Has anyone ever made bread with koji mold?
It sounds amazing. The author claimed THIS BREAD using a Forkish recipe they modified tasted of cheddar cheese!
Source for and information about KOJI
Here on the site:
Aspergillus Oryzae: Overnight Oats
Additional References:
Did a loaf with koji rice that looks really good:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/65332/koji-rice-porridge-sourdough
Of the difference in procedure and flavor profile from what you did and what was done in my first link?
Wasn’t me who made it. I just remembered seeing a post about koji in bread. But it does seem like the koji contributed an interesting texture in both cases.
"Immediately upon pulling the koji-loaf, one could smell a cheesy-like crust (think: those chedder cheese buns you can buy at grocery stores), and even taste cheesy notes later."
I included a link where the mold can be purchased, they carry two varieties, I think the white one is the one they used for bread in the other link. This is on my list after the Buckwheat and an a-amylase experiment I have in mind.
Hi Ron, you may know that I have done some things involving koji. I became interested in koji when someone suggested that I make my own miso. After I found a source of koji rice in Toronto, more than a year ago, I started my first batch of miso. I’ve now made three batches. Early on I added miso to my sourdough breads.
More recently I’ve made amazake using the koji rice. I have added amazake like one would add a porridge to bread. I also made a corn amazake with polenta and the koji rice to add to bread. Related to koji rice but not directly using koji rice I’ve also made a sake kasu leavened bread. Sake kasu is the lees left over from making sake.
I haven’t had the experience of smelling anything cheese like with anything I’ve made with koji rice. That includes shio koji, both sweet and sour amazake and shoyu koji.
I’ve recently found a place that sells koji barley, but I haven’t purchased that to try making miso from yet.
Ultimately it would be awesome to learn to make koji rice itself, but living in an apartment I just don’t have the space.
I look forward to hearing about your use of koji rice.
I think the ultimate bread to make would use the power of the Aspergillus oryzae to leaven bread, that would be sakadane raised bread. I haven’t yet done this as one needs a very good supply of koji rice as essentially you’re building a starter/levain using only koji rice. Here are a couple of links with some information https://youtu.be/sEUokdUqE2M and a recipe https://youtu.be/xNMecBbEkLI
Benny
The link I provided to the modernist pantry supplies the spores to inoculate grains. That is on my list. I plan to buy the spores later thiso month. Your experiences working with the innoculated rice is interesting, I love miso! I think the cheese flavors are the result of direct innoculation of the dough with the mold spores.
Ahead of that is the Buckwheat (Just received my grains) and a few other things.
Well I really look forward to your experience with koji spores and inoculating things with aspergillus oryzae! There are so many foods that you can inoculate and make more delicious. Have a look at the book Koji Alchemy if you haven’t yet. Loads of information on making koji rice and other things. If I had the space I’d be making my own koji rice.
Benny
I will. When I have my spores I will post. hopefully we will hear from others who have experience with this ancient novel mold.
1 Gram of Shirayuri Koji Spores (aspergillus oryzae) is enough to innoculate 1 KG of rice/pearled barley (or just about any other grain) 10g costs $12.99, and 200g costs $99. anything that light isn't expensive to ship since it could easily be put in a first-class envelope. That would be about $5/10oz (plus maybe a dollar for shipping 2 stamps?) I'm going to be ordering in a few weeks if anyone would like to piggyback on my order PM me and I'll order the 200g. Otherwise, I'll just do the 10-gram package which is good for about 20 lbs of grains.
I buy this brand. Tastes like sweet rice pudding yet it has no added sugar. I wonder if the cultures are still live.
Back in 2017 I made a 123 sourdough with Amazake. Turned out very nice indeed.