I've made two attempts so far, but I'm not there yet! Both were edible, the second more so than the first.
In the first, I used the crazy rose hip meal (or whatever it is) that I brought back. It's ... weird. Very red in color, and very vitamin-C-like in flavor, if that makes sense. I don't think I'm going to use it in further attempts, unless I get a lot closer to the ideal and am in tweaking mode.
You can see the redness of the meal in the finished product.
The second attempt was better - it tasted pretty good and was rather hearty-seeming:
But the attempts so far haven't even BEGUN to match the real thing, or even the photos in the recipes I used. (Here's a link to the recipe I used as a starting point for the first attempt. The second attempt came from The Rye Baker: Classic Breads from Europe & America, which I got from the library)
Obviously I'm not using the right flour, so my next step is to get my hands on dark rye and/or pumpernickel flours. Fortunately I'm in driving distance of Bob's Red Mill - and they sell in bulk, so I can buy a few cups, not a few pounds of flour while I'm in test mode!
One good thing is that I've been scaling these recipes WAY down - I think I calculated them down to an eighth of the original volume. I've been making 3-4 muffins with each attempt. Thank goodness for digital scales and recipes written in grams!
I sent this to Chris. He makes something that looks kind of similar, so I asked him to send the recipe.
ReplyDeleteThanks!! The specific recipe I'm modeling from is a quick bread, if that matters.
DeleteMy bet is that the real thing is a mostly to all rye meal (pumpernickel) sourdough, but one that uses sour milk in place of a rye starter, and uses a small amount of the rose hips for seasoning. The loaf pictured in the recipe looks to have been steamed, or more likely, covered as it baked, which was probably for a long time at a low temperature.
ReplyDeleteThose are educated thoughts! However! the ingredients listed on the bread that was my favorite (and was available in the gift shop) included baking soda, not yeast. (I posted that pic in my other post linked at the top in this one.) I'm definitely going to track down rye and/or pumpernickel, they are the next step!
DeleteRosehips are high in vitamin C IIRC... so that vitamin C taste makes sense to me :P
ReplyDelete