greetings from Santiago, Chile

Greetings from Santiago, Chile

I discovered the Fresh Loaf while looking for information on using toasted flour in bread. Here in Chile, the Mapuche, Chile’s major indigenous culture, make “murke” a toasted wheat and flax flour, used mainly to make a refreshing drink when stirred into cold water with honey. I thought it would be an interesting bread ingredient, and ended up googling “toasted flour bread” and finding The Fresh Loaf—I’ll report on the results.

I’m delighted to find some kindred spirits. I have been baking bread, mostly sour dough, for 40+ years, and have continued to do so since marring a Chilena and moving here in a couple of years ago. I’ve had to adapt a bit since some things I had grown accustomed to are unavailable (or at least I haven’t found them: higher protein bread flour, vital gluten, caraway seeds), and once while out of the country the person staying in our house threw out my starter. Fortunately, I had taken a bit with me and was able to get started again.

The most popular traditional Chilean breads are marraquetas, French bread style rolls, and hallullas (a youh yas), flat round yeast breads with abundant lard. Supermarket bakeries have a wide variety of packaged and artisan style breads of varying quality and empanadas are available most everywhere. And of course, the wine is wonderful and inexpensive. Best wishes to all. I look forward to participating in the forum.

Jim S

Welcome to the Fresh Loaf. I've been also playing with roasted flour. Now I'm putting a teaspoon or two into every small loaf. The Koreans make a similar drink from roasted flour. I'm looking forward to seeing your roasted/toasted flour loaf and goodies!

Mini O

This is a great place to learn even more about bread baking. I look forward to your posts.....i am a new comer her as well.....have learned so much already!

deborah

Toasted flour follow-up: I made a traditional white flour sourdough bread using 2 cups “merke,” the Chilean toasted wheat-flax flour blend, to 6-7 cups white flour. The dough was light tan in color and somewhat softer than usual, and while good, the bread was unremarkable, with no particular toasted taste or smell. Not a bust, but not distinctive enough to repeat on a regular basis.

Jim S

You will have to share with us some of the ingredients you use on a regular basis there in Chile!

To respond to your comments, I found very little on the internet using toasted or roasted flour in breads…. The Fresh Loaf had more than anywhere else. And, someday I will surely add the merke to my starter for a longer preferment, but at the moment I have lots of other tings to try…. using a wetter dough for example, as recommended in the 10 tips for better French bread on the FL home page. As for other ingredients I have been using in Chile, quinoa is widely available, though it is not used, to my knowledge, in traditional Chilean cooking. I’ve found most of my quinoa recipes on-line in English and in the Whole Foods Cookbook. Another interesting Chilean grain product is “mote,” whole grain wheat which is (evidently) cooked in an alkaline solution and husked, then dried. This is the same technique used in Mexico for pozole (hominy) and nixtamal (maize for trotillas); evidently a post-conquest adaptation of indigenous techniques to a European grain. Mote is most commonly prepared as mote con huesillos, in which the mote is cooked with dried peaches (huesillos = little bones). It is also used occasionally in Chilean soups and stews. I use it frequently in bread, as you would “wheat berries,” and also in place of bulgur in pilafs and tabbouleh. Finally there is “chuchoca,” a fine maize meal said to be made of cooked and dried maize. It is used like polenta, with the same flavor. Stepping a bit outside of the Fresh Loaf’s subject area, aother interesting Chilean product is “merkin,” a blend of smoked chiles and coriander seed. Originating with the Mapuche, the indigenous people of southern Chile, it is seldom encountered in Chilean middle class cooking, which tends to avoid strong flavors, but is beginning to be used among more adventurous chefs. Saludos – Jim S