Algae Additions – Lockdown has been a taxing time, but one of the positives that have come out of it is the increase in home baking, with many of us dusting off our aprons and heading back into the kitchen.
Bread making is booming in popularity, and it’s not just white and multigrain loaves coming out of ovens. If you’ve already added pesto, carrots and curry powder to your dough and are wondering ‘what’s next?’, then you might be intrigued by an ingredient called chlorella…
For those not in the know, chlorella is a type of green algae, which can be harvested and turned into a powder. It has become renowned for having a host of health benefits, with studies showing it could help with everything from boosting energy levels to keeping wrinkles at bay.
Whilst adding algae to your food might sound a little odd, it’s a popular ingredient in Japan, where it’s used in a host of dishes. One of the easiest things to use it in is bread, where it adds a splash of colour and extra nutrition.
Easy Chlorella Bread
Ingredients
400g Bread Flour
4g Sun Chlorella Powder
20g Sugar
8g Dry Yeast
200ml Water
80ml Milk
10g Salt
20g Unsalted Butter
Method
Warm water and milk to 40c.
Mix half the bread flour in a bowl with salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the Sun Chlorella Powder, sugar, dry yeast, water, milk and the other half of the bread flower for about 3 minutes.
Gently add the bread flour and salt mix to the chlorella powder mix and then knead on a board with the butter for approximately 10 minutes.
Once kneaded, put the dough mixture back in the bowl and cover with clingfilm for 35 minutes (or until it has swollen until twice the original size.
Once risen split in to 3 separate balls adding each ball to a separate mould, cover each in cling film for approximately 20 minutes.
Remove the cling film and bake for approximately 25 minutes at 220 degrees centigrade.
Once baked allow to cool for serving.
Chlorella Cake
Ingredients
1g Sun Chlorella Powder
100g Cake flour (or plain flour)
3g Baking powder
1g Salt
1g Pepper
2g Sugar
2 Eggs
20ml Olive Oil
25ml Milk
25ml Whip cream
5g Unsalted butter (for mould)
20g Dried tomatoes
15 (roughly) Olives
5g Fresh Basil
Method
Rehydrate the dried tomatoes in hot water and cut them down to 1cm cubes. Cut the olives in to slices. Remove the stems from the basil.
Add the Sun Chlorella A Powder, cake flour and baking powder to a bowl and mix together.
Add in the salt, pepper and sugar and mix.
In a separate bowl mix together the eggs, olive oil and milk.
Add the liquid mixture to the chlorella powder mixture and mix together.
Rub a bread mould with butter and put 1/3 of the mixture into the mould. Then add a layer of the Olives, tomatoes and basil (approximately ½ of the ingredients. Then add another 1/3 of the dough mixture on top and then repeat until to have three layers or dough and two layers of olives, tomatoes and basil in the middle.
Bake at 170 degrees centigrade for 10 minutes. Take out of the oven, make a cut in the middle and then bake for a further 25 minutes.
Once baked allow to cool for serving.
Poppy Watt