All my independent pastry-making efforts can be classified either as chapatis, rolls or breads,
all more-or-less invariably made from rye with some buckwheat and/or some wholegrain wheat flour .
All other sweet and savory wholegrain or white-and-wholegrain or white-flour-only kneading and baking projects such as sourdoughs, strudels, croissants, pies, buns, pretzels, rolls, muffins etc. are strictly managed and supervised by
the Grand Master (aka My Mother) and this post does not include any of those.
They will be subject of many a post to come.
It's been both a blessing and a curse to have been brought to this world by a woman who does wonders with a sift and a rolling pin yet has the willpower of steel not to stuff herself silly with all that baked goodness, unlike her younger, more fallible version.
On the other hand, when I do bake or make pastries on my own, I tend to keep things simple. God forbid I should ever throw away food, bread especially, so I also have to take into account the fact that whatever quantity of bread or pastries I make
a) I would either have to eat myself, unless I have friends or guests visiting or staying over or b) would have to be frozen with debatable results once defrosted.
By the way, in the Balkans it's considered a sin to throw away bread,
not that I am superstitious but I AM a true Balkan girl, so there you go...
These are the chapatis I made recently (a blend of rye, whole wheat and buckwheat flours with just a dash of cumin).
I roll them out and then grill them in an oil-free pan,
pressing the edges with a dry spoon until they start to puff and blister...
The rest is up to you. I like mine with a typical PB&J combo,
except that the J here is my mother's no-added-sugar homemade apricot jam
(the no-added-sugar part explains its bright color)...
...or my all-time-favorite homemade plum jam (made from unskinned plums, of course!)
and locally made organic peanut butter.
and locally made organic peanut butter.
Another ball of unleavened dough, intended for a batch or two of spring rolls...
(this time I mixed rye and whole wheat flour with a sprinkle of olive oil)
After I separated the big ball into tiny nut-size balls, I rolled each one out into paper-thin sheets
and prayed to the God of All Things Baked that they do not break or tear as
I stuffed them with a spring-roll mix ...
...straight from my kitchen blender (shrimp meat, soaked rice noodles, spring onions, carrots etc.)
...cooked some right away, stuffed the rest in the freezer for later.
And, last but definitely not least...
...what I thought would be just another rye bread was too plain and ugly once I put it in the baking tray, so I tried to jazz it up with some sunflower and flax seeds. Here it is before it went in the oven...
...and when it just came out:
I mixed the seeds in the dough too so here is the cross-section of my
clumsily named but aptly made Rye Buckwheat Sunflower Flax-seed Bread:
Wonder what I had it with??? You'll never guess.....
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