07/23/07

Bertinet's Cardamom Prune Bread

I had the misfortune to chose a pack of whole-wheat atta that was infested with the worst imaginable creepy crawlies. The flour had an expiry date for year 2008 and yet the ingredients were too gross to describe. The flour looked and smelled normal. However, I detected an off flavor in the bread and decided to toss them away. I went back to the pack to check on the flour and my suspicions were confirmed. I guess it always pay to be very vigilant when buying cereals. The brand of atta that I chose is a very popular brand here in Singapore and yet this had happened. It was not the first time that I encountered an incident like this. Some rye flour which I bought from the dominant supermarket here was infested with weevils.

I seem to be spotting all kinds of additional 'ingredients' in my food such as cockroach legs, houseflies, rubber bands and cigarette stubs in my food. Yucks.

Anyway, I found cardamom powder in a grocery store and I recalled that Bertinet had a Cardamom Prune Bread. I could imagine the flavor of the rum soaked prune with cardamom as the counterfoil. After my experience with the atta, I decided to use organic whole-wheat from Organic Paradise. As I usually do not have much luck following the recipe direct from the books, I modified it to suit the flour available here. This is a very important aspect of baking and that is to understand that the flours, equipment and environment affect the outcome of the bread and blindly following a recipe will not do.