Micro buns gluten free.

With "Queequeg," my gluten-free sourdough, without using gluten substitutes such as Xanthan or Guar Gum, I realized these tidbits or "micro buns" with teff and buckwheat, which can become, stuffed with cold cuts and cheese, excellent "micro" - snacks.

According to what you have available and your taste, you can still do these "micro buns" also by adding to teff and buckwheat other flours such as corn, sorghum, rice or whatever.

Below is the recipe for those who want to try and draw inspiration.

 

Micro buns gluten free:

INGREDIENTS:

Teff flour 0.250 kg (8.8 oz)
Buckwheat flour 0,650 kg (23 oz)
Flakes Teff 0.100 kg (3.5 oz)
Gluten free sourdough 0,700 kg (24.7 oz)
Water 0.900 kg (31.7 oz)
Corn syrup (*) 0.025 kg (0.9 oz)
Extra virgin olive oil 0.125 kg (4.4 oz)
Salt 0,030 kg (1 oz)

(*) If you do not have corn syrup can be used: rice syrup, honey or brown sugar.


INSTRUCTIONS:

Refresh sourdough and weigh the other ingredients. Sift flour so as to prevent the formation of lumps in the mixing phase. When the sourdough is ready, in 0.180 kg (6.3 oz) of water (about 80% of the total), dissolve the sourdough and corn syrup. Stirring, gradually add the flour mix and flakes of teff. Add extra virgin olive oil, salt, the remaining water and continue stirring to mix the ingredients well. No need to mix much, just get the right consistency of the dough and complete mixing of the ingredients.

With the help of a pastry bag or by making cnel with a couple of spoon onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper make portions of about 20-30 grams each. Let rise for about 2/3 hour (typically 3 hours are enough at a temperature of about 25/28 °C - 77/82°F). Theoretically, but that as already mentioned, depending on room temperature, three hours should be sufficient to increase the volume of the dough by about a third. At this point it will be visible on the surface some cracking.

Bake in preheated oven at +220 °C (+430°F) in the intermediate grooves and cook at this temperature for 15 minutes, then lower to 200 °C(+390°F) and cook for another 5 minutes.

At this point, decrease again the temperature to 170 °C (+340°F)and cook for a further 5-10 minutes with the oven door ajar (keep the door ajar by fitting a wooden spoon in the top of the door), making sure that the bottom of the "micro buns" does not dry out. 

 

 If you need more information please feel free to contact me.

 

TIELLA OF GAETA.

I cannot think about bread without thinking about what I will eat with it. This is why I love make cakes, pizzas and all those doughs which provide a filling.

Personally I would put one of the tastiest the:

"TIELLA of GAETA."

This is my TIELLA di GAETA baked.

The Tiella is a specialty of the town of Gaeta, where they produce an excellent variety of olives.
The filling that I usually make is with: octopus, cherry tomatoes, olives (Gaeta), garlic, chilli and parsley.

After trying to prepare the dough with different types of flour have come to the conclusion that I prefer to prepare the mixture for the dough which will accommodate the filling with: 1/3 durum wheat flour, 1/3 of einkorn flour and one third of wheat flour type 2, all stone ground.

I start preparing the dough, usually, early in the morning, if I intend to eat it for dinner. By following this simple recipe for a TIELLA of 8.6 in of diameter: 

INGREDIENTS:

Flour Mix
(1/3 durum wheat
+1/3 einkorn
+1/3 Wheat 2) 0.66 lb
Water 0.36 lb
Malt / sugar 0.1 oz
Sourdough (50% solid) 3.17 lb
Extra virgin olive Oil 1 oz

PROCEDURE:

1. Weigh the ingredients: flour, water, oil, salt, malt and sourdough.
2. Dissolve sourdough with the water and malt, add the flour, oil and salt at last. Knead for about 10 minutes. The final dough should be soft, smooth and very elastic. 
3. With the dough forms a ball and put it to rest in a bowl covered with plastic wrap, for about 1 hour. 
4. After making the dough rest, divide it into 2 parts and form two balls to rise. One must be of 0.44 lb and the other approximately 0.66 lb, so as to obtain a disc wider for the bottom and edges of the Tiella, the other smaller for the upper side. 
5. Make rest again for 60-90 minutes, then roll out to form the two disks (base + lid) . Put the largest on the bottom of the pan, lined with oven paper and lightly greased with a little salt, taking care to spread to a diameter sufficient to cover largely edges. Fill with boiled octopus (about 1,1 lb), cherry tomatoes blanched and peeled, pitted olives, parsley and crushed red pepper, which you have previously mixed, then cover with the other smaller disk. With the aid of a toothpick making holes that will serve to let out the condensate during baking.  
6. Let the dough rise again and bake in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes at + 430 ° F, after which remove from the pan and put the TIELLA in the oven to finish cooking for another 10 minutes.

Inside my stuffed TIELLA

FOR THE FILLING:

An octopus weighing about 2.2 lb (before cooking)
A dozen cherry tomatoes
twenty Gaeta olives
Chopped parsley (I also put the basil)
crushed red pepper
A couple of cloves of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil "as required"
While the dough is rising, before spreading into the pan, boil the octopus (I cook it in the pressure cooker for about 15-20 minutes, covering half of water). Meanwhile, blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and remove the skin. Pitted olives and prepared the chopped parsley (basil), garlic and chili. After cooking the octopus, divide it into equal-sized pieces (I make pieces similar in size to the cherry tomatoes).
While the dough is rising, before spreading into the pan, boil the octopus (I cook it in the pressure cooker for about 15-20 minutes, covering half of water). Meanwhile, blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and remove the skin. Pitted olives and prepared the chopped parsley (basil), garlic and chili. After cooking the octopus, divide it into equal-sized pieces (I make pieces similar in size to the cherry tomatoes).

Put it in a bowl with the tomatoes, olives, parsley (possibly even if you like basil, as I do), red pepper and garlic. Add the extra virgin olive oil and stir. Let stand putting the covered bowl in the refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator one hour before stuffing the Tiella, so it is not too cold and not too slow down leavening of the dough. If you want to avoid putting the chopped garlic, I recommend leaving the cloves whole and remove them from the filling before putting it in the Tiella, so that it is only the aroma of garlic.

 
I hope that you like this recipe too. I think it's a great way to combine different foods: vegetables, fish, spices and of course the dough.

If you have suggestions or concerns please email me or leave a comment, I'll be happy to answer.

"QUEEQUEG" was a native Kokovoko, an island far away to the West and South. It is not down in any map; true places never are.

Finally, here it is! My gluten free sourdough!

"QUEEQUEG" gluten free sourdough!

It's called "QUEEQUEG"!

As the chief harpooner aboard the Pequod in the novel MOBY-DICK by Herman Melville.

Proceeding in the tradition started giving the name of "ISHMAEL" (the name of another character of the same novel) at my sourdough. 

I must say to all whom read this post, that baking and whales,  are the two of my favourite hobbies. So I decided to give to my sourdoughs these names connecting my baking activity to my preferred book about whales.

Moreover, my two sourdoughs usually lie side by side, as the two characters at the beginning of the novel.

But let's leave the reasons why I chose this name, I rather wanted to think to the reasons I created a gluten-free sourdough.

First of all it was a challenge between me and all those told me I couldn't be able to make a bread with only naturally gluten free flours and gluten free sourdough.

To be clear, with the definition "naturally gluten free flours" I mean all the flours obtained by gluten free cereals as, for example: buckwheat, sorghum, corn, rice, teff and many others.

Another reason is connected with all the request I have received through my blog, from readers which wanted to know if I ever tried to make bread without gluten with sourdough.

So, the first step was make a gluten free sourdough, and the following is the procedure that I followed to realize it.

GLUTEN FREE SOURDOUGH:

1) first dough
INGREDIENTS:
Buckwheat flour (stone ground) g 40 (1.42 oz)
Water 25/30 g (0.88/1.06 oz)
Extra virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon  
Honey 1/2 teaspoon 

(Before passing to the instructions for preparing the gluten free sourdough, I would like to make a few clarifications.
First of all the first mixture and for the next refreshments, will be crucial in order to facilitate the absorption of water, use finely ground flour. I specifically used a mixture of 75% of buckwheat stone ground flour and 25% whole wheat flour of Teff. In the recipe I mention only the buckwheat to simplify things. However, this sourdough can also be prepared with other gluten-free flours such as rice or corn. In addition, for hydration, I put 25/30 g of water because, especially in the first stage, the dough should be neither too dry nor too liquid. So hydration should be considered according to the flour that you use).

Directions: 
Melt honey in the water, then add the flour gradually, try to get a fairly homogeneous mixture without stirring a lot. 
Also add the half teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil and stir briefly, just to incorporate it. 
Put in a clean glass jar and cover with a gauze pad, or with plastic wrap taking care to make some holes, so that air may pass but not pass dust or miscellaneous impurities that contaminate the mixture.  
Let stand in a dark place, away from drafts (the ideal temperature of + 26/28 ° C[+78/82 °F]) for a period that can vary from 24 to 48 hours, and in any case until the doubling of the volume. Make sure that the mixture does not dry out or mold does not form, if form mold, throw everything and start over again. 

2)refreshments
INGREDIENTS:
Buckwheat flour (stone ground) g 28 (0.99 oz)
Water g 24 (0.85 oz)
Gluten free sourdough  g 28 (0.99 oz)

Take 28 g of the central part of the yeast previously obtained, dissolve in the water and add the flour. Gotten this new dough, put it back into the jar (cleaned and d dried), covering with gauze or perforated plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in volume. 
Repeat this process until the yeast doubled in about 2/3 hours. At this point you can begin to refresh once a day, taking care once doubled the volume to tightly close the jar and store it in the refrigerator until the next refresh.
Proceed with daily refreshments for about a week, then begin to refresh every 2/3 days. Probably at this stage you will be able to start using the surplus to make some tests.  
Gradually increase the interval between the refreshments, until you come to refresh once a week. After that the sourdough should have gained enough vitality to be used regularly.

 _O_O_O_O_ 

"QUEEQUEG "in the process of maturation of the first mixture.

Now I think it's better to share with you some observations.
I chose to use small amount of flour and start with small doses mainly due to the uncertainty on the success of the final product. I have also seen that in the process of refreshing and use, I am most comfortable refreshing almost all the yeast with exception of the superficial part I that waste. If you need more sourdough than that obtained by the refreshing, I think it's better to refresh several times, to get the amount needed plus the amount to keep aside for the next time.

The volume that is obtained in the phases of refreshment and rising is obviously lower than that obtained in the rising of dough with gluten.

In the picture above, you will notice a rubber band on the jar. Well, that's where arrived the gluten-free sourdough, before rise. So as you can see, the bulk rising increases its volume slightly less than double. 

As soon as I was able, I wanted to try a sliced bread with buckwheat flour and teff porridge. The result was not exciting, but overall I can be satisfied. I got a nice loaf, fairly soft and relatively compact. The crumb had a fine alveolation well distributed and overall I got, after cooking, an increase of volume equal to two thirds more than the volume at the beginning of cooking. All in all, the scarce lightness of the loaf that I got, was largely compensated by the aroma and especially by flavor of this bread.

the loaf obtained from the first use of "Queequeg!"

Here's how appeared the alveolation in the crumb.

 

Arabic bread with sourdough and Teff flakes porridge.

Using this simple recipe for explaining briefly how I use the porridge of flour or flakes of Teff, in my dough.
This version of Arabic bread has a different color than usual, in fact this is mainly due to the presence of teff in the dough.

These are the ingredients:
Wheat flour type 2 (stone-ground) 0,510 kg (17.99 oz)
Einkorn flour (stone ground) 0,315 kg (11.11 oz)
Cornmeal "fioretto" 0,175 kg (6.17 oz)
Porridge flakes Teff * 0,280 kg (9.88 oz)
Water 0,550 kg (19.40 oz)
Sourdough solid (or surplus) 0,330 kg (11.64 oz)
Salt 0,022 kg (0.77 oz)
Malt or sugar 0,015 kg (0.53oz) 

(*) To make the porridge of flakes of Teff, boil 0,270 kg water with 0,070 kg of flakes of Teff just for a few minutes.

Process 

I suggest to start preparing the porridge of flakes of teff at least 3/4 hours before starting to knead, to ensure that when you add it to the mixture has a temperature that does not exceed room temperature. 

If you are using sourdough, refresh and wait for the doubling, however if you use oversupply, proceed as follows:

Dissolve the sourdough surplus in the water warmed with the addition of malt. Slowly add the flour mix and knead to absorb all the water, then add the teff flakes porridge and salt at last. 

Knead until the dough is sufficiently strung and elastic.
Put the dough in a bowl with high sides, greased with olive oil, and let stand for about 2 hours. Run a series of 3-ply and place in greased bowl to aim for another hour or so. 

Divide the dough into portions of approximately 0,130 kg (4.58 oz) each and make balls. Let them rest for another 30 minutes, then spread with a rolling pin to obtain a thickness of not more than 1 cm(0.39 in).

Let rise covered with plastic wrap (I let them rise overnight). Turn over before you put in the preheated oven, then bake at 200-220 ° C(390- 430 °F). Just will swell and begin to brown they are cooked. 

Arabic bread with Teff flakes porridge.

 

LAUGENBROT

These yummy breads with the accentuated staining are great in combination with beer and tasty food.

I often prepare them for combining with cold cuts and cheeses, both in aperitifs and in the main meals. Usually are made with common wheat flour type "0" or "00", or flours with low fiber content.
When possible, I often choose whole flours. So, also for Laugenbrot, I used stone ground einkorn flour type 2 and a stone ground wheat flour with high percentage of fiber.

This choice surely had an impact on the rising of the dough, in terms of volume reached, but in the same time helped to give to the baked product an excellent aroma, flavor and better nutritional properties. 
To make my Laugenbrot even more special, I decided to garnish with sesame seeds and ivory teff seeds.

These are the ingredients that I used:

DOUGH:

Einkorn flour type 2 : 350 g 

Wholemeal wheat flour : 150 g

Sourdough (solid ) : 150 g

Milk: 275 g 

Butter: 88 g 

Malt : 7 g

Salt : 10 g 

 

BRINE:Water: 1000 g

Sodium Bicarbonate : 50 g

Salt : 7 g  

 

Garnish with :

Sesame seeds and / or ivory teff seeds.

 

PROCEDURE :

Melt the solid sourdough and malt in one-third of the previously warmed milk.

In a bowl mix the melted sourdough, milk and malt with the flour and the rest of the milk. Knead until almost completely absorbed , then add the butter (creamy).

Continuing kneading incorporating butter and for last add salt.

Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, form a ball and put it to rest for about an hour in the bowl covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap.

After that, roll out the dough without crushing too much, make some folds and form a ball again. Put to rest again for about an hour, make portions (I did about 45 g portions), shaped into balls or small loaves.

Let rise until doubled in volume ( about 3 hours).

When they doubled their volume, heat the water with the salt and baking soda. Bring to a boil and soak buns for about thirty seconds, put them on a rack to drain for a few minutes, garnish with sesame seeds and/or teff and carve longitudinally.

Bake in preheated oven at 220 ° C for about 15/20 minutes. Checking that they have a good browning before removing from the oven.