My mother-in-law loves laminated pastries, so I decided to spoil her a little bit by making a few different ones while she was here. Of course, I am also spoiling my husband and myself because we now have an abundance of riches in the freezer. Not sure whether the lamination bug will continue or whether I am all laminated out.
Here is a bread from Goa (a small state in western India) that most people may not know about. Goa has a unique bread-baking tradition because it was a Portuguese colony for about 500 years.
Poi are small pocket breads. They were traditionally made with whole grains but some recipes today use white flour, although they are still dusted with wheat bran.
I made this about a week back, but I believe these are the quantities I used. Will definitely make again and update:
140g white flour starter at 100% hydration (could use whole wheat instead. I just used what I had)
260g whole wheat flour
106g ragi/finger millet flour (a flour available at Indian stores. Flavorful and gives a beautiful dark color. If you like additions such as buckwheat, you should definitely try it)
1 tbsp virgin coconut oil (don't need to use this, but it does give the dough a nice aroma)
8-9g salt
Around 280g water (the dough should be soft and a little sticky. Softer than typical flatbread dough)
Wheat bran for rolling
Procedure:
Mix dough in stand mixer until smooth and elastic. Around 10 minutes.
Bulk rise until approximately doubled (exact rise probably doesn't matter that much)
Divide into 9 or so portions and shape into balls. Allow the gluten to relax for 15 minutes or so and then roll into approximately 5-inch disks, being generous with the wheat bran while rolling. I left the disks on parchment squares for easy transfer to oven.
Allow to rise until visibly puffy (again, exact rise may not matter that much, but I believe I did 1.5-2 hours)
Bake for around 7 minutes on a baking stone in oven preheated to 480F. I did 2 batches. You will see the poi puffing up while they bake, creating a nice pocket.
Notes:
This method creates sour poi. I like them this way, but you may want to adjust for your taste.
If you actually have these in Goa today, they will probably not be sour (made with yeast) and will be made with a mix of white flour and Indian whole wheat flour (no ragi flour). They may also have a somewhat harder texture.
Ok, it isn’t all bread, but bread is prominently featured. My husband has been talking up my baking to his family so I couldn’t disappoint them. Most of this is now packed up in a suitcase on its way to Bangalore. Fingers crossed there is something left other than crumbs!
Breads, left to right:
Ginger plum loaf from the Rye Baker with triple the ginger and 1.5x the prunes
A few weeks ago I accidentally got into baguettes. I liked the sound of alfanso’s baguettes with durum flour, fennel, pine nuts, and golden raisins, so I attempted them. They came out ok but I wanted to see whether I could improve my technique.
I read over some tips from the baguette community bake and made a couple batches. The appearance improved with practice and I thought they looked nice (by my not-too-exacting standards)…but I did not like eating them. I found them bland, perhaps because I was not using a fancy French flour and was too used to the tang of sourdough.
So I tried Txfarmer’s favorite baguettes with 30% whole grain. There’s no commercial yeast to fall back on and the high hydration makes them difficult to shape and score. They’re not as pretty as my other baguettes. But I like them much more. I’m still not sure I’m a baguette person (hard to beat a hearty rye in my book), but I wouldn’t mind making these regularly.
