Baking Curry Seed Knots Using A Sourdough Starter

There is a little recipe I have for making buns that has people returning to the bread table time and again. That is my recipe for curry seed knots. In essence this is a very typical brown bread bun that I have upgraded a bit. I add some delicious curry seeds to the dough and then tie the dough into adorable little knots before baking it. As always, I will be using my sourdough starter, but I also give hints for using alternative raising agents in the blog.

I start the dough with some very basic ingredients. Add 4 cups (4 x 250 ml) brown bread flour, 1 teaspoon (10 ml) salt and 1 tablespoon (12,5 ml) sugar to a large mixing bowl.

Now add 1-2 tablespoons (12,5-25 ml) curry seed mix to the bowl. How much you add is a matter of personal taste. If uncertain, add only tablespoon to start with and increase this with a next bake. What are curry seeds? Every master of spices will have their own idea about this. What I do, is to go down to my local Indian spice shop and then I ask them to mix me some curry seeds. They usually have some ready-made mixes, but if you specify your likes and dislikes they will mix something for your own personal palette. You can also buy ready-mixed spices at the well-stocked green grocers, if need be.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.
Option 1: If you are using Instant Dry Yeast, you should add a packet to the dry ingredients.

Now add the rest of the ingredients. Add half a cup (125 ml) lukewarm milk, 1/2 cup (125 ml) lukewarm water, 1 cup (250 ml) sourdough starter, 50 ml oil and 1 egg.
Option 2: If using Active Dry Yeast, add a packet to the lukewarm water, milk and sugar and wait for it to froth up.

Bring the dough together. If you have a handy helper, you can put them to work.

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Make sure that you and your helper are on the same page if you tell them to put some elbow into it!

Roll the kneaded dough into a fat roll, about 30 cm in length.

Divide the roll in half and then in quarters.

Cut each quarter into 3.

You should end up with 12 (almost) equally sized pieces of dough.

Roll each piece of dough into a long 'worm'.

Your dough worm should be roughly 15-20 cm long.

Fold the dough over.

Tuck one end under and pull it through the hole. Do not pull the knot tight.

Lay your dough knots on a baking tray, spacing them out. The baking tray has been prepared with non-stick coating and lightly floured.

Now press 1 cardamom seed into each knot to infuse the knot with this lovely flavour. It is awful to bite down on a cardamom pod, and we remove these once baked, but the flavour will already be present in the dough by the time we remove the pods.

A close-up view of the inserted cardamom pod.

My helper had a lot of fun with this!

Cover with plastic and place in a warm dry place to rise.

Once risen, brush the knots with egg yolk.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake for about 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 200 °C.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

These are brilliant with cheese and/or meat. You can try a chicken-mayo filling, or pork and mustard. Most recently, I had mine with my slow-cooked pork roast on some mayo, and it was simply delicious! You  can also enjoy it with cold cuts, leg of lamb, or beef roast. The seeds have been mixed to accommodate the flavour of meat and that is exactly what it does, even though it is added to dough, and not the meat itself.

Marietjie Uys (Miekie) is a published author. You can buy the books here:
You can purchase Designs By Miekie 1 here.

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Jy kan Tuinstories hier koop.
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