbanzo beans and hummus, but for some reason I don't like the flour. It also had fava bean flour. Maybe it would be fine in things with a lot of spices/sugar, so that the beany flavor is masked.  It wasn't fine here.
I made the dough as directed, let it rise, and then poured it into pans for a second rise overnight in the garage.  It didn't overflow the pans or collapse, so that was good.  It even smelled good as I baked it - not like sourdough but more like a butter roll or brioche.  The loaves darkened up quite a bit, probably from all the sugar.  Fortunately, I decided to eat breakfast early rather than wait for them to be done.  That turned out to be a wise decision.


Upon cooling, one loaf collapsed and the other maintained its shape.  After they cooled most of the way, I cut them open.  The one that maintained its shape actually had an air pocket running the whole length of it.  The texture was moist, sort of like a sourdough, but the flavor was just so wrong - too sweet and eggy, but the brioche like nature was completely ruined by the beany taste of the garbanzos and favas.
I fed one loaf to the crows.  The cats are sitting out there guarding it. I'm saving the other loaf to see if it tastes better after being in the fridge, or as french toast.  I kind of doubt it will improve with age, though.  I have had a few baking disasters in my life, but they are usually things that get burned or recipes that have the wrong proportion of things.  I would have to say that this is the first that was just completely wrong. 

4 comments:

  1. id say that you need more gluten to develop the crumb so it doesn't collapse.... but I'm guessing that isn't helpful.

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    1. you'd think there'd be artifical ingredients that would be suitable replacements, but alas, it doesn't appear to be so. Perhaps this should be my stealth business venture....

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  2. i eat enough gluten for the two of us. I actually just restarted a sourdough starter last week (it died a horrible death when I was in Japan and I couldn't get it going again). I am looking forward to my standard half-whole wheat sourdough. so good.

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    1. I'm so jealous! Keep on taking care of that gluten surplus! I'm not having too much trouble with going gluten free but I do miss good sourdough bread. Perhaps that and pizza will be my occasional treat.

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