Smoothie Bread made with white rye and whole wheat flour
Smoothie Bread was inspired by the wild and crazy bakers at Hungry Ghost in Northampton, MA, who have started putting seaweed, beets and other unexpected things in their dough. Eating our smoothie bread is like drinking a breakfast smoothie or protein shake—except it’s bread! Just like the smoothie itself, the recipe is very adaptable so you can substitute, add or subtract from the recommended add-ins to your heart’s content. Makes two 1 ½ lb loaves.
Ingredients
150 g lively sourdough starter @100% made with half whole wheat flour and half all purpose flour (this is the Tartine formula)
50 g cornmeal
450 g whole wheat flour or mix of whole wheat and other darker flours (we used 200 g white rye and 250 g whole wheat)
500 g all-purpose flour
650 g water
50 g/ ½ c dried currants or raisins
50 g/ ½ c chopped walnuts or other nuts
100 g/1 c smoothie mix of berries, chopped fruit, finely chopped kale etc—whatever you like to put in your smoothie
1 T caraway seeds
2 T sorghum, honey or blackstrap molasses
1 T or more Kosher salt
This is the frozen smoothie mix we used, found in a 2-lb bag at our big box store.
Method: mix starter, water and flour and autolyze 30 minutes or longer. Add salt and either a/start a series of 8 stretch-and-folds, 15 minutes apart; or b/knead on second speed for 7 minutes or until you have good gluten development. Add the mix-ins after the second-stretch-and-fold or 1 minute of mixing. When the ingredients are thoroughly combined, taste for salt and add more if you wish. (We added another full T.) Allow to rise in a warm place for 4 hours.
Transfer the risen dough to a floured work surface. Divide and shape the dough; cover and rest for 30 minutes. Transfer to floured bannetons, place in plastic bags and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, let the dough come to room temperature for about an hour then preheat oven with 2 cast iron dutch ovens inside to 500 degrees. When ready to bake, carefully remove the hot pans from the oven and sprinkle the bottom interior surface with polenta. Transfer the dough to the dutch oven and cover. Bake 20 minutes, then lower heat to 450 degrees and bake another 10 minutes. Remove cover and bake another 20 minutes or until the crust is a rich dark brown (it will be darker than usual because of the sugar content) and registers 206 degrees on a meat thermometer. Rest at least 1 ½ hours before eating with butter or spread with a soft cheese.
