Oh! Thought all have left this discussion a while ago… Now someone’s back, so am I. After experiencing the “cave in” problem, I continued baking one loaf BB every week and tried to figure out the best condition before baking. Finally, I found out the main cause of the “cave in” issue is under-fermented! That said, but how to properly ferment BW into optimal condition makes hard answer. From my experience, taking other factors away, mostly I had difficulty to get the right time for good fermentation. Everyone’s baking place, weather, environmental condition, recipe ingredients, etc are different, but I came up to the recent successful loafs as this: (winter time in the central valley, CA) 1. soak BW in water and lemon juice overnight (~12 hrs), 2. process soaked BW with all ingredients and ferment in baking pan for ~48 hrs (2 overnights) to desired raise, 3. bake.
If anyone ferment BW for 24 hrs without success, I suggest give it more time up to 48 hrs. (maybe add some soaking time too) GL
It’s probably safer to soak the chia seeds first, because they do absorb a lot of water, and could mess up the hydration of the batter if you don’t.
Measure the amount of water and chia seeds you use, so that the next time, if you want, you can simply add that amount of additional water and chia seeds to the batter at the beginning, without the presoak.
I don’t think it would be a problem to then add them at the start of the fermentation of the buckwheat batter.
I’m a little confused and wanted to check something out with you beforehand.
You say ‘Let the batter rise for another 30 minutes to an hour in your lit oven’. From reading the instructions before this point I can’t see anything about lighting the oven or what temperature it should be lit at. I’d be using an electric oven (perhaps this is relevant to my being confused). Thanks for your help!
You’re welcome. I’m happy to help!
An oven light can turn a “Off” oven into a proofing box. My oven goes up to the mid-eighties with the light on. This speeds up fermentation but it is in no way necessary.
Melissa or any person who made this bread: Curious what the crumb is like. Is it dry or moist? I realize that it is going to be very dense. From the picture shown the top crust is not thick. I made one once before and the crust was very thick. Did you use a steam pan in the oven?
Dennis, I only made this recipe twice … not particularly liking the taste but I do like buckwheat. My experience in comments above.
But to your question, my experience was that the crumb was pretty moist. Not as moist as something like banana bread, but not quite “bread” like either. And top crust is not thick nor crisp.
Hi Melissa! First of all, thank you so much! This bread is fantastic. A friend of mine actually calls it Harry Potter bread, because it is magical how it works without any flour or yeast.
One doubt I’ve been having is that the upper crust always detaches from the main part (picture attached). Any ideas what I can do about it? I’ve been making it for half a year now almost every week, and every time this issue is there.
Thanks in advance for any ideas on how to solve this.
Wow, interesting. In a regular artisan bread, flying crust is a weak gluten or banneton sticking issue. Neither of those explanations are relevant here.
Your crust looks to be on the thick and dark side, which is probably really tasty. I’m wondering though if maybe there is extra heat and dryness at the top of your oven … using a convection setting? I’m kinda stumped and throwing an idea out there.
If I saw this in a regular wheat flour sourdough I’d say over fermented. This is an interesting recipe as it relies on the quick off the mark ferment often seen in regular starters within a day or two. Where it differs is that a normal starter will only be strong enough with more feedings and will go through changes before the yeasts turn up in viable numbers and during that time it will quieten down once this initial burst of activity has run its course. This bread is using more of a lactic acid ferment coming from bacteria mainly and some yeasts will be present but it’s baked long before a viable starter stage.
I think you’re baking it after this burst of activity is beginning to die down. In which case it’s too late for the bread you’re making. It’s sort of a one off hit or miss when baking this way. You are clear getting a good ferment going but you are waiting too long before baking. So the only thing you can try is shortening the ferment before adding the salt and rest of the ingredients. In other words catching the ferment while the little critters are still happy and kicking rather than waiting too long and they’ve run their course. Don’t wait the full 24 hours if there is a good rise and it’s full of bubbles in, for example, 15-18 hours. Better to wait a tad longer after putting it in the loaf pan if it needs it. You can also try docking the loaf like one would do if it’s a rye bread. Might help to stop that cave.
I’m going to try this bread soon but with an established starter.
Soaked the groats through the night. At 10:15am they had been ground (took me a while using one small smoothie maker) and by 8:50pm it now looks like this…
Only had my non see through dough bowl so can’t tell how much it’s risen. However bubbles on top and I’m not sure but does this ring round the bowl look like it’s risen and sunk back? Smells wonderful, like baking hazelnuts.
Thanks Melissa. Don’t remember it being there when I poured it in. I’ll push on. I’m shocked by how quick it is and even more so by the wonderful aroma.
Well, it looks like the seeds and berries didn’t sink to the bottom, which is nice! And between the good flavor and a toaster oven, it sounds like an edible result : )
The goal after straining and blending/food processing the groats is a texture similar to soft-serve ice cream – kinda smooth and grainy and needing to be shoved with a spatula.
I don’t think there is a downside to using buckwheat flour – go for it! And I’d love to hear what amount of water works for that approach.
