Amaranth Seed Bread
This is amaranth bread. It is the third-generation sourdough (the one with the egg white added). I am quite happy with how it turned out. It looks like “normal” bread and has a reasonably soft texture due to all the tapioca flour.
For those of you who don’t know what amaranth is it is a super-tiny seed that comes from an ancient, beautiful magenta-pink colored flower that is actually a weed (I think). It is high in protein and can grow damn near anywhere, hence it’s weed-like qualities. It is a little like hemp in that it contains essential amino acids that human bodies need. It is a valuable crop indeed!
This bread uses the entire seed, not the flour most people may have seen. While I use amaranth flour in lots of other things, I chose to use the seed here. Here’s what I came up with to put in this simple bread:
1/2c of whole amaranth
1c millet flour
2 1/2c tapioca flour
1t each of guar and xanthan gums
1 1/2t salt
1 C of starter
1 egg white, lightly beaten and
about 2 cups of water
I throw all this is a bowl and mix it up for a few minutes. I let it rise, covered, in the bowl on the counter for about 30 minutes and then plop it in the 9×5 loaf pan that has been spray oiled and dusted with cornmeal. Then it sits to rise until it is almost at the top of the pan. After that, it’s off the oven set at 375 degrees. It bakes, for 10 minutes uncovered and then about 30 or so covered with foil. Then it must cool completely on a rack before I can eat it.
I don’t know if I have just grown accustomed to gf bread or if this really is good bread. As much as I tried to get my mother to buy Wonder when I was younger, I never ate any of the super-soft loaf breads. Then as I grew older, I always ate the whole grain ones that were firmer from bakeries like Alvarado St.. It may just be that I don’t long for soft, squishy bread because I don’t have a memory to which I could compare the texture. Who knows.
What I do know is that gf bread keeps me from being sick and I think this bread tastes lovely. Why would I expect anything less from such a beautiful flower.
~Sarah
