Beetroot comfort Bread

Been having my eye for a while now on this beetroot sourdough recipes from TimmyB at sourdough.com, the home of a lot of brillant recipes. Slow cooked loads of beetroot one evening for a lovely quinoa and feta salad and for the sourdough.

There is a couple ways you can do beet bread. The first is grating raw beetroot into bread. Or like I have done is slow cook the beet root and mash it.

I added cumin, although what I really wanted to add was caraway seed (like in The Guardian beetroot bread recipes that uses dried yeast). I added only a pinch of cumin which I grinded slightly to prevent massive random blast of cumin bites.

Ingredients

• 240 grams – Beet puree
• 425 grams – Strong bread flour
• 150 grams – starter at 100% (1:1 flour water feeds)
• 190 grams – Water
• 10 grams – salt (about > 1Tbsp)
• optional : a pinch  of caraway or cumin.

1. Cook the beets in aluminium foil till soft at 180C for 1.5 hours. I personally like slow cooking  at 160C for 2 hours. Or you could cook at 220C for 1hour.

Wait for them to cool and the skin easily comes off. To puree the beets i tried using blender. Don’t use a blender. Best is a potato masher if you have one or just a plain fork and think about something that has really annoyed you that day.

2. Starter + Water + Beet puree – Mix well

+flour +salt  – leave it to autolyse for 30min

 

 

3. Fold the dough gently a couple times every 20min about 3 times. Grease the bowl/container with oil. It works. What can I say, it’s easier to get out, until I get my proofing basket.

4. 1st rise – depends how warm is your kitchen. I left mine in the fridge overnight for 10 hours. After the 1st rise shape or punch it.

Look at that pink!

5. Proofing – Let it to rise for 2 more hours.

SN: (Proofing just found out apparently is different from bulk rise, as technically it’s the final rise after you shaped your dough.) 

6. Baking – 240C w/steam for 15min, then 220C for 25 min.

oHH ya just go a thermometer. Bread is done when the internal temperature at around 88C.

Definitely cooked at 99.5C

Final results:

Taste test:

Not at all pink, which was unexpected given the bright colour the dough was. But it is pure deliciousness. Slight beetroot sweetness that goes really well with salty food such as salmon gravlax or blue cheese or actually who am I joking just plain. The crust came out soft, but I think that might be just me. The other thing is it is just moist, so so moist, even after a week. Definitely one that I will be making again.

 

Next bread is either tahini sourdough or green tea sourdough or apricot & earl grey tea bread.