The weather here in Boston has been slowly getting warmer.  Better temperatures for rising dough, but less ideal for turning on my oven.  On top of that, my weak/bad wrist is tempermental whenever I’m kneading.

I think this might be my last loaf for the season.  I might try some no-knead recipes, but the bulk of my bread experimentation will have to wait for the weather to get cold again.

I realize, too, that I’ve been promising one or two posts on breads with a pre-ferment, but I haven’t posted them at all due to… well, a lack of interest.  More pathetic is the fact that I had one completely written up and saved on my computer.  I am lame, lame, lame.  And it isn’t the fault of the bread recipe.  I’ve just realized that I don’t think I like the flavor of my breads with a pre-ferment.  The best of the pre-ferment experiments is the one that I had written up, so perhaps I’ll still post it.  But not today.

And I apologize for the lack of pictures.  I’m trying to get back into the swing of things.

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So, I’ve had a box of quinoa flour sitting in my pantry for at least a couple of months.  I’ve never cooked/baked with it before – I was just curious.  (but I have cooked with quinoa itself, and I love it)

Searching for bread recipes that 1) weren’t gluten-free and 2) used the flour and not cooked quinoa proved to be a little tricky.

Eventually, I started searching for milk bread recipes since I had some whole milk to use up and came across a recipe for “Victorian Milk Bread” which I used and fiddled around with for my purposes.

Here’s what I used:
1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cups quinoa flour
1 cup white whole wheat flour
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons SAF instant yeast
2 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten

General instructions:
Mix everything into a bowl.  Personally, I found I had to add 1-2 tablespoons of water to make the dough wet enough.  Then, knead for 10 minutes.  Put the dough in a bowl to rise, and cover with a bit of plastic wrap or a damp towel so that it doesn’t dry out.  Let rise for about 4 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Remove the dough from the bowl and shape into a loaf.  Place the loaf in a standard bread pan and let it rise (again, loosely place some plastic wrap over it) until it’s above the rim of the pan, probably about an inch above.  Hmmm, I think it took about an hour or so for me to get there.

Pre-heat your oven to 350F and lower the oven rack to bottom third.

Bake 30-35 minutes.

Overall reaction?  Quinoa flour does not remind me of quinoa at all.  It’s less sweet.  I think the gluten was a good call, considering that I did not use bread flour at all.  It makes for a decent everyday bread.  I now know that I am not very enamored with quinoa flour but I don’t know how else to use it up.  Having said that, the results here were very acceptable.  I’ll see about using it for a no-knead dough.

Comments on the general recipe?  Easy, forgiving and easy to mess around with.  I think I’ll need to remake it but using my buckwheat flour next time around.

~ Mikan

quick notes: 1) bread flour has more protein than wheat flour or AP flour and quinoa is gluten-free, hence my addition of wheat gluten; 2) I did not want to make a gluten-free bread because you generally need a mixture of gluten-free flours which I do not have; 3) for my wheat and AP flours, I only use King Arthur.  Different brands make a huge difference.