Farmer's Market Brunch

I have a small problem of over planning my weekends due to our insatiable desire to do everything, camping, kayaking, whitewater rafting, beer festivals, climbing, biking... there's so much to do in Spring. So every once in a while, its really nice to just have a lazy Sunday. Besides, it was August swamp summer weather instead of glorious Spring weather. So my fearless companion (okay fine, I'll call him my boyfriend, even though I think it sounds wierd) and I meandered off to the Dupont Circle farmer's market. I had to set some strict guidelines for myself because I am in the process of eating as much of the crap in my freezer and pantry as possible before my CSA starts. I was not allowed to buy anything I thought would come in my CSA. I was not allowed to buy meat since I have a bunch of grass-fed beef and venison in my freezer. I was not allowed to buy bread or baked goods since I make those myself.

Soooooo... we ended up with 4 kinds of raw milk cheese, morel mushrooms, wild ramps, and grass-fed cow milk. Which made for an amazing brunch of wild ramps, morel mushrooms sauteed with thick-cut bacon, artichokes with garlic butter sauce, the cheese assortment eaten on a homemade quinoa whole wheat baguette, and a mixed berry smoothie with grass fed cow milk.

Now quinoa (pronounced keeeeeeeeeeeeeen-wa... okay fine, just keen-wa, but the other one looks more fun) originated in Peru and is the seed of a grain-like plant. Its growing popularity amongst foodies is its nutty flavor and the fact that it provides a complete protein. I had a little jar of it left in the back corner of my cupboard and decided that it needed to get used up. This thought has apparantly been in the back of my mind for a while as I found a crumpled up handwritten recipe for a Quinoa Baguette in the stack of recipes I save for a rainy day. I have no idea where this recipe came from, but the result was good, not great. The crumb was hearty and nutty with lots of nooks and crannies much like an english muffin, but this bread does not stand up well to time (some breads become magicical twice if toasted in the days after... this is not one of them). I would make some adjustments for a future batch, as noted below.

Rinse 1 cup of uncooked quinoa in hot water. Okay, first adjustment. My recipe says uncooked. I honestly would cook it after rinsing and prior to doing the dough to allow for more integration of the quinoa with the whole wheat. Dissolve 2 TBSP honey in 2 cups of warm water and let it sit with 1 package of yeast for 5 minutes. Second adjustment. 2 cups of water was waaaay too much. I would maybe cook the quinoa in 2 cups of water, let cool, then add honey and and yeast. Add 1 TBSP olive oil, 2 tsp salt, 2 TBSP gluten, 2 cups of whole wheat flour, and 1 cup of unbleached bread flour. Beat with a spoon for five minutes and let rest 15 minutes to develop gluten and all that good stuff.

Keep adding additional bread flour until its the right consistency. Sorry, I'm a consistency kind o' gal. I do most of my bread by feel. Anywhoooo, the consistency of this one never got quite right. Mostly, because I think the recipe should have said to cook the quinoa in the 2 cups of water. I left it at a pretty wet batter with well developed glutens and let it rise in an oiled bowl for 1.5 hours, punched it down and divided into two baguettes and let it rise again. Baked it for 22 minutes at 450 F on a bread stone that had been preheated with a pan of water underneath to keep the oven nice and humid (this keeps the crust from scorching and allows the bread to expand).