It all started when I was making Vampiros for a Halloween special. Vampiros, as you know, is a spicy adaption of Tomato Bread with Sundried Tomatoes – add smoked paprika, chile and a good whack of tequila to the tomato sauce. This year I wanted to find a way of getting the dough a brilliant red – beetroot!!! This I grated into the water and, indeed, the dough looked quite spectacular. Sadly this faded during the bake:
I did fake up some pictures for a piss-take of the advocates of bread improvers on the Australian Sourdough site here but no one took the bait and the only respondent seemed to think I was serious.
But the interesting thing was how much the beetroot improved the bread – great rise and a really moist crumb. So next time Tomato Bread came up I gave the beetroot another outing, this time cutting tiny julienne with a mandolin:
Looks like it caught something contagious.
The PArtisan Baker 