Tuesday, 2 May 2017

A tale of two Breads


These two mini bread boules may appear similar but appearances are deceptive. Both are gluten free breads and are made from exactly the same ingredients- Barnyard millet, salt and a bit of grated carrot. However, they have one fundamental difference. The one on right- sitting on a pedestal of bread slices was slowly fermented with wild starters- it's a sourdough bread and the one on the right is fermented with yeast. The sourdough took about 8 hours to ferment, while its yeast sibling took one hour. Nutritionally, there is no significant difference between the two, neither in texture- But how about taste? Hmmm... we have been eating bread made by both these methods and this is what we felt:

Just like Theory of Relativity, which states that speed is relative to the frames of reference of an observer- taste too is relative to the palate of a taster. However, this is what our taste buds suggested- The sourdough bread combines best with, spicy curries, mild cheeses, chutneys, sunny-side-up eggs and peanut butter. The yeast bread goes best with jams, mild curries, sharp cheese and scrambled eggs. Sourdough bread goes nicely when dunked in coffee, while the yeast bread does will with tea. It feels much like how one would choose their wines- but unlike the connoisseurs, we were more than happy to have any bread with any dip- Its not just wholesome but healthy too.