No Korni Jokes

The Bread Baking Babes are back and this month I've really let them down. Our bread for the month was a Korni loaf and I'm sure big things were expected from me in the way of Korni jokes, but I just couldn't get there. I was too busy making a simple loaf waaaaay harder than it needed to be.

When Lien, our host kitchen of the month, announced her choice was the Korni bread from The Village Baker, I promptly got the book from the library. I could have just printed out the recipe, but I wanted the book in case there was extra information I needed. Mistake. I was unaware that there are THREE Korni bread recipes in the book.



I opened the book to the (I thought) correct recipe and groaned. A starter. Pooh. That has to percolate for days. Double Pooh. Oh well, better to get started, so I mixed whole wheat flour, a bit of milk, some cumin, and some water to make a firm dough and let it sit in a bowl, covered, for 2 days. I fed it some more flour and water, covered it up and let it sit again. It wasn't until the third day that it dawned on me (yes, I really am that slow), that I was making a sourdough starter for the sourdough version of the Korni. Arggghhhh!

I can't tell you how the assigned recipe turned out. To find that out, you'll have to check the other Babe's sites (listed in the sidebar). I can tell you that the sourdough version is nice. Very moist, subtle flavor, speckled with crunchy bits. I'm not going to give you the recipe as it's too long, involved, and frustratingly vague. Check out the book if you want the sourdough version or make it the assigned way.



If you make and post the bread by the 29th, send the URL to Lien and she'll send you a handsome Bread Baking Buddy badge to proudly display on your site.

(The changes that I made were: I used soy nuts in place of the whole soy soak, roast process and I only used 1 tsp ground caraway seeds. Oh, and I made the sourdough version, but added 1 tsp instant yeast because I really didn't trust that sourdough to do much heavy lifting.)

Korni
(makes 1 round 3 1/2 pound loaf)
- adapted from Joe Ortiz' The Village Baker

Korni means corn or grain. It is made from a combination of grains that go well together for flavor, crunchiness, and good nutrition.

Soy bean mixture
1/2 cup organic (dried) soy beans (85 g)
1 cup boiling water (235 g)

Poolish
1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons; 1/4 oz) active dry yeast (1 1/2 tsp)
2 1/2 cups warm water (2 1/4 cup = 533 g)
1 cup organic rye flour (100 g)
1 cup organic whole wheat flour (130 g)
1 1/2 cups organic unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour (180 g)

Dough
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (60 g)
All of the starter from the previous step
3 cups organic, unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour (420 g)
1 tablespoon sea salt (2 tsp)
1 tablespoon ground caraway seeds* (1 tsp)
1/4 cup organic fax seeds (37 g)
1/2 cup organic millet (100 g)
All of the soy mixture

Glaze: 1 whole egg whisked with 1 tablespoon milk

Prepare the soy beans:
Place them in a small bowl, cover them with the boiling water, and let them soak for 10 minutes. Drain the beans and let them cool. Process the beans in a food processor fitted with the metal blade until they roughly chopped.

Place the beans on a cookie sheet and roast them in a preheated 350°F oven between 15 and 20 minutes, until they are completely dried out. Set them aside.

*(to make your own, grind a few tablespoons of whole caraway seed in a mortar with a pestle until you have a fine powder. If your powder still contains large chunks of seed, sift the mixture and use 1 tablespoon of the sifted powder)

Prepare the sponge/poolish:
First proof the yeast, in a large bowl, in 1 cup of the warm water. When it is creamy, mix in 1 1/4 cups warm water and slowly add the rye flour, whole wheat flour, and 1½ cups of white flour by handfuls while stirring the mixture with a wooden spoon.
Set the batter aside, in a large bowl, covered with a dish towel, for between 8 and 10 hours or overnight.

Make the dough:
Proof the yeast in the warm water, add it to the risen sponge, and mix the two together. Start adding the flour, handful by handful, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. After all but 1 cup of the flour has been added (this will take about 10 minutes), turn the dough out onto your worktable, sprinkle the salt and the ground caraway over the dough, and incorporate them by kneading the dough for about 5 minutes while adding the last of the flour. The dough should be very moist.

Add the fax seeds, millet, and roasted soy beans and knead the dough to incorporate them.
Set the dough aside, covered, to rise for 1 hour, until it has doubled in size.

Flatten out the dough again and then shape it into a round loaf. This loaf is best proofed in a canvas-lined basket (I used a large bowl sprayed with baking spray) and then baked on a baking stone in the oven. It can also be placed on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Let the loaf rise for about 1 1/2 hours.

Glaze the loaf with the egg and milk mixture and bake it in a preheated 425°F oven for between 30 and 35 minutes.

Let the loaf cool on a wire rack.