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Recipes with wheat bran

6 recipes that use wheat bran, with photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, All seeds health biscuits, takes 43 minutes. It is most often cooked with active sourdough starter, strong white bread flour and strong white flour.

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Borș

Before lemons were common in Moldavian and Wallachian villages, every household kept a crock of borș, the cloudy, tangy liquid that turns a plain soup into a ciorbă. Wheat bran and a little cornmeal are steeped in hot water, seeded with a starter and left to ferment for 3–4 days in total, so although the hands-on work is short, plan a long weekend: the timings shown cover only the first two days of waiting. It is naturally vegan and a staple of the fasting (post) kitchen, where it sours nettle, bean and vegetable ciorbe. Where people go wrong is using a jar that is not properly clean, which lets the wrong microbes win and turns the borș slimy or mouldy. Chef's tip: keep a few spoonfuls of the drained bran, dried, as the starter (huște) for your next batch.

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Pită de Pecica

The bakers of Pecica, a large village near Arad close to the Hungarian border, are famous across western Romania for their pită: a huge round loaf with a crackling, deeply browned crust and a moist, slightly tangy crumb that keeps for a week. The old recipe needs only flour, water, salt, boiled potato and a natural leaven kept alive from bake to bake, with a long slow rise and an even longer bake in a wood-fired oven. This home version makes one 1.6 kg loaf in an ordinary oven with a baking stone and steam. Where most people go wrong is underbaking such a big loaf, which leaves a gummy middle; check the inside temperature. Serve thick slices with soup, with fresh cheese and onions, or toasted with garlic. Chef's tip: feed your starter the night before so it is bubbly and at its peak when you mix.

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Aish shamsi

On the rooftops and in the courtyards of villages around Luxor and across Upper Egypt, women set trays of dough out in the sun to rise before baking them in mud-brick ovens, which is where aish shamsi, 'sun bread', gets its name. A sourdough leaven and the warmth of the sun make the rounds swell tall and domed, with a thin bran-flecked crust and an open, tangy crumb. It is eaten with mish, molasses, cheese and stews. Allow about 6 hours from mixing to baking, most of it rising time. A sunny windowsill or a warm spot at about 30 °C works fine at home; don't leave it in fierce direct sun above about 40 °C, which kills the yeast and dries out the skin. Chef's tip: cover the rising loaves with a light cotton cloth, just as village bakers do.

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Aish baladi

Aish means 'life', and in Egypt this bread really is: neighbourhood bakeries turn out thousands of loaves an hour, cooling on palm-rib trays carried through the streets on cyclists' heads. Made with wholemeal flour and rolled in bran, the rounds puff dramatically in a fierce oven into a soft, slightly chewy pocket with a nutty, wheaty taste. It is the scoop, spoon and wrapper for ful, falafel, salads and stews at every meal. Allow about 1 hour 45 minutes for rising and resting. The most common mistake is a stone or tray that isn't hot enough, so the rounds bake flat with no pocket. Chef's tip: preheat the oven at its highest setting for a full 45 minutes, and bake only two rounds at a time.

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Goan poi

Every morning in Goan villages the poder, the local baker, cycles from house to house honking a horn, his basket full of warm bread. Poi is the one Goans miss most when they leave home: a flat, round, wholewheat-and-white-flour bread dusted with wheat bran, baked in a very hot wood oven so it puffs into a hollow pocket. It's torn open for chorizo pao in Goa, but just as good stuffed with spicy chickpea ros, dipped in a vegetable xacuti, or eaten with butter and tea. Traditionally the dough was raised with palm toddy; at home, yeast does the job. Chef's tip: preheat a heavy baking tray in the oven for at least 20 minutes; the shock of hot metal is what makes the poi puff.

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All seeds health biscuits

Wholesome oval biscuits made with wholewheat flour, wheat bran, crushed cornflakes and a mix of seeds, then coated in more sesame and linseed. Crunchy and only lightly sweet, with unrefined sugar.

43 minBaking
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Goes well with wheat bran