Teff walnut rye loaf

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ll433 on 23 Mar 2025 at 03:23
two loaves

These loaves turned out surprisingly sweet and earthy. I used to make ground walnut loaves very frequently years ago - with some cocoa included as well - but the teff and rye here definitely contribute some complexity that I've never had with previous loaves.

Dry ingredients: 30% medium rye and 13% teff pre-fermented, 13% ground walnuts, 44% bread flour. Total hydration: 66%, be careful with over-hydrating because the ground walnuts don't really soak up much water.

I pre-fermented the rye and teff in a biga the night before, then mixed everything up the next day. The intial mix was really wet, but it came together after about 2 hours. BF was 3.5 hours and final proof an hour; I included extra walnuts and crandberries when folding. Timing was all within expectations with 43% PFF.

I baked these at 220 degrees for 35 mins. 

The crumb was luxuriously soft - typical of ground walnut loaves. I was happy that it held together well with both the teff and ground walnuts being GF ingredients. We enjoyed this bread both fresh and toasted - excellent with some abbey cheese.

And where we had slices without cranberries, some homemade chocolate-hazelnut spread (really just dark chocolate, roasted hazelnuts and milk blended together) was generously slathered - 

chocolate spread

Delightful nut overload!!

wow, Lin. Wonderful loaves -- can I call them injera walnut rye batards? -- and homemade nutella, too (sans the palm oil🙌🏻). The crumb looks excellent and the crust seems fantastically caramelized with the energetic & slightly out of control bursts that showcase the grains & yeasts doing their thing.

Rob

 

I've always liked the randomized, haphazard bursts of loaves that have a good portion of rye in them. I've never had injera before though I've read a lot about them - would love to try one!

Looks good, Lin. Anything high in protein is always good to me!

Rob: I told you, you missed an opportunity to put Nutella on your post lol. May Nutella haunts you in your sleep 👻

Jay

Indeed, this is pretty high in protein, and I did consider crusting it in seeds. Decided against, thankfully - I think the ground walnuts could really shine like this.

Astoundingly open crumb for only 44% bread flour. And the cranberry and walnut inclusions to complete the blend! Must have tasted wonderful.

How do you grind the walnut? 

-Jon

Must admit I was quite unsophisticated in my handling of the walnuts - I just pulsed them in the processor till they were fine. I used to blend them till they were a paste, but decide against that this time for added texture.

The bread looks great but the spread caught my attention. I tried making homemade Nutella before but roasting them and getting the skins off the nuts and putting it all together was more than I bargained for. I buy the large 2 pack jars of Nutella at Costco which is a bargain but I like your recipe for a simpler healthier version if I could find the hazelnuts already roasted and skinned. 
Don

Thanks for your comment, Don. I've gotten the homemade chocolate spread down to a T for the chocolate I use, fridge temp and so on; you might need to adjust based on your specs. 

A few notes about the spread: 1) Because it contains milk, it must be refrigerated. 2) I make two jars at one go, and they last me two weeks without a problem. 3) I use chocolate bars with 50% cocoa mass and 40g of sugar/100g. With these I do not need to add any sugar to the spread, so you will need to adjust the sweetness based on your own chocolate. 4) Re getting the skins off roasted hazelnuts - I don't bother getting all of it off! The de-skinning process is a 2 minute affair for me. All skins off will lead to a chunky, less smooth paste, but having some on does not matter (for me).

 

To make two jars of chocolate spread, you need

250g hazelnuts 

200g dark chocolate 

1 cup milk, about 240 ml 

 

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 175 degrees. Once warm, put in hazelnuts in a single layer on a baking tray and bake until golden brown, about 10-15 mins, but NOT burnt. Remove the hazelnuts and switch off the oven.
  2. Let the hazelnuts cool on a plate. In the meantime, chop the chocolate into bite-sized pieces and place in a dish. Heat up milk in a pot until boiling, then pour over the chocolate, making sure all chocolate is submerged. Do not stir or touch the mixture. 
  3. Now give your hazelnuts some attention. Take some up between both hands and rub to remove the skin of the hazelnuts. Do this as much as possible for all hazelnuts (too much skin results in a paste that is chunky). Then place all more-or-less skinned hazelnuts into a food processor. I'm not religious about getting all skins off.
  4. Now give your chocolate-milk mixture a good stir. All your chocolate must melt and you should get a nice silky mixture.
  5. Back to the food processor. Blend the hazelnuts until you get a sticky paste that resembles peanut butter. This takes me 5 mins on my 1000W food processor.
  6. To the peanut-butter-consistency mixture, add in all your chocolate-milk mixture and blend for another 2-3 mins until you get a nice, silky paste. You should get a paste that is very thick, but still pourable. If it is not pourable, add another tablespoon of boiled milk to the mixture, blend, then add another tablespoon if needed. It is important that the milk is boiled.
  7. Taste the paste. If it is not sweet enough, add a tablespoon or two of white sugar and blend. Then pour the paste into two jars and store in the fridge immediately.

So kind of you to provide a detailed recipe. The one I used before had icing sugar and cocoa powder among other things and ended up costing about the same as a jar of the real thing. 

I’ve added ground nuts in past bakes and love them .  I’ve never used Teff yet.  How do you find the taste?  I’ve wanted to try it so I’ve bookmarked this post so I can try it soon.  
Gorgeous creative bake !  Thanks for sharing.

Best,

Ian

Teff tastes quite neutral and a little earthy to me. But with fermentation it seemed to take on somewhat sweet notes - very interesting. It definitely complemented the ground walnuts here. 

Do let me know what you think when you give this a try! I'm using a dark variety of teff here; I think the lighter ones taste even milder.

Teff porridge is delicious! It is something new to me, I'd never made it before. And, I think your description of earthy followed by sweet notes when cooked applies to the porridge made with whole grains as well as when the flour is used in bread. For the porridge, the flavour was kind of mild with an interesting mouth texture from the tiny grains.

I burnt the first pot that I tried making - it caught on the bottom. But the second time, I got it right. What worked for me was a ratio of 1:3 teff:water and stirring continuously (I got paranoid) for 12 minutes on medium heat without a lid. It made a great breakfast with mango, honey, tahini, almonds and raisins. 

If you're South African - the smell when you're cooking it will remind you of Maltabella (malted sorghum porridge) - but in taste it is much more neutral.

-Jon