Arkatena - Golspie Style

Andrew Whitley's "Bread Matters" has a recipe for a bread from Cyprus that uses a chickpea (gram) flour starter. It's called Arkatena Bread:

Arkatena Sourdough in morning light

 I don't have any gram flour just now, but I do have this:

Secret ingredient

It's ground legumes - like chickpeas, and it makes a sweet smelling starter:

Peasemeal Starter

I ended up splitting my dough 3 ways. Two in tins and one freestanding.

6 pm - 3 Way Split 

One of the tins has got added commercial yeast. This meant I could hedge my bets and be sure of an evening bake.

10 pm - yeasted loaf in middle

In fact the sourdough was not far behind and was also baked that evening. The free standing loaf was knocked back and left to rise in the cold kitchen overnight.

Tipped out and baked the next morning  (see the first picture above) it was a success.  There was not an appreciable difference in any respect between the all sourdough and the added yeast loaves. The flavour was subtle and the bread a hit, with my unsuspecting consumer panel. It was nice and light. 

Crumbs

Whitley adds fennel seeds which we eschew in bread, but googling images of Arkatena bread suggest sesame seeds are often used, so I sprinkled my loaves with these. I will probably do that every time I make this bread.

All in all a success!