Holiday Experiments: Purple Sourdough & Chai Tea Sourdough!
I took a little time this Christmas bread to do some baking experiments, and I think I got a real winner! Yesterday I baked a purple potato powder loaf and a chai tea loaf. I'll give the lowdown on how each turned out.
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Purple Potato Loaf
I've made a Purple Powder Powder loaf before, but it turned out really dense and chewy. This time I wanted to make it so that it was just like a normal sourdough loaf, but with the beauty of the purple potato.
Purple Potato Powder comes from purple sweet potatoes and is often used as a health food supplement in drinks and smoothies. Sourdough bakers like to use it to create beautiful purple bread, and when I first saw it online I was keen to jump on the purple potato powder bandwagon.
My formula for this loaf was:
Here are some glamour shots of this very pretty bread, but don't leave yet! The real star of the show is about to arrive!
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Chai Tea Sourdough Loaf
I made a big ole pot of chai the other day and wondered if I could use the fragrant brew in a sourdough loaf. After researching for a bit online I created a formula and gave it a go.
Now, I am going to try this one again with a lower hydration percentage, because I think it didn't hold up as well as I want it to. I suppose that adding honey means adding hydration, so the total percentage of liquid was a bit higher than I realized when I was making it. Also, one almost fatal error I made this time was that I forgot it in the oven and went for a walk!!! So when I came back home it was rather on the crispy side. It didn't rise super well, but there was a lot of promise. It had a WONDERFUL aroma, and the bitter buckwheat flour actually helped the "tea-ish-ness" of the loaf. The added honey balanced out the bitterness very well. I am going to definitely make this again. Next time... It shall be PERFECT.
If you want to know how I made these loaves, just check out foodbodsourdough.com. I use her method for baking, and it works really well for my schedule!