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.
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.
64 K 4.0/5 (25 reviews)
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).
Then put the seeds in the oven for about 15 minutes.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Then put the seeds in the oven for about 15 minutes.
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.
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.
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.
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
Lasts posts
A tablet holder
Perhaps you too cook by consulting your recipe on a tablet or phone, and putting it down on your worktop? It's practical, but not the best solution. Here's a look at how you can make an inexpensive, almost universal stand.March 14th 20261,2595
Pre-calibrated pastry dough
When making pie dough (shortbread, shortcrust, sweet...), it's always a good idea to make a lot at once, and then divide it into pieces, which you can freeze. I've already pointed out the mistake not to make, which is to form a ball before freezing. It's difficult to roll out afterwards because...March 9th 20261,1815
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20253,2335
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20252,1515
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 20251,967
Other pages you may also like
Parsley stems
Parsley, whether curly or flat, is a delicious ingredient in many recipes, where it is used both raw and cooked. When used raw, in a salad for example, where it always provides, alone or with other herbs, a remarkable freshness, only the leaves are kept. And when used cooked?July 28th 20258,749 13
Steam for baking bread
What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...June 16th 2021150 K4.5
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .February 7th 2017136 K 14.2
Candied fruits: don't get ripped off
Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.June 21th 201770 K 24.2
The beautiful story of the croissants
As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...October 10th 201821 K5
Post a comment or question
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.
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.