Arkatena Bread

I am going through my stores and finding recipes to use up the ingredients which are close to the best before dates, and I have some chickpea flour....Andrew Whitley's Bread Matters Book came up trumps.  I read the recipe and felt that it would take a little too long for me, as well as making a largish batch of production leaven where not all was used.

These ratios and timings suit me.  The resulting loaves are delicious.  I baked them in two 500g oval bannetons and the picture is of the loaf that got stuck in the banneton...hence its rather rustic looking top.

Early afternoon of day 1

50g sourdough white starter..100% hydration
25g chickpea flour
25g white strong flour...my current batch is stoneground organic strong white from Stoates
50g water
150g starter in total

mix and place in a bowl and keep covered on the worktop

Late evening day 1

150g starter from the above
50g strong wholemeal
50g chickpea
120g water
520g total Production Leaven

Mix and leave the bowl covered on the worktop

Day 2 Early morning

100g strong wholemeal
300g stron white wheat flour
10g sea salt
300g water
20g fennel seeds
520g Production Leaven
1250g dough in total

Knead the dough well for about 10 minutes, and then leave on the worktop under an upturned bowl for about a hour.  Stretch and fold, then leave for another hour, repeat again!  Its well worth developing your sourdough techniques.  Thanks to several months working on doughs into the Perfecting Sourdough Challenges on Facebook, and exchanging tips there, I have come a long way.

Divide as appropriate to fit your baskets, then prove for a couple of hours or so depending on ambient temperature until the finger tests show that the loaves are ready to bake.

Preheat the oven to 220 C, bake for 10 minutes, then reduce to 190 C fan and bake until ready about 25 minutes for 500g loaves.

The bread is rather delicious...nutty and nutritious.  Nice toasted too...great with cold meats, chutneys, roasted veg and hummus.

With 250g of the dough left after two 500g loaves, I mixed in some soaked fruit, spice, and the soaked bottom of the fruited all bran breakfast cereal bag, and left the mixture to rise in some muffin tins...rather delicious upcycled breakfast cereal, the dusty small bits which would have gone in the bin!  I got six nice fruity breakfast buns.