Rye crackers with more bran

I halved the atta flour quantity and increased the bran by the same ammount (I have to fudge the numbers slightly because my scale only does 2 grams at a time; no odd amounts displayed). The dough was very crumbly; I’m not hopeful.

Still not getting my hopes up; after its 2 hour rest the dough was definitely crumbly.

As an experiment to hold in more of the moisture and possibly help bind it together I sealed the top of the loaf pan with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to bake. Since I’m not using any leavening the bread never rises so no worries about it pushing up against the aluminum foil.

It’s baked and cooling down. The top of the loaf looked less dried out than the ones that don’t have foil over them.

After chilling overnight in the fridge I sliced them. They sliced nicely. The aluminum foil trick definitely helps keep the final bread moist and makes it easier to slice. I’ll have to remember to do that henceforth.

The slices are in the food dehydrator drying.

I just tried one of the crackers after several hours of drying; they’re not fully dried yet but it looks like they’re not going to be too crumbly, which surprises me considering how crumbly the dough was. Perhaps baking the loaf covered with aluminum foil is the trick. I should try redoing the sorghum flour recipe with it to see if it helps. I should also see how far I can push the wheat bran percentage; I could halve the rye flour quantity to 30 grams and increase the wheat bran by another 30 grams.

After fully drying: well I’m pleasantly surprised; they came out well. They’re not crumbly and the flavor is quite reasonable. Not especially bitter. They’re also not tough so I could also slice them more thickly and give them more substance.

It seems as if the other flours somehow enable the bitterness of the bran to come through more strongly. I’m also suspecting that the atta flour I bought may be the culprit; the grocery store had 3 different brands and being the skinflint that I am, I bought the least expensive (read, cheapest) one.

Standard procedure for making the rusks.

Sorghum and atta flour crackers

These are looking good so far; I just sliced them and put them in the food dehydrator. I baked this one at the same time I baked the corn flour and millet flour loaves but had to wait until their slices were dry because I don’t have enough trays to do 6 mini loaves sliced.

Here’s the recipe; same as the others with 50% atta flour and 50% sorghum flour:

After drying: the flavor is definitely unremarkable.

The texture turned out to not be so good; they’re a bit crumbly and won’t hold up for scooping dip.

It would seem that the main advantage for sorghum flour is that it has a low glycemic index.

Standard procedure for making the rusks.

Back to crackers

I’ve sort of fallen off the wagon with my cracker making. I think it was because I had taken a wrong turn with cooking the bread in the pressure cooker. It made crackers that were too tough. And any added spices or flavorings mostly got killed off by the pressure cooker. So I decided to go back to baking in the oven.

Just before I switched to the pressure cooker I realized that I don’t want to add any leavening to the recipe; a brick is what’s needed. But I’d been experimenting with a recipe that had lots of added ingredients; potato, oil, and milk. So I decided to start from scratch, bake a recipe with just flour, water, and salt to see how that worked in the oven. Of course I couldn’t just do it with plain flour so I used half atta flour and half dark rye flour. The first batch was as follows:

After mixing I put it in a small plastic bowl with a lid and let it rest for 2 hours. Then I baked it in a mini loaf pan for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven. I did the usual of letting the bread cool after it was baked, then wrapped it in a paper towel (to absorb any moisture that might otherwise collect on the inside of the plastic bag), then put it in a plastic bag and let it get fully cold in the fridge. Then I sliced it about 4 mm thick and dried it in the food dehydrator set at 105 degrees.

The crackers were fine.

Next I decided to get a bit more rigorous and use weights instead of volume measurements and add some potato.

The potato makes the crackers a bit tougher. But the flavor isn’t any different.

I also did one with egg, no potato; the total fluid was about 240 grams. These were no different than the first plain batch.

Next up was corn flour:

And millet flour:

Notice that I used less water. It turned out that the corn flour dough had too much water; after it had rested for 2 hours there was some water puddled at the bottom of its container. For determining the water needed I was eyeballing and feeling the dough; I should have been feeling it more than eyeballing it since its visual appearance is deceptive.

These two are sliced and drying in the food dehydrator.

The millet flour loaf was quite crumbly and difficult to slice without the slices falling apart. I tasted some of the crumbs and bits before it was dried and it was noticeably bitter. I think I’ll try another batch with it and the potato, and maybe also an egg if the potato doesn’t help. Or perhaps use a cup of pumpkin puree.

I need to go back to the original wheat and rye recipe and try it with milk. The milk might make it more crumbly.

I’m thinking of doing something off the wall and baking the loaf for 30 or 45 minutes, then cook it in the pressure cooker for just a few minutes, at the lower pressure setting. I’m wondering if that will help make the bread denser (and easier to slice) without making the crackers too hard and not dull the flavors.

After drying: The 50% corn flour crackers are definitely crunchy with lots of snap. But the flavor is completely unremarkable. Looks like corn flour can be useful for adding crunch to the crackers.

The 50% millet flour crackers have a bit of a bitter taste. I’d say that the millet flour is a dud.

Next up is 50% sorghum flour.

Standard procedure for making the rusks.

Drying rusks

I was looking on the web last night for recipes for rusks. Lots of recipes from South Africa; they’re apparently popular there. One of the pages gave instructions for drying them after they’d been baked, saying to dry them at 170 degrees for several hours.

“Wait,” I thought, “that’s just like my food dehydrator.”

With the food dehydrator I can dry them more effectively since it has lower temperatures than my oven, and its thermostat is better, and it has a fan that gently blows the warmed air over the food ensuring that it dries evenly.

So I made a batch this morning, also incorporating an ingredient that I’d wanted to try, whole grains. I had some spelt berries that I started soaking the day before, so I had a spelt mash. It made 1 1/2 loaves. After it had cooled a bit I sliced the smaller loaf and started it in the dryer. The slices from the bigger loaf are still drying.

A spelt mash might work in a regular loaf of bread but in dried rusks the soaked spelt berries just dried out and became harder than they had been originally. Tooth chipping hard. I kind of would still like to try it with the whole oat groats that I have but I can’t imagine that they’d do any better. Maybe I should try old fashioned rolled oats.

Nevertheless, the food dehydrator works great for drying the rusks.

I also decided to try making a batch with some sorghum flour. I used half whole wheat flour and half sorghum flour. Unfortunately I spaced out and forgot to add the wheat bran so it turned out more like a quick bread. I was puzzled as to why the dough was a batter instead of a dough. Duh. The sorghum flour gives them a different flavor. Not good, not particularly bad, just not worthwhile I guess I’d say. If it was in a sweet bread with cinnamon and spices it might be nice. But in a cracker it doesn’t really work. Plus, even more problematic, it makes the bread crumbly, similar to corn bread. So the sorghum flour is still looking for a home in some baked good I haven’t yet discovered.