Flax seed Sourdough, what a hit

Today I’m baking with Flax seeds. I like the nutty taste of these tiny brown seeds and if only part is true about the benefits, Flax seeds are also amazingly healthy.

I just finished mixing the dough and left it for an hour to autolyse, when we had guests. Every year after Songkran, Thai New Year, some of the girls we help with our foundation Little Sisters come and pay their respect. We started a foundation to help poor Thai girls to go to school every day. Because we think education gives a possibility to take control of your own life and a possibility to make your own choices in the direction of your future. This is what Little Sisters wants for the girls.


The girls came with two of their teachers, who became our friends. They brought a big basked with fruit for us. Even though we know one another for a few years already it’s still exiting for the girls to visit us in our house. Normally we see them at their school or at their home when we go to visit them.

After we talked for a while, all the girls poured water over our hands and gave us good wishes for coming year. It’s a nice ceremony that shows respect for each other. With mangos from our garden they went home. And I went back to the kitchen to see what happened during the 3 hour autolyse.

I changed 6 things with this recipe:

1. I used 100 grams more water because I soaked the flax seeds in boiling water and when cooled enough added the water too.
2. I used rye flour and added whole wheat bran, instead of only rye flour.
3. When the teachers and girls left the first dough had an autolyse of more than 3 hours.
4. After bulk fermentation I gently formed a kind of batard with the help of flour and dough cutter without pre-shape placed it directly in the floured banneton.
5. I placed a wet towel (instead of a plastic bag) on top of the banneton and let the dough proof.
6. I baked the loaf at approx. 230°C. My oven only heats from the bottom and to get a brown color on the bread it needs more heat. And it’s very difficult to adjust the temperature without a proper thermometer.

Multigrain Norwich Sourdough

It’s been a while since I posted about a loaf of bread. I’ve been baking, but not as frequent as I would have liked to. Last few weeks were very hectic. The ultrasound on my yearly checkup of my breasts showed a possible malignant mass, but luckily it was benign. But before we knew this we had some troublesome weeks. The hospital which can deal with this kind of problems is a four hours drive away through the mountains in the north of Thailand. We could only see the doctor in the evening so we had to stay overnight. It took four appointments and one operation before we got the good news that the cyst was benign. So lucky us!!!!

During all the waiting for the results I tried to bake some bread; normally it helps me to relax and meditate. But it was hard to concentrate.

Now everything is back to normal. And there was a big necessity to bake bread because we ate all the breads out of the freezer.

Today I went again for delicious Ciabatta and a Multigrain Norwich Sourdough. Whenever I want to bake failure-proof bread, I go for Norwich Sourdough. This bread has a delicious crumb with a crunchy crust; the way a good sourdough should be (for us).

Since I soak the multigrain they are chewable instead of tooth breaking. And they don’t stick between your teeth. The main reason I choose multigrain is because it tastes great; it gives the bread a nutty flavor. And I also added some delicious sunflower kernels. And of course it's very healthy!

Essential's Columbia

It’s been a while since we had a nice brown bread on our table. Wouldn’t it be nice to make a Brown Essential Columbia. This country French-style bread is named for the Columbia River. It’s a beautiful river like our river Mae Kok here in the North of Thailand. We’re lucky to have a river near our village. Beside all obvious reasons for having a river, water also helps with the fun we all have during Songkran; Thai New Year. It's very hot during these days; more than 35C (95F). In the street people throw water at each other. It’s a very old tradition to visit and pay respect to elders (family, friends, neighbors and monks) during these three days. And at the river banks the locals build bamboo restaurants and they rent out big tubes to play in the water. From the south many come to visit their family and play in the river. It’s a happy celebration all over the country. But, especially in the North of Thailand. 

Of course it's also time to bake a bread, despite the heat. The delicious bread I choose comes from Maggie Glezer's book "Artisan Baking".

This is a absolutly delicious loaf of bread. There are a few on my list of favorites; Norwich Sourdough, Tartine Country Bread, Ciabatta. And now this Essential’s Columbia is on there too. 

I’ve baked it a few times before, but today I wanted to bake a brown bread. Just add a little bit of roasted malt and you have a nice brown bread. The other thing I changed was  honey in stead of non-diastatic barley malt syrup. 

I found this recipe also in Dutch at Levine’s Uit de keuken van Levine.