BEETROOT WITH WALNUT BREAD

Recently, I’ve been interested in baking bread with coloured crumbs and it all started with the Purple Sweet Potato bread. There is a lot of health benefits eating Purple Sweet potatoes, so it made sense to me to have bread made with this, and consume the potato this way. I then tried the Butterfly Pea coloured bread which is supposed to colour the crumb a lovely blue. However, in my first attempt, I underestimated the amount of dried Butterfly pea flowers to use and the result was a faint purplish crumb. I now find that I should have used three times the amount that I used in my first attempt, and so the second attempt will be happening very soon!!

Meantime, I moved on to using beetroot, and this was quite successful, except I didn’t fancy the earthy taste of the bread, even though I added walnuts for that added crunchy texture and flavour. Below is the recipe that I used having made adjustments to adapt to the different flour I used.

80 g chopped walnuts
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp sea salt
​2 tbs coconut oil.

Method:
Boil the beetroot (intact with skin) in water for 40 to 45 minutes till cooked.
Cool the beetroot and then slice the beetroot with the skin, into small pieces and puree in a blender.
​Add in 2 tablespoons of coconut oil to make the paste of deep red beetroot.

In a KitchenAid bowl, add in the 500g flour, 21/2 teaspoon dried yeast and about 2/3rd of the measured amount of water. Reserve the rest of the water to add into the dough mix teaspoon by teaspoon. to obtain a smooth silky dough during the mixing and where the dough comes off the sides of the bowl.

Before the final stages of mixing the dough, add in the sea salt and the chopped walnuts. When you are happy with the consistency of the dough, transfer this onto a floured silicone mat and fold a few times before forming a boule and letting this proof for an hour. After an hour, fold the dough a few times and after shaping into a ball, proof further another 30 minutes.

When the dough  doubled it’s size, I divided the dough into two portions, and did a final fold and shape into boules. Proof them on floured baking paper for the last 30 minutes before baking in a preheated Dutch Oven at 230˚C. for 30 minutes.

Remove the cover of the DO after 30 minutes and bake uncovered for another 10 to 15 minutes at 210˚C till the loaves are lightly brownish red and sounds hollow when you knock them.

Remove from the DO and cool on a metal rack.