The night before you want to bake combine:
200 g millet flour (I get mine from Conscious Foods)
600 g boiling water
Stir well, cover and leave.
At the same time, refresh a rye sourdough starter in a big mixing bowl:
30 g rye sourdough starter
500 g strong white wheat flour
250 g water
To bake:
Add the scalded millet to the refreshed rye sourdough starter. Add in:
80 g honey
1 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
500 g strong white wheat flour
Knead well for 10 minutes, adjusting the water content if necessary. Your dough will be sticky and you want it that way.
Add 25 g salt and knead for another 5 minutes.
Put the dough in a big bowl, cover it and let it rest over night in the fridge.
Turn the dough out onto a well floured board and divide it into 4 pieces. With floury hands and a scraper, pull each piece gently out into a square about 8 10 inches long and then fold it up in thirds as if you were going to put a piece of A4 into an envelope.
Gently pull each loose folded square onto a baking tray that you have lined with non stick baking parchment. Sprinkle to tops liberally with flour or semolina and cover with a dry tea towel.
Let rest for 2-3 hours. They will grow by 1.5 times and when you press them the dough will spring back.
Preheat the oven to 230 C/450 F and when it is up to temperature, take the tea towel off and pop the baking tray in.
Bake for 10 minutes at 230 and then lower the heat to 200 C/400 F and bake for a furthe 30 minutes.
This is seriously good (and good for you) bread. Seriously.
Hey Jane
Hope all well. I really want to attempt this Millet Bread now having baked quite a bit since doing the course. You know my predilection for wholemeal flours though, so could I follow the above recipe using wholemeal or spelt flours?
Hope all well.
xcharlotte
Hey Charlotte,
it works just as well with whole meal – that is how I did it at first. The only issue is that the floavour of the whole meal tends to hide the flavour of the millet which has a more delicate flavour. You will still get great texture, though, and great flavour, just not the flavour of millet!
Hi Jane, great recipe – I tried it out yesterday. The taste is wonderful, very difficult not to eat it all in one go! Ursi
Hello so it is Friday afternoon where I am and I want to bake this on Sunday do I do the scalding and refreshing tonight, Mix tomorrow and bake on Sunday or is the scalding and refreshing done on the same day that you mix and pop in the fridge? I am still trying to get sourdough to work to my schedule of being out of the house all day and going to bed by no later than 10pm! Thank you — love the all you knead book by the way made the anadama bread last weekend and it was amazing right through the week to the very last crumb thanks
Hi Joanne! Firstly, thanks for your comments on the book! I am so pleased! Secondly, what are you baking!!!! I don’t quite know how to advise you if I don’t know what you are baking! Let me know and I am certain I can help. Jane
Hi, sorry thought you could see what recipe I was looking at on the site, it is the scalded millet sourdough ( we love the millet pancakes from your book) if I wanted to bake next Sunday what day do I start ? Thanks
Hello! I’ve been having fun with sourdough seed breads, and I know I like the taste of millet. Does your “millet flour” mean it really is a powdery flour, or is it the hulled millet seed? It’s kind of hard to find in California. I got some millet flour, which looks so soft, I can’t imagine you need to scald it first.
Thank you for any advice!
I have a good sourdough recipe from The Bread Bible that uses 3 toasted seeds (pumpkin, sunflower & sesame) , + some untoasted flax seed & polenta (which is pretty coarse and crunchy cornmeal). It calls for about half all-purpose flour, half whole wheat flour. also a bit of wheat germ & wheat bran stirred in, honey for a sweetener. It’s a slow but not difficult process with the sourdough starter. I love it, and would like to add in millet in some form.
Hi there! I do mean powdery millet flour. You never need to scald any flour. It is an optional technique which results in a very different texture. From Scandinavia to China you will find this technique – try it! You can of course add whole hulled millet to anything. However, it’s a grain and so you should make sure the fermentation is a long one OR it is soaked first so you can digest it! Thanks for writing. Jane
Hi there.
Loving your rye bread. The 100% rye one.
How much starter would I need to turn that nutty delight into sourdough? It’s everything I like in a bread. I have started adding nutmeg, trying to get just a hint of it. Delish
Thank you for your efforts.
You’re spreading joy.
Aki
Dear Aki, are you asking how to make a 100% sourdough rye loaf? Is that the question? First order of detail is whether you have a rye sourdough starter? Let me know!
Thanks for replying.
I don’t have a starter yet. I’m working on it.
And yes, I want a sourdough version of your 100% rye bread. I have made about five loaves from that recipe and am loving it. I use double your measurements to make a larger loaf add nutmeg and caraway seeds and it’s a winner.
Thank you
Thanks for replying.
I don’t have a starter yet. I’m working on it.
And yes, I want a sourdough version of your 100% rye bread. I have made about five loaves from that recipe and am loving it. I use double your measurements to make a larger loaf add nutmeg and caraway seeds and it’s a winner.
Thank you
Here is the link to how to make starters:
https://www.virtuousbread.com/bread-and-baking/making-sourdough-starters/
Let me know when that is done and then you are ready to make bread with a rye starter!