Medieval bread

During the Renaissance, bakeries were considered the epicenter of many larger towns. The townsfolk would buy their breads on a daily basis and they could catch up on the news and gossip of the tow…

Makes 1 loaf

Bringing Good Taste to Healthier Food

One of my entries in 3M's A&S Championship. On the top is wastel, period "white" bread made from sifted wheat flour. In the middle is maslin, a whole-grain loaf made from mixed rye and wheat flours. On the bottom is horsebread, a recreation of the mixed-grain breads eaten by peasants, workers, and servants. All are sourdough leavened, and I baked them inside an enameled cast iron Dutch oven. This was a really fun project!

What does it really take to make bread like they did in the Middle Ages?

Some odd but delicious and healthy ingredients with a long fermenting sourdough crumb make a history lesson you can REALLY chew on!

Dark

A replica Middle Ages peasant bread recipe made with heritage wheat and legumes. Inspired by Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth.

Maslin bread was the common bread of the medieval period. It consists of wheat mixed with rye, barley, or whatever has happened to grow in your field, lightly bolted to remove some of the bran and risen with sourdough. While there was a clear preference for wheat-only bread, the reality is that many regions in England are not great for growing it, and farmers planted mixtures of grains as insurance that one of them would produce well in any particular year.* I have tried, and tried, and…