Home > Spelt Breads > Crushed Fennel Faggots
by Rod
(Dallas, TX)
According to legend, an English baker once allowed his young son, Isak, to play after school in the father’s modest bakery in a remote Nordic village. His father often invited the boy to tie together small bundles (called “faggots”) of broken breadsticks and give them to friendly customers; any money offered by the customer became part of the boy’s weekly allowance. Customers rarely paid for the bundles until tasty, crushed fennel breadsticks were baked. Soon thereafter “Isak’s Crushed Fennel Faggots” became very popular, providing a significant source of income for the bakery, not to mention his generous allowance.
Crushed Fennel Faggots
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups spelt flour
1 cup bread flour
2 tbsp white sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups warm water
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 tbsp organic honey
1/3 cup bread flour
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
2 1/2 tbsp crushed fennel seeds
Light olive oil to coat cookie sheet
1/2 cup bread flour for kneading dough
Directions:
Lightly coat a cookie sheet with olive oil and set aside; pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a warm glass quart measuring cup, add warm water, then stir in yeast, honey, and 1/3 cup bread flour; cover and let mixture rest 10 min. in a warm place.
In a large mixing bowl, combine spelt flour with remaining bread flour, sugar, and salt, then cover and set aside.
When yeast mixture is ready, stir in olive oil, then pour into spelt flour mixture. Stir with a large wooden spoon to combine, then knead dough with the spoon 5 min.
Sprinkle crushed fennel seeds onto dough and continue kneading with the spoon 5 min. Cover bowl and let dough rise in a warm place 20 min.
Sprinkle bread flour onto a flat surface, then spoon dough onto surface and knead gently with hands 5 min., adding sprinkles of flour to keep dough from sticking to hands and surface.
Roll dough (or flatten with hands) into oblong shape about the size of the cookie sheet, adding sprinkles of flour as necessary. Carefully place dough on cookie sheet, stretching to smooth the surface and fill the cookie sheet.
Roll dough with a pizza cutter into narrow strips, about 3/4″ wide, with one perpendicular cut in the middle of the cookie sheet. Place sheet in a warm place to let dough rise 20 min., then reduce oven to 350 degrees and bake 30 min.
Roll baked strips with a pizza cutter to separate into 6 oblong sections. With a spatula, flip the sections over and bake another 5 min., then flip the sections over again before serving.
Notes:
1) This recipe creates pull-apart breadsticks – roll by hand to create traditional breadsticks.
2) To crush fennel seeds, grind with mortar and pestle or use a coffee grinder; coarse grind is best.
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