Gluten Free Fermented Buckwheat Bread

This is such a straight-forward loaf in many ways - and I love that buckwheat flavour - especially when the bread is toasted - but know for some it doesn’t work. 

We got this recipe a couple of years ago and have been making it ever since then. However only recently I’ve found a similar version online - it looks like it might have come from the Breadtopians website - they call themselves 'pragmatic bread freaks’ and say they 'launched in 2006 with a mission of ensuring that baking perfect bread at home is available to everyone’ (i). Their website is well worth a look.

On this bread they write: "In making this bread, I worked from a recipe I found on a blog called Nutriplanet, and that author credits another blog called Conscious Catering. One of my modifications was to add flax and pumpkin seeds for flavor, texture, and visual appeal. Of course, you can use you whatever seeds you want: chia, hemp, sunflower, sesame, poppy or none at all."

Buckwheat is a seed and a great source of protein and Breadtopia link to research from Uppsala University in Sweden linking buckwheat consumption to lower levels of bad cholesterol and better blood sugar management in diabetes (ii). Well controlling blood sugar levels mean it will also be good for lowering risks of cancer and heart disease.

Gluten Free Fermented Buckwheat Bread

Preparation time is around 30 minutes and cook time is around an hour and 20 minutes although we always seem to leave it a bit longer.

Ingredients

• 450 g buckwheat groats not toasted (2 1/2 cups) 

• 3 cups of water for soaking the groats

• 330 g water for the batter (1 1/3 cups) 

• Half tsp seasalt

• 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds 

• 3 Tbsp of toasted flax seeds 

• Several handfuls of pumpkin seeds and toasted flax seeds for decorating the top of loaf

Instructions - taken from the Breadtopia website.

• Soak the buckwheat groats in water for 5-6 hours.

• Drain the groats in a colander but do not rinse. The run-off will be very mucilaginous.

• Blend the groats and new water in a blender or food processor. You may need to do this in two parts if you use a food processor, so as to not go over the top of the central blade tube and have leakage. 

• Pour into a glass bowl or large measuring Pyrex, and cover with a towel. This will be about 5 cups of batter.

• Set aside for approximately 24 hrs at 67-70 F. Fermentation time is significantly shorter at warmer house temps or in the oven with the light on. Batter expansion is roughly from 5 to 6.5 cups. Do not mix the batter until the fermentation is finished or the batter will deflate, and it will be hard to calculate growth.

• At the end of the fermentation, gently mix in the salt and any seeds you wish to add. 

• Pour the batter into the parchment paper-lined loaf pan, and decorate the top of the loaf.

• Let the batter rise for another 30 minutes to an hour in your lit oven.

• Preheat the oven to 350 F with pan in the oven.

• Bake for approximately 80 minutes (less for a long narrow pan) or until the inside temp is about 200 F. 

• Remove from the oven and lift the parchment paper out of pan onto a cooling rack. Peel it off and let the loaf cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!

Update 5.3.23: interesting article looking at buckwheat: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/is-buckwheat-healthy/

Notes

(i) https://breadtopia.com/gluten-free-fermented-buckwheat-bread/

(ii) http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.531.3577&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Sleep potion - the Nutmeg Night Time Milk

A couple of favourites in terms of sleepy drinks are the wonderful Pukka Night time tea and Clippers Sleep Easy Infusion. But what of all those recipes online for getting a good night sleep? There are so many potions and suggestions. I’m fortunate to get good sleep most nights, but my partner has less good nights so we have been on the look out to try a number of these online suggestions. Our favorites seem to come from the Ayurvedic tradition - often backed by many hundreds of years of use.

One Ayurvedic recipe we liked was an Ojas Tonic made with milk, chopped dates, almonds and coconut plus cardamon and ghee. However I’m more cautious since my diagnosis about dairy and dried fruits so didn’t continue with this one.

I also for a long while made the ‘Golden Milk’ made with a non-dairy milk, tumeric and cinnamon with a pinch of black pepper and shaving of coconut oil. Turmeric is fat-soluble, meaning that without a little bit of fat the curcumin and other wonders will not be absorbed into your blood stream as well - hence the coconut oil - or alternatively using a full fat milk. The black pepper is also key as piperine is said to improve the bioavailability. 

Sleep is key and in Ayurveda it is considered to be as important as nutrition in terms of maintaining health and wellbeing. Sleep was one of the ‘basics’ covered by Ayurvedic consultant Dr Sam Watts (i) - but also covered when he discussed our circadian rhythms (ii) - amazingly “when” we eat is turning out to be just as important as “what” we eat. 

Sleep, not surprisingly, features as a key factor in many books about cancer - for example is one of six key factors in Dr Lorenzo Cohen and Alison Jeffries book “Anti-Cancer Living”.  They see that getting sleep right is a crucial part of a healing journey. I can certainly recommend that book.

Anyway it was Sam that put us onto the Nutmeg Night Time Milk - and also asked all to pass it onto others - so here it is - possibly with a slight adaptation as I can’t find my original notes - online there are some other slight variations of this but guess you can adapt to your own taste. It has now become a firm favourite and we have it three or four times a week.

Nutmeg Night time Milk

Cup of milk - your favourite non-dairy
Pinch of black pepper
Half a teaspoon tumeric powder
Half a teaspoon cinnamon
Teaspoon nutmeg

Small pinch of ginger
Large pinch of ground cardamon
Half teaspoon of ghee or coconut oil

Whisk ingredients then bring to boil then on low heat simmer for 2-3 minutes to extract the medicinal qualities. Add honey (or not) to taste. One cup recommended between 7 and 8 in the evening so can start working its magic for sleep at 10.

Nutmeg is one of the clinically proven herbal sedatives - it is proven to induce better quality and quantity of sleep. It is also worth a mention that the National Cancer Institute of Maryland demonstrated chemopreventive properties of nutmeg extract. It is found to induce cell death in leukemia cells (iii). However use with care as it can in excess cause a high and not so good effects (iv)!  

In terms of some of the other ingredients of this ‘potion’, they have also been billed as having possible anti-cancer effects. Tumeric I’ve noted earlier (v) has anti-inflammatory properties and one of the compounds of tumeric, curcumin, is considered to selectively starve tumor cells to death (vi). Michael Greger's book 'How Not To Die' argues everyone should be taking daily a quarter of a teaspoon of tumeric, powdered or root - well actually those with gallbladder problems and some others should avoid. As always check out whether this is right for you or not.

Ginger has also had some research indicating it "can reduce the size of cancer tumours, and causes apoptosis of both normal cancer cells and cancer stem cells”(vii). Similarly cinnamon has research showing its impact on cancer (viii). So not only can this wonderful tasting drink help sleep - and it does with us - but also it seems to have anti-cancer properties as well. Enjoy!

Lastly if you are interested in an Ayurvedic approach to health then I can recommend joining Sam’s Facebook page for more Ayurvedic wisdom  at: https://www.facebook.com/mindbodymedical

Notes

(i) https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2020/08/getting-basics-right.html
(ii) https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2020/07/getting-in-rhythm.html

(iii) https://wellnessmunch.com/12-impressive-health-benefits-of-nutmeg/

(iv) https://www.healthline.com/health/high-on-nutmeg

(v) https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2019/01/current-supplement-protocol-for.html

(vi) https://www.canceractive.com/article/how-curcumin%20targets%20cancer%20stem%20cells%20while%20drugs%20make%20matters%20worse

(vii) https://www.canceractive.com/article/ginger-and-cancer

(viii) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31195168/