Sweet potato and pumpkin seed bread
400g unbleached, organic strong white flour
100g einkorn flour
120g sourdough starter
50g pumpkin seeds (toasted)
15g poppy seeds (toasted)
100g sweet potato (mashed)
245g bottled water*
15g olive oil
4g baker’s yeast
10g kosher salt
Steam or boil the chopped sweet potato for 15 minutes and mash it. Allow to cool. Toast the pumpkin and poppy seeds in the oven @ 200°C for 10 minutes and allow to cool. Put the flour in a mixing bowl and add the water, sourdough starter, olive oil, poppy seeds, sweet potato and pumpkin seeds, salt and baker’s yeast. Mix together well and knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes. Leave to rise covered by a tea towel for 90 minutes to 2 hours. Take the dough from your bowl and flatten slightly into a disc. Fold in 4 edges to the centre and shape into a ball. Leave the dough to rise on a greased flat baking tray or well floured banneton (seam upwards) for about 2 hours or until it has doubled in bulk. Dust with rye flour and slash a cross on the bread with a lame or a razor blade. Pre-heat the oven @ 220°C with a shallow tray of water at the bottom of the oven to create steam. Bake for 27 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire tray, covered with a tea towel.
* You may have to adjust the water content, depending on how watery the sweet potatoes are.
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are a root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens.
The most prominent nutrient in sweet potatoes is vitamin C: one large sweet potato contains more than 70% of our reference intake, more than double that of white potatoes!
Pumpkin Seeds
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Crunchy, delicious pumpkin seeds are high in calories; about 559 calories per 100g. Also, they are packed with fibre, vitamins, minerals, and numerous health promoting antioxidants.
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Their high calorific value mainly comes from protein and fats. Nonetheless, the kernels are especially rich in monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA) like oleic acid (18:1) that helps lower bad LDL-cholesterol and increases good HDL-cholesterol in the blood. Research studies suggest that the Mediterranean diet which is liberal in monounsaturated fatty acids contribute to preventing coronary artery disease and stroke risk by favouring healthy blood lipid profile.
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Pumpkin seeds carry good-quality protein. 100g seeds provide 30g or 54% of recommended daily allowance of protein. Also, the seeds are an excellent source of amino acid tryptophan and glutamate. Tryptophan is converted into serotonin and niacin. Serotonin is a beneficial neurochemical often labelled as nature's sleeping pill. Further, tryptophan is the precursor of B-complex vitamin, niacin (60 mg of tryptophan = 1mg niacin).
25 May 2017
25 May 2017
25 May 2017
