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Protest Bread

Seeds for Solidarity Porridge Recipe

Learning Objective

How to make and use a Seeded Porridge

Learning Outcome

To stand up to oppression

Learning Objective

How to make and use a Seeded Porridge

Protest BreadMy team and I felt a wave of rage, frustration and helplessness as we watched events unfold over the past two weeks. I have learned that emotions, when used as currency, can be used to fuel action.  But what action do we take?

WE PROTEST.

There is a full guide of how you can use your bread as a protest here and a call to action.

WE FUNDRAISE.

There is a list of my top tips for fundraising here, which also includes some facts about the global impact this conflict will have on foods systems.

WE BAKE.

This recipe has been created by a whole team of people, including Team Hart bakery,  Max at Sourdough Revolution and Dan, my business partner.   We have carefully tailored it to ensure it can easily be integrated into breads in a professional bakery while still being suitable for domestic baking.  It also happens to be delicious, with a natural, malted, treacly sweetness.

This porridge recipe is for all bakers, at all skill levels. We have tried to take into account the ability to source different ingredients worldwide, and to show how you can adapt your bread using poignant and politically relevant ingredients. Each ingredient, was thoughtfully chosen to not only nourish our minds and bodies, but to represent this moment in time, encouraging us to reflect as we make our bread and understand what it means to be a baker.

Rye – for fortitude

It’s a significant export of Ukraine and a common ingredient used across the Baltic states. It’s also delicious. Rye is the most flavoursome and comforting of grains, producing breads with an intricate combination of flavours and textures. It is dense, dark and chewy, with a deep, toasty tang. It has complex, deep, rich treacle notes that can’t be found elsewhere. It is full of fibre and produces a deep, dark loaf that is reminiscent of those baked by our ancestors, invoking a simpler way of life. It has a sweet nuttiness that you can even smell in the flour,  which becomes positively aromatic as it bakes. Rye is widely grown in central and eastern Europe, and is a good source of dietary fibre. Studies show that sourdough bread baked with rye flour has been associated with many health benefits, including helping to control blood sugar levels.

Poppy seeds – for the immeasurable sacrifice of the Ukrainian people

I have included poppy seeds, which have a very well understood message from the battlefields of two previous World Wars. Red poppies are a symbol of both remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.The immeasurable sacrifice of the Ukrainian people cannot be underestimated. Poppy seeds are  commonly used across Eastern Europe, and I hope they will be easily available to all bakers.

Sunflowers – for standing up to oppression

Sunflower seeds are one of the biggest exports of Ukraine, and the sunflower happens to be the country’s national flower. But the idea of using sunflower seeds was inspired by the recent video of the incredibly brave Ukrainian woman, who stood up with righteous indignation to a Russian officer, asking him to go home. The officer stood there with a weapon in his hand, and she offered him sunflower seeds to put in his pocket so that the flowers would grow after he was killed in battle.

In that moment, she was telling him that his life was a wasted life, and he would end up in the soil in Ukraine. There was something very poignant in her act, reminding us that the loss is on both sides – it is a loss to the world and a loss for the Russians. Russia’s propaganda machine is now being unveiled, as many of the soldiers did not and do not understand the true nature of their manoeuvres.

Coriander seeds – because war is loss on all sides

We’ve also used toasted coriander seeds, which lend a most exquisite perfume and flavour to the porridge. There is a well-known story of a Boradinsky bread using coriander as a representation of shock. By using this ingredient in the bread, we are reminding ourselves that violence is not the answer. War is loss on all sides. As we bake, we need to call for the cessation of violence – it is the only way forward. We need to talk.

Barley – because we are one earth

The final ingredient is sprouted barley. If you can get your hands on barley, it is a beautiful grain. Just a small handful of sprouted barley is used in the recipe. Barley is representative of the 1798 struggle in Ireland, where young rebel soldiers often carried barley in their pockets to eat during their marches. Wherever these young men had fallen, patches of sprouted barley grew on their unmarked graves the following year.  There’s something incredibly poignant about that – it’s another reminder of the true cost of death and loss, and yet a symbol of regeneration and hope for the future.  The barley is a reminder of the loss of life and return to soil – we are one soil, one planet, one people. Baking has no borders – it is without borders, without boundaries, without race, without age, without religion, without sex and without creed. We are bakers, we are brothers and sisters. We must pull ourselves together and remember all that is good in the world.

Seeds for solidarity – and for hope

As seeds grow, they remind us there is hope. At this point in time, it doesn’t feel like there is much hope. We are seeing some very disturbing plays being made by both sides. Looking at the way Putin is viewing the world, every move we make, he interprets through his lens. He is a man who needs to see reason through our eyes and the way we see the world now. I would encourage young bakers to speak out now, because it is your world that is being changed and threatened. And old politicians need to see the way that the world looks through young people’s eyes. For them to surround themselves with other old people with an outdated way of thinking is one of the most dangerous things. We must reconnect to each other and share our points of view. We also must come together unilaterally to call for peace and the cessation of violence, and to ask that Putin leave Ukraine immediately.

Method

Ingredients to make about 230–250g porridge

  • 30g wholegrain rye flour
  • 20g poppy seeds
  • 20g sunflower seeds
  • 10g lightly toasted coriander seeds
  • 20g sprouted barley ( this takes 2 days )
  • about 240g water

Method:

It’s really important to make this porridge well in advance of baking. Make it at least a couple of hours beforehand, giving it plenty of time to cool and take up the water.

First, combine the flour, seeds and sprouted barley in a saucepan. Add 120g of the water and put the pan over a low heat. Stir, making sure the mixture doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. As the porridge thickens, add the remaining water and keep stirring. Continue simmering and stirring until the porridge has reached the right consistency (see my tip below). It’s important that you don’t add too much water, but equally important that it isn’t under-hydrated. It’s difficult to give you a precise measurement for how much water you will need to get this balance right, because every grain and seed in the porridge mix will hydrate slightly differently. What you have to do is ensure the porridge is thoroughly cooked, which can take a good 8–10 minutes of standing over the pan and stirring.

TIP:

Remember that in order for the porridge to add to the gelatinisation of a sourdough bread, the ingredients have to be fully hydrated. My tip is that it is always good to end up with the mixture looking slightly more liquid than you think it should be, because it will continue to take up water and thicken when you take the pan off the heat and leave the porridge to cool.

If you do not have barley to sprout, then rye is perfect. Please listen to the audio file for information on how to sprout grains.

https://thesourdoughclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Sprouted-seeds-advice.m4a

How to best use the porridge in your bread

After the dough has been mixed and the gluten has developed, weigh your dough, then add 10% of that weight in porridge to the bowl. Mix, prove, shape and bake as usual.

You can use this method in any existing standard sourdough recipes. In the video above, it has been used in our 20% Wholemeal Classic Sourdough Boule, which can be found online or on pages 114–116 of The Sourdough School book.

WE SUPPORT EACH OTHER’S MENTAL HEALTH

A wonderful tutorial on using the bread making process to help support mental health.

& remember to use your porridge bread as activism.

Love

Vanessa

 

Learning Outcome

To stand up to oppression

Existing Member Login

All reasonable care is taken when writing about health aspects of bread, but the information it contains is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

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Comments

  1. David BordowDavid Bordow says

    7 March 2022 at 4:21 pm

    Hi! Excited to make this.
    My porridge is quite thick and heavy. Made it last night. Is it ok to add this as is? Should I add it after first stretch and fold? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Sophie RemerSophie Remer says

      9 March 2022 at 3:04 pm

      Hi David. Yes, you can add the porridge during the last stretch and fold. If the porridge seemed too thick, you could try thinning it with a bit of water again.

      Reply
  2. Tara CraigTara Craig says

    5 March 2022 at 6:02 pm

    Thank you Vanessa.
    I am sure this will also taste amazing as well as a great initiative.
    So the porridge amount, is that 10% of 1kg flour?
    Thanks. Tara

    Reply
    • Sophie RemerSophie Remer says

      9 March 2022 at 2:58 pm

      Hi Tara. It depends which dough recipe you are following. But it’s 10% of whichever formula you use!

      Reply
  3. Diana says

    4 March 2022 at 8:10 pm

    Amazing, very impressive, next books I will buy will be your.
    Thank you for original recipe.
    Hope I’ll find time to make it.

    Reply
  4. David Harolddavid harold says

    4 March 2022 at 8:02 pm

    Beautifully put and gorgeous loaves! Thank you for this.

    Reply
  5. Kim Ginn says

    4 March 2022 at 1:36 pm

    I look forward to making this peace brea. The portion porridge you have listed ,will go into a 500 gram sourdough loaf? The recipe for classic white sourdough or classic 50:50 boule will make 2 large boules. So does the Ingredients to make about 230g–250g of porridge, go into a full recipe to yield two loaves or is the porridge for one 500 gram loaf?

    Reply
    • Sophie RemerSophie Remer says

      9 March 2022 at 3:06 pm

      Hi Kim. So you should be using 10% of the dough weight in porridge whichever formula you use. This recipe makes more porridge than you’d need for just one loaf.

      Reply

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A NEW APPROACH

👉🏻 For the past 3 years we’ve been working on something incredible … prescription sourdough bread making courses for our @sourdoughclub members 

📈We have had amazing advances in healthcare, but there is no pill to cure poor diet. The best medicine is prevention via a healthy lifestyle, and many studies have shown that people who eat healthily and exercise regularly sleep better, have less anxiety and depression, have more energy, and lower their risk of chronic illness overall.

🙌 Vanessa’s work on Bread & the Impact on the Gut Microbiome has been turned into something extraordinary. Prescription bread-making courses as a lifestyle intervention, and the Bread Protocol we teach here is designed to address the way you live, exploring behaviour related to nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social support and environmental exposures. These courses are 12 weeks long, and designed to maintain health and prevent disease not just in individuals bit in patients and populations, so we have 2 ways to enrol on a course: 

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If your doctor or healthcare practitioner is one of  our Sourdough School graduates and they feel that this bread-making prescription course is something that will improve your health, then they may can prescribe the course for you as a social prescription free.

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You can self-prescribe these courses by enrolling yourself on a course to improve your health and wellbeing.

📰 If you are interested in learning more about the prescription courses then please sign up to the newsletters as we will be announcing their launch over the coming weeks and months. 

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I’m prepping the starters to post out on Thursday.

I was thinking why sourdough all these years? I guess it’s because is alive… it’s a culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria. We might like to think we can control it, but we can’t control everything. Things change when we bake. The flour changes, the ambient temperature changes, or something happens during the middle of the day and your baking routine changes.

We can be very critical of ourselves. Starting the day by looking in the mirror and criticising our physical appearance. Or looking at something we’ve done or said and overanalysing it. Often, without realising, some of us can be incredibly negative.
It’s the same with bread. I notice that many people are self-depreciating and, while they aspire to make beautiful loaves, they have a distinct lack of acceptance that creating a really aesthetically stunning loaves takes time. It’s an art. It takes many years to be able to understand the nuances of each flour and how each one behaves to create bread. There is no instant fix. And I wouldn’t want there to be.

If you want an instant fix, go out and buy a packet mix – that way the work is done for you. In sourdough there’s no instant fix. That is the whole point of it really. That’s why we celebrate when we do make those incredibly beautiful loaves. And what you are actually celebrating isn’t high levels of gluten or high levels of hydration. It’s that person’s ability to have understood and connected to the flour, to their environment, to the yeast, to the timings and rhythm and everything coming together to create something that is joyous to eat.

To learn more about what we do here at The Sourdough Club and the courses we teach, follow the link in the bio to read 

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Artisan bread starts with artisan ingredients. Honest ingredients that have been grown and harvested with respect for both the people and the earth. The flour has to be organic, the water chlorine free and the yeast has to be sourdough, and so it follows that the salt has to be similarly harvested with principles that are in synergy with our own. Salt making was, up until the industrial revolution, an artisanal craft. Much like bread making salt is also an artisan product that has been industrialised, so we use a hand-harvested salt in our bread.
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In our shop, we sell unrefined salt specifically for sourdough - Natural salt contains all of its trace minerals and other elements that are naturally a part of its origin. Our salt is not exposed to chemicals and does not contain anti-caking agents.
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DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE DID YOU KNOW WE HAVE AN ONLINE SHOP & CAN PURCHASE MY WHITE SOURDOUGH STARTER?
(with worldwide delivery)
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I have several sourdough starters but The French white starter is one that I have been using since I was 11 years old and originates in the bakery I grew up baking within France. It takes a bit longer to reach it’s peak and is generally slower and sweeter, and much more forgiving of being neglected for a week, so the one I recommend for beginners. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
We have verbal confirmation that the starter originated over 115 years ago and If you swipe right in the video you can listen to me chatting to one of the older residents of the village confirming that bakery did not shut during the war either .. & it has been maintained ever since... it’s a lovely story. Although the microbes double every 20 – 30 minutes when they are refreshed ... so it is either over a century old or 30 minutes old depending on how you want to look at it. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
You can purchase a pot of my starter, along with a grey moon kilner jar & a mini video course on looking after your starter. 
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TAP THE PICTURE TO SHOP.
 
Swipe right to see the amazing video of the French bakery where the starter originated from @vanessakimbell has been baking with this starter for over 20 years … and first baked almost 40 years ago with it …#romantic 
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🌾 BARLEY - DO AS THE ROMANS DO 🌾
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Oats & Barley. We love both, but this week we have been diving to barley with our students, learning about nutritional value, what role plays in supporting key butyrate producers for gut health and why gladiators were call 'barley-eaters'!
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And naturally, we will be talking about how we can incorporate barley into our baking and our botanical blends.
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To find out more, become a student of the Sourdough Club! 
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