I thought I'd try and explain how we make the desem crackers. Usually we make these when we have enough time to do all the rolling out, and when we don't want to eat the real desem bread. After feeding the starter we are still left with a hunk of dough that needs to be used. So we make this dough into crackers.
I usually end up popping the dough in the 'fridge to sit for a few days. This allows the flavor to ripen. Then I take it out, knead it well. Roll it out as thin as you can! Really, really thin. Spread it with some oil, sprinkle it with salt and spices, or garlic powder and cut it into shapes or rectangles. Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 400* until it begins to get golden brown and crispy. The flavor is so yummy!
It goes well with cream cheese, or hummus, or other bean dips. Or as a plain snack, too.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, December 10, 2009
New Desem recipe
I made desem using fruits and sugars today AND IT WORKED!
This is what I did: Last evening I fed my starter and cooled the dough over the night in my cooler. In the morning I took the dough out and added 1 1/3 cup of water to the bread machine, broke the dough up into pieces and added it. I let it mix this until it was a liquid and then added salt, agave nectar and molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg and raisins. I also added some coconut oil. I added flour until it was the right texture.
After it was kneaded 22 minutes, I greased a bowl and put it in there, and covered it with a pan. I sat a block of ice on the pan to keep it cold. I let it sit for 4 hours, then punched it down and rounded it up. I shaped half of it into a baguette, and the other into rolls. I was using my baguette pan, so I had to improvise a way of doing the hot rise desem calls for.
So I used my broiling pan and poured hot, hot water into it and sat the baguette pan on top of it. Covered it with plastic wrap, and then with several towels. I can't find my heating pad so the hot water was all I used. It worked. I did have to change the hot water every 20 minutes or so. Let's see, I changed the water 4 times so that was little more than an hour of hot rising. Baked it at 430 in the oven. That worked pretty well, too. I did forget to lower the heat.
I was working from memory. I didn't look at my instructions at all, and paid little attention to all the steps needed. I think I managed to do everything that was really necessary, though.
I've been feeding my desem regularly every week at least. However, I haven't made the real desem bread in a while, so it's nice to get back into that. I hope to do it weekly this winter. I make other things with the fermented dough. Sometimes I make half desem bread (yeast and desem combined) and sometimes I make waffles or pancakes, or muffins, or desem crisp bread (yummy crackers.) I also love to make english muffins with the desem bread! Funny, how I've had the desem for so long (3 years!) and only now am starting to do other things with it.
This is what I did: Last evening I fed my starter and cooled the dough over the night in my cooler. In the morning I took the dough out and added 1 1/3 cup of water to the bread machine, broke the dough up into pieces and added it. I let it mix this until it was a liquid and then added salt, agave nectar and molasses, cinnamon and nutmeg and raisins. I also added some coconut oil. I added flour until it was the right texture.
After it was kneaded 22 minutes, I greased a bowl and put it in there, and covered it with a pan. I sat a block of ice on the pan to keep it cold. I let it sit for 4 hours, then punched it down and rounded it up. I shaped half of it into a baguette, and the other into rolls. I was using my baguette pan, so I had to improvise a way of doing the hot rise desem calls for.
So I used my broiling pan and poured hot, hot water into it and sat the baguette pan on top of it. Covered it with plastic wrap, and then with several towels. I can't find my heating pad so the hot water was all I used. It worked. I did have to change the hot water every 20 minutes or so. Let's see, I changed the water 4 times so that was little more than an hour of hot rising. Baked it at 430 in the oven. That worked pretty well, too. I did forget to lower the heat.
I was working from memory. I didn't look at my instructions at all, and paid little attention to all the steps needed. I think I managed to do everything that was really necessary, though.
I've been feeding my desem regularly every week at least. However, I haven't made the real desem bread in a while, so it's nice to get back into that. I hope to do it weekly this winter. I make other things with the fermented dough. Sometimes I make half desem bread (yeast and desem combined) and sometimes I make waffles or pancakes, or muffins, or desem crisp bread (yummy crackers.) I also love to make english muffins with the desem bread! Funny, how I've had the desem for so long (3 years!) and only now am starting to do other things with it.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Information
An email I wrote today:
The sour dough starter that we use here is called desem. This is a flemish word meaning sourdough. All it contains is flour, water and freshly ground whole wheat flour. It's a bit different than traditional sourdough starters in that it is not a liquid. It's a round ball of dough and we feed it weekly or twice a week depending on how much bread and other goodies you want to make. It has a very slow fermentation and my mother in law developed a way getting consistent loaves that rise nicely for bread. I use her method just about every week. I also use it for crisp bread, pancakes, english muffins and waffles. It has a very rich flavor. My starter has been going for almost 5 years, my mother in laws for nearly 20 now.
Because it doesn't have traditional yeast we developed a method of baking with it to give us consistent results and I'm now testing many recipes for my blog with this sourdough. I am selling the starter and a kit with directions and some faq on my blog, for those who want a ready made starter. I am also trying to gather information about how to make desem sour starters and how to use desem in many different types of recipes. I have information about how to make it yourself but it's not complete information yet. The yeast and lacto bacteria are different than in other kinds of sourdoughs. It's really a symbiotic colony of several different yeasts and as many as 11 different kinds of bacteria, all working together to make the bread.
The yeast we buy at the store for bread making is really a gm organism. As wonderful as freshly made bread is it would be far better if we could get away from using the gm yeast and use something that is more healthy for us.
The sour dough starter that we use here is called desem. This is a flemish word meaning sourdough. All it contains is flour, water and freshly ground whole wheat flour. It's a bit different than traditional sourdough starters in that it is not a liquid. It's a round ball of dough and we feed it weekly or twice a week depending on how much bread and other goodies you want to make. It has a very slow fermentation and my mother in law developed a way getting consistent loaves that rise nicely for bread. I use her method just about every week. I also use it for crisp bread, pancakes, english muffins and waffles. It has a very rich flavor. My starter has been going for almost 5 years, my mother in laws for nearly 20 now.
Because it doesn't have traditional yeast we developed a method of baking with it to give us consistent results and I'm now testing many recipes for my blog with this sourdough. I am selling the starter and a kit with directions and some faq on my blog, for those who want a ready made starter. I am also trying to gather information about how to make desem sour starters and how to use desem in many different types of recipes. I have information about how to make it yourself but it's not complete information yet. The yeast and lacto bacteria are different than in other kinds of sourdoughs. It's really a symbiotic colony of several different yeasts and as many as 11 different kinds of bacteria, all working together to make the bread.
The yeast we buy at the store for bread making is really a gm organism. As wonderful as freshly made bread is it would be far better if we could get away from using the gm yeast and use something that is more healthy for us.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Random desem stuff
My favorite old bread pans! And half desem bread or "quicker desem bread." These loaves have sun dried tomato and parmison cheese in them.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
News flash!
My desem starters survived my recent pregnancy and post partum and I'm back to making desem bread! Hurray!
Comments
Thanks so much for the desem starter and the instruction book. It makes it much easier to bake real desem bread!~ Mary B.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Desem "quicker" bread
A mix of yeast and desem starter. With sun dried tomatoe and olive oil, garlic, and Parmesan cheese to flavor the bread.
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