Carrot, onion and poppyseed bread

 

I really loved experimenting with some different flavours in bread baking.  Sylvia response was to ask when I was going to make her some of the white sourdough bread she loves.  Though I love my white loaves, I yearn for something a bit fancier.  And that was why I made this carrot, onion and poppyseed bread when Sylvia was staying with my mum for a couple of nights.  I made two different loaves and will share more about the fruit loaf soon.

I was inspired by the onion and poppyseed bread at Bakers Delight but then I decided to add carrot because I could.  I ran out of onion flakes so I fried some onion.  Good move!  Yet I could barely taste the onion in the warm bread.  Once cooled, it was a bit more prominent but still subtle.  Maybe more onion next time but I really loved this loaf.

When Sylvia came home from my mum's, we had a lovely lunch of fresh bread with cheese and chutney.  A couple of days later  Sylvia had been trampolining at Bounce with a friend.  They came back to ours for lunch.  I made them a pretty platter of bread, crackers, cheese, bikkies and hummus.  They left the bread and headed for the crackers and hummus.  Sigh!  They took their plates of lunch outside to a little tent they had set up as a house.  I stayed inside and enjoyed the bread and vegies!

I am sending this to Healthy Vegan Fridays, 

More savoury baking recipes from Green Gourmet Giraffe:
Carrot and poppy seed dinner rolls (v)
Cottage cheese and chive bread
Russian Vegetable Bread (v)
Sesame and Lemon Bread (v)
Sprouted green lentil and bulgar bread (v)
Yeasted Zucchini Bread (v) 

Carrot, onion and poppyseed bread
Adapted from Green Gourmet Giraffe

200g sourdough starter
275g water
10-12g salt*
2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 medium onion, finely chopped*
1 medium carrot, peeled and finely grated
15g poppyseeds 1 1/2 tbsp
4g onion flakes*
400g plain white flour
100g wholemeal flour
maize flour to dust surface

A few hours before making the loaf, take sourdough starter out of the fridge and feed it so it gets nice and bubbly. 

About an hour before going to bed (or first thing in the morning) fry onion in oil on medium high for about 4 minutes until they start to char around the edges.  Add carrot and fry on medium heat for about 1 to 2 minutes until the carrot changes colour which indicates it it cooked.  Mix everything together.  It is easiest to mix everything except flour first and then add flour.  Use hands to mix if required.  Set aside covered with a tea towel for half an hour.  Knead in the bowl for about 1 minute.  Cover with greased clingwrap and leave at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.

Scrape dough out onto a lightly floured board.  Very gently without punching the air out, fold the dough in three.  Shape into a loaves.  Place on a floured surface and cover with the lightly greased clingwrap.  (Maize flour is great here.)  Set aside to rise for 30 minutes.  While the loaves rise, preheat oven to 240 C, with casserole dishes heating if you are using them.

Slash the loaves and put in the heated casserole dishes with lids on (or on a tray or in a tin).  Bake for 20 minutes with lid on.  Remove lid and bake another 20 minutes.  Then reduce oven heat to 180 C and return to oven for another 10 minutes to make sure the crust is crispy and golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

* NOTES: For more extensive notes on this method, go to my post on overnight sourdough bread.  I added more salt than usual (12g) because I was concerned that the carrot would make my savoury bread taste too sweet.  It was fine but I suspect you could get by with 10g.  I only used 1 onion but in future would use 2 onions to give more onioin flavour.  I also ran out of onion flakes so might omit if I had more onion or experimenting with using all flakes rather than onions if I had a good tablespoon or two of them.  Though I think I prefer fried onion.

On the Stereo:
The Velvet Underground and Nico