Beef Stoganoff on Barley | home | Clafoutis

Millet Loaf with Sweet Glaze

Being Thursday, it was baking night (well that and the fact we were out of bread). But since it was a late week bake I decided to do things a little differently since if it didn’t turn out, it would only be Friday’s kids lunches that suffered. However, it did turn out and thus the kidlets were saved from eating a baking failure.

I made a fairly standard white bread with millet flour added for extra flavour and texture, but threw in some cocoa powder, and glazed with sweetened condensed milk, poppy seeds and almond meal. The glaze caramelized leaving a sweet caramelly crust.

!/recipes/images/MLwSGc.jpg (The Crust)!

h2. Ingredients.

h3. The Sponge

* 2 cups of warm water
* 1.5 Tablespoons of active dry yeast
* 1 cup of millet flour
* 1 cup of plain flour
* 2 Tablespoons of honey
* half a teaspoon of cocoa powder

h3. The Dough

* 4 cups of plain flour
* 1 Tablespoon of salt

h3. The Glaze

* some sweetened condensed milk
* poppy seeds
* almond meal

h2. Method.

h3. To make the Sponge…

In a mixing bowl, place the water and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Add the flours, and whisk briskly until combined. Add the honey and cocoa and whisk again until thoroughly combined into a runny batter. Cover with a tea-towel and leave for about 10 mins to foam up and rise.

h3. Now onto the dough…

Sprinkle the salt over the sponge and add 1 cup of the flour. Combine vigorously with a whisk. Swapping to a wooden spoon, add another cup of flour. The dough should now be more dough like, and less sticky. I find swapping to fingers at this stage to be easier than a spoon, and you get a better feel for the dough.
Add another cup of flour and mix in with your fingers, kneading in when mixing becomes difficult. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead in more flour until the dough feels moist but not sticky.
Now knead the dough until it is springy (poke it gently with your finger, it should spring back). Once it’s springy, form the dough into a ball, grease a large bowl with butter, and place the dough ball in the bowl. Turn the dough several times to coat with a thin layer of butter, then cover the bowl with cling-wrap and allow to rise for roughly an hour (until doubled in bulk).
When risen, tip out onto your workbench and gently deflate. Lightly knead the dough into shape and place in a well greased bread pan.

h3. Now to Glaze…

I found a fork worked best to paint the top of the loaf with sweetened condensed milk, as it’s too viscous for a brush. Sprinkle with poppy seeds and almond meal.

Lightly cover, leaving room for expansion and allow to rise for a further 40 – 50 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.

Bake for 40 – 45 minutes. The crust should turn a rich brown colour and smell like caramel. The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom when it’s done.

!/recipes/images/MLwSG.jpg!

posted to Breads and Baking,Recipes @ 11:05 pm

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Beef Stoganoff on Barley | home | Clafoutis