Quinoa Whole Wheat Painted Bread

I had pinned this recipe for Quinoa bread quite a while back. The recipe was in French (or that’s what google says) but it intrigued me quite a bit, and with the help of google translator I could figure it out more or less and seemed like an easy recipe.

And it IS easy.

Not much of kneading, though I did knead it a little more than what the original recipe suggests. Well, the original recipe just calls for mixing everything with a wooden spoon. Maybe because I used slightly less water than called for I did have to knead it a little by hand to make it into a smooth dough. But that was it.

Also, I was a little wary of adding the walnuts before the first rise, because my knowledge of bread baking tells me that any additions like seeds, nuts weighs the dough down and thus inhibits rising so they should be added after the first rise. Luckily the dough still rose but since I was in a time crunch I did not wait till it tripled in size, as the recipe states but baked it once it was double in size after an hour and a half.

I had been thinking of revisiting the painted bread that I made almost three years back. And this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The inspiration for such a creative take on bread comes from Chef Tess’ site. You really should check it out. Such beautiful creations and so much talent! My next to do is this bread from her site.

Last time I had used coffee to paint the bread. Definitely more natural, but a slight hint of coffee did come through (not too prominent and since I like coffee I really did not mind it). This time though I had gel food colors in the house.

I had initially thought of painting with white on the bread and had the design (inspired from here) in my head as such, never for once checking whether I actually have white gel color in my box of gel colors. When I put the bread for baking, I opened the box of colors only to realize I did not have any white gel color. So instead  I went with green. And well, not too bad. Still not as good as the original, but I am getting there.

You could technically paint after the bread is baked, I guess. But I feel that the color sets better if you paint it just as it turns light golden and then put it back in the oven to further bake till it becomes golden brown.

As for the bread. I loved it.

The molasses, the slight taste of quinoa, the crunch from the walnuts and the pumpkin seeds. Loved it all.

I have finally got around to liking whole wheat breads. I think they have so much more flavor in them than regular white bread.

I did not have any quinoa flour in the house, so I just used my coffee and spice grinder to fine grind the quinoa I had and made my own flour. Worked pretty well, I must say. Do remember that since quinoa is gluten free, the bread’s final rise will be lesser than normal white bread and the crumb will be denser as you can see in the pictures.

You could also add some toasted ground flax seeds or chia seeds to increase the fiber content of the bread. Next time I will try to experiment a bit by adding some oats as well. Till then this bread recipe should suffice.

I might be late for the quinoa craze but I am slowly getting on board and liking it!