28 Feb 2022 Talon Boyd is making bread
By Don Bingham
My wife and I met the most interesting and colorful lady who personifies how the “501 workforce” has the unique ability to reach all avenues of life — from nutrition to occupational therapy, and lots in between! Talon Boyd, a Doctor of Occupational Therapy, is a perfect example of someone who shows compassion towards her patients and expresses a passion for helping each patient live as independently as possible. Boyd works at Conway Regional Rehabilitation Hospital. To help patients holistically, she uses her knowledge, resources, and genuine appreciation for life. “Anything that helps me learn a skill to promote good therapy, whether through gardening or getting patients outside, is a desire that I cherish,” she said.
Boyd and her husband, Phillip, a law enforcement officer at the University of Central Arkansas, have high goals. They want to promote local farmers, their crops, and local meat production. And one day, they desire to own a homestead business and teach the art of growing local produce, farming dairy cows for fresh milk, and raising chickens for eggs.
She also manages two gardens at the Rehab Hospital. One is a floral therapeutic garden, and the other is a stand-alone herb garden, with everything from basil to parsley. The herb boxes are positioned outside patients’ windows so they can observe them during a stay in rehab. Did I mention that she is a Certified Master Gardener? Having come from a family where her mother and grandmother were avid gardeners, she learned at an early age the value of good digestion, gut health, natural fermentation, and that quality is far more valuable than quantity in food preparation. Combining occupational therapy with teaching helpful hints in cooking and gardening has always been “natural” for her.
In this Entertaining feature, Boyd shares some of her favorite recipes: focaccia bread, sourdough bread, and a recipe that I found most intriguing — chocolate sourdough bread and bread starters.
“Getting people outside is one of the greatest medicines,” she said. So, with a slice of chocolate sourdough bread in hand, I think I’ll go outside for a refreshing, medicinal walk!
Traditional sourdough loaf
2/3 cup active leaven (sourdough starter)*
1/3 cup bread flour
1/3 cup filtered water
1 tbsp sourdough starter
1 ¾ cup warm filtered water
2 ½ cups bread flour
(hard red winter wheat or hard red spring wheat)
2 tsp sea salt
¼ cup rice flour
Make Leaven | Feed sourdough starter by mixing the ingredients in a clean jar to make a leaven. Leave the jar on the counter for 8-12 hours.
Mix Dough | After the leaven has doubled in size and has bubbles dispersed throughout, mix the water, active leaven, and bread flour in a large mixing bowl. Allow the dough to rest on the counter for 1-2 hours in the bowl covered with a lid or damp tea towel.
Add Salt | Sprinkle the salt over the dough. With wet hands, press the salt into the dough using your fingertips. Let the dough rest on the counter in a covered bowl for 10 minutes.
Stretch and Fold | With the dough in the bowl, stretch the dough up and fold the dough over itself. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Complete a total of 4 stretch and folds. Allow the dough to rest in the covered bowl for 30 minutes and complete 3 more sets of stretch and folds with 30-minute rest intervals between each set.
Bulk Ferment | Allow the dough to rest in the covered bowl on the counter for 6-12 hours to ferment. The dough will double in size and become bubbly.
Shape | Pull the dough out of the bowl and onto the counter. Stretch the dough out into a large rectangle on the counter. Be careful not to tear it. Fold the dough over into thirds horizontally and again into thirds vertically. Turn the dough over on the counter. With your wrists together, use the counter top to push and pull the dough back and forth while rotating (repeating 10 times) after each push and pull to create tension in the dough and shape it into a round ball. Once tension has been created on the surface of the dough, gently rub rice flour on the surface. Sprinkle a banneton or tea towel-lined bowl with rice flour and place your dough upside down into the container.
Proof | Cover the banneton or bowl and place in the refrigerator for 6-18 hours to proof.
Oven | When ready to bake, turn on your oven to 450° and place your dutch oven and lid into the oven to heat up for 30 minutes.
Score | After 30 minutes of the dutch oven heating, pull your proofed dough from the fridge and turn the dough over onto the counter on a piece of parchment paper. Rub rice flour on the dough (this will emphasize the design scored into the dough). With a blade or lame, score the dough to make a design to allow the dough to expand when cooking in the oven and prevent cracking.
Load Dutch Oven | Place your dough in the dutch oven for 25 minutes with the lid on. Remove the lid and lower the temperature to 425° for 20 minutes.
Cool | Remove the dough from the dutch oven and place on a cooling rack for 2 hours to cool.
*Sourdough starter may be purchased online in dehydrated or active (wet) form or gifted from someone who has a starter.
Chocolate sourdough loaf
2/3 cup active leaven (sourdough starter)*
1/3 cup bread flour
1/3 cup filtered water
1 tbsp sourdough starter
1 1/4 cups warm filtered water
2 1/2 cups kamut or bread flour (hard red winter wheat or hard red spring wheat)
¼ cup sugar
1/2 cups dutched cocoa powder
1 tbsp sea salt
½ cup baking chocolate
1/4 cup rice flour
Make Leaven | Feed sourdough starter by mixing the ingredients in a clean jar to make a leaven. Leave the jar on the counter for 8-12 hours.
Mix Dough | After the leaven has doubled in size and has bubbles dispersed throughout, mix the water, active leaven, bread flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and sea salt in a large mixing bowl. Pour the contents of the bowl onto the counter and knead the dough for 5 -10 minutes until smooth.
Bulk Ferment | Allow the dough to rest in a bowl on the counter for 6-12 hours and cover it with a lid or damp tea towel to ferment. The dough will double in size and become bubbly.
Shape | Pull the dough out of the bowl and onto the counter. Stretch the dough out into a large rectangle on the counter. Be careful not to tear it. Press chocolate into the middle third of the dough. Fold the left third of dough over the chocolate and apply more chocolate on top of the left folded third. Fold the right third of the dough over the left third and apply more chocolate. Fold the dough vertically into thirds and turn the dough upside down on the counter. With your wrists together, use the counter top to push and pull the dough back and forth while rotating (repeating 10 times) after each push and pull to create tension in the dough and shape it into a round ball. Once tension has been created on the surface of the dough, gently rub rice flour on the surface. Sprinkle a banneton or tea towel-lined bowl with rice flour and place your dough upside down into the container.
For the remainder of this recipe’s instructions, refer back to Traditional Sourdough Loaf and follow steps for Proof, Oven, Score, Load and Cool.
Sourdough Focaccia
2/3 cup active leaven (sourdough starter)*
1/3 cup bread flour
1/3 cup filtered water
1 Tbsp sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups warm filtered water
2 1/2 cups bread flour (hard red winter wheat or hard red spring wheat)
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp sea salt
¼ cup olive oil
Herbs and vegetables (decoration)
Make Leaven | Feed sourdough starter by mixing the following ingredients in a clean jar to make a leaven. Leave the jar on the counter for 8-12 hours.
Mix Dough & Bulk Ferment| After the leaven has doubled in size and has bubbles dispersed throughout, mix the water, active leaven, bread flour, honey, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Allow the dough to rest on the counter for 8-12 hours in the bowl covered with a lid or damp tea towel. Allow the dough to rest in the covered bowl on the counter for 6-12 hours to ferment. The dough will double in size and become bubbly.
Spread Dough | Generously pour olive oil into a large baking dish and spread the oil thoroughly. Pour the dough out of the bowl into the baking dish. Apply olive oil to the top of the dough and stretch the dough to cover the surface of the baking dish.
Proof | Allow the dough to rest on the countertop while covered and finish rising for 1-2 hours.
Oven | Turn the oven to 425°.
Garnish | Decorate the dough with fresh herbs and vegetables as preferred.
Bake | Place the dough in the oven for 30 minutes.
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