Salla's Sunflower Bread

After one month of packing, one week of traveling, and one month of unpacking I’m finally more or less installed to my new home.

Before even starting unpacking, though, I started baking bread. So the first morning in our new home, we already had sourdough bread for breakfast!

I’ve baked a lot of different breads now: Finnish rye bread, spelt bread, a French country-side loaf with 10% rye and 90% all-purpose flour. But today, I baked four loaves of the most delicious bread I’ve baked so far here in Finland!

I came up with this recipe thanks to my friend Salla who loved my rye bread but suggested I could add sunflower seeds to it. At the same time, I thought of adding a bit of spelt for a richer taste and a softer result. And it worked amazingly well! The bread has a crunchy crust, a very soft inside, a nice nutty taste – and the best thing is: the sunflower seeds on top get roasted, so they add an indescribably rich flavour to the whole experience.

This is a basic 1-2-3 recipe, but I write the measures down anyway, just in case!

For two nice small loaves you need:

• 200g sourdough starter


• 400g water


• 200g whole-grain spelt flour


• 400g whole-grain rye flour


• 12g sea salt


• a generous handful of sunflower seeds for the dough, another one for the topping

In a baking bowl, combine starter, water, and the flours. Let stand 20-40 minutes. Then add salt and knead about 10 minutes, or until you just can’t anymore. Add a handful of sunflower seeds and knead one minute more.

Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and let ferment 5-10 hours at room temperature (my dough normally ferments overnight). Then knead the dough quickly again, and form it into two equal-sized balls. Transfer the dough balls into floured proofing baskets. Cover with a kitchen towel and let ferment about one hour.

Heat your oven to 250C. Now you have to be quick: transfer both loaves on a baking tray, brush them with water, cut “sun rays” on top (like in the round bread in this picture) and sprinkle generously with sunflower seeds. Place a cup filled with water on the baking tray for a better crust.

Bake the loaves at 250C for 10 minutes or so, and then reduce the temperature to 200C and bake until well done but not burned, or about 35 minutes more.

Enjoy with butter or good olive oil!

P.S. My camera is still missing - probably in one of those still unpacked boxes - so my N9's camera will have to do for now!

Rhubarb Tarte Tatin

I’m really blessed to live close to an organic farm, and I do most of my grocery shopping there. Everything they have is premium quality, seasonal (how else?), and the service one gets is amazingly friendly.

Sometimes, like yesterday, even too much so. Let me explain. I asked if they’ve got rhubarb yet. “Well, only in the garden, but let’s go and fetch some for you!” We went together to the garden, and the poor rhubarb plants were just tiny little babies! But they insisted in giving me as much as I wanted. I actually wanted to tell them I didn’t want any - just let the poor babies grow! - but didn’t find a polite way to protest. So I left the farm with about half of their rhubarb crop and one thing on my mind: these rhubarbs have to end up into something really, really, special.

And they did. I used them to bake this rhubarb tarte Tatin, and made some orange and white chocolate ice cream to go with. A match made in heaven.

Here’s what you need for the tarte Tatin:

For the dough:

• 100g butter


• 190g whole-grain spelt flour


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of sugar


• 3 Tbps cold water

For the syrup:

• 120g sugar


• 3 Tbsp water

And:

• 350g rhubarb


• 30g butter, sliced

First, make the dough. Cut the butter in small cubes, add flour, sugar and a pinch of salt, if using non-salted butter. Work with your fingertips until the texture is like fine crumbles, then add water and work the dough into a ball. Place the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the caramel. Place sugar and water in a heavy pan. Heat, stirring from time to time, until sugar has melted and turned into golden brown caramel. Attention! This burns easily! Remove from heat and pour the caramel in a round cake tin (mine has a diameter of 26cm).

Now, wash and trim the rhubarbs. Cut them into sticks about 4-5 cm long. Arrange them nicely in the form. Place thef butter slices on the rhubarbs. Roll the dough out into a circle just slightly bigger than the form and place on top of the rhubarbs. Bake in a preheated oven (200 C) until the dough is golden brown and you see some juice bubbling on the sides.

Once out of the oven, let the Tatin cool about 5 minutes. Then flip it around on a serving plate – remember to wear oven gloves, it's still hot!

Serve warm with a dollop of ice cream – preferably Orange White Chocolate Ice Cream, the recipe of which will follow tomorrow.

P.S. You can use all-purpose wheat flour as well. Actually, I think it would be even better. But my family protested, saying it was so good exactly because of the spelt flour!