The blog of cooking-ez.com

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting


Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting
In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough.

To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of kneading, add around 200g (6 oz) of seeds per kilo (2 lb) of flour, generally a mixture of the seeds listed above. There is nothing wrong with this and your seeded bread will be good.

But there is one thing you should know, a bakers' secret, no less; there's a trick that will allow you to improve your recipe: you should dry roast the seeds before adding them.
55K 25 4.0
Grade this page:

Last modified on: January 30th 2015

Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting
Dry roasting (or torrefaction) in this context is done by putting the seeds in a hot oven, which normally fills the kitchen with the delicious smell. This brief spell in the oven is too short to cook the seeds, but really brings out their flavour. This same principal lies behind roasting coffee, though this is a much longer process, or cocoa beans for making chocolate (the famous Maillard reactions).

To do this, you will need to preheat the oven to 360°F (180°C) and spread the seeds in an even layer on a baking sheet (line this with a sheet of cooking parchment to make handling the seeds afterwards easier).

Graines sur plaque avant torréfaction


Then put the seeds in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Graines au four pour torrefaction



So, this is a simple way of achieving great results. Try it for yourself and you will be impressed at the difference it makes.

Just one detail to bear in mind for bread-making: if you add dry-roasted seeds to bread dough, be warned that they have an annoying tendency to absorb the water in the dough and leave it somewhat drier.

And as we are delving deep into bakers' secrets, here's the ultimate one: when using seeds in baking, dry-roast them, then as soon as they come out of the oven, tip them into their weight in water.

Graines versées   Graines dans l'eau


Leave them to soak up the water, which will take about 5 minutes, before adding them to the dough. Then you can enjoy all the flavour of the dry-roasted seeds without them taking the moisture from the bread and making it too dry.

Graines torréfiées incorporées à la pâte à pain



This same dry-roasting method can also be used for nuts, such as almonds, pistachios, walnuts and hazelnuts. Try dry roasting them before you add them to a cake mixture, for example – the result might well surprise you.

Amandes sur plaque avant torréfaction



To sum up

  • It is better to dry roast seeds briefly in a hot oven before adding them to a dough
  • When making bread, moisten the seeds with the same weight of water after roasting, before adding them to the dough
  • You can also dry-roast almonds, pistachios, walnuts and hazelnuts



Back to top of page

Lasts posts
Toss the salad
Toss the salad
When you've finished preparing a salad, green or otherwise, it's usually time to add the dressing and toss. It's often said to "toss the salad", which means to season and mix. Is it easy? Not so easy...
1,0135 March 8th 2024
Half milk, half cream
Half milk, half cream
In a multitude of recipes, savoury or sweet, milk is used as the main ingredient, or at least as the main liquid ingredient. Milk is used instead of water, for example, because milk contains a proportion of fat, which adds roundness and softness to the recipe. This mellowness is very pleasant on...
1,374 February 27th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.
1,4955 February 20th 2024
It's spinning too fast!
It's spinning too fast!
When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...
4,4565 November 12th 2023
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
When I was a kid, I didn't like...
Maybe you've already made this strange observation: when you were a kid, there were things you hated, but as an adult it's almost the opposite? For example, you used to hate spinach or chicory, but now you love it?
4,0765 November 5th 2023
Other pages you may also like
The so-called "nervous" meats
The so-called "nervous" meats
You've probably heard this before, we're talking about "nervous" meat, or meat with nerves, to describe what is indicated by the blue arrow on the left. This is a piece of beef, and what we call a nerve is not a nerve, it is in fact collagen (chemists sometimes call it a "collagen sink"), a...
22K4.5 April 16th 2021
Different kinds of pastry and dough
Different kinds of pastry and dough
When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked. .
104K 14.0 November 6th 2012
Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?
Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?
Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
36K4.3 February 28th 2018
Egg yolks and caster sugar
Egg yolks and caster sugar
We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
71K 24.4 February 15th 2018
Rosemary in recipes
Rosemary in recipes
Rosemary, as I’m sure you know, is a culinary herb, one of the famous French "herbes de Provence", and is very effective in bringing a real taste of the Mediterranean to any dish. The classic way to use it in a recipe is to add a sprig or two and leave it in during cooking as a way of...
19K4.7 April 18th 2018
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page