To market to market with a sandwich loaf of many flours

A few months ago, I participated at a local farmers market.  I had a lot of fun extolling the virtues of ancient grains, and comparing and contrasting them to modern wheat.  If there is one thing I’m passionate about, it’s grains and bread.

 

The process of getting me to the market started a few years ago when I decided to maintain a garden plot in the local community garden.

Here are some photos of my community garden plot.

 

The manager of the farmer’s market is also on the board of the community garden so she’s heard me talk about wheat and bread on numerous occasions and has also seen photos of my breads on Facebook.

Every year, when it came time to solicit vendors for the market, she would ask if I was ready to start selling bread. This went on for a couple of years and my answer for the most part was always, “I would like to, but it will probably have to be when I retire.”

This year, however, she made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She asked if I would be willing to do a demo. Now there’s an idea!  Giving a demo on my favorite subject.

I decided that demonstrating how to mill grains into flour might be of interest to folks so I brought my hand grinder and electric grain mill with me. I also brought einkorn, kamut, and white whole wheat grains for comparison and some bread to sample.  I also handed out samples of Einkorn flour and Kamut flour that I had milled earlier in the day.

On market day, they set up a booth for me right out front.  Most visitors walked by the booth on their way in. It was nonstop for a while. Here is a photo of the booth. I’m behind the table in the second photo, but I was having a bad hair day (gotta love the humidity in the South) so all you can see is part of my apron and my arms.

For the demonstration, I made three different loaves using the same formula; however, each bread was made with a different type of whole grain flour: white winter wheat, KAMUT and Einkorn. Not surprisingly, or perhaps due to my enthusiasm for the grain, the Einkorn loaf was the most popular one by far.

Most people didn’t even want to try the one made with white winter wheat because they already knew what regular wheat tasted like.  They thought the einkorn loaf had a complex flavor and tasted a bit spicy. I liked that description. I always thought of it as nutty, but spicy sounds better.

Here are the Einkorn loaves. The significance of this photo is that the loaves were made with the same local honey that is sold at this farmer’s market.

The three sandwich loaves are pictured below. The KAMUT loaf is on the left, Einkorn is in the middle and the White Winter Wheat is on the right. They were baked in different size loaf pans. All three of the loaves were made with an overnight yeast sponge, but they could also be made with a sourdough levain.  The main difference between the loaves was in the type of flour and the amount of liquid used.

I had to add a couple of extra tablespoons of water to the einkorn dough.  Typically, all-purpose einkorn doesn’t absorb water as much as regular bread flour; however, wholegrain einkorn absorbs more liquid than regular flour. It was in the heat of summer in the South so it soaked the water right up.

I added extra water to the sponge and the final dough for the KAMUT loaf. KAMUT soaks up water so this didn’t surprise me at all.  The white winter wheat absorbed more water in the final dough as well which is typical of whole wheat flour.

I was very pleased with each of these loaves. I plan to do some more experimenting with them so perhaps I’ll feature them another time.

I had a great time at the farmer’s market and met a lot of neat folks interested in healthy bread. The feedback I received about ancient grains and the types of bread that people would be interested in buying was very encouraging.  So we shall see what the future holds.

I appreciate all of the visitors who stopped by the booth to say “hello” and to listen to me chat about ancient grains. If you’re reading this, thank you for your support.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy