This Sourdough Roasted Beet Bread with Fennel and Thyme showcases beets grown in the hoop house at my local community garden.
I created this bread to celebrate my love of gardening and baking with seasonal ingredients.
Growing vegetables in a Hoop House
Our community garden was gifted a hoop house last year. Volunteers spent several months building the hoop house and preparing it for use. It was a massive project but totally worth it, now that it’s done, that is.
In case you’re wondering, a hoop house is similar to a greenhouse in that it allows you to grow plants no matter the season.
The main difference between a greenhouse and a hoop house (high tunnel) is that a hoop house is taller with high posts than a greenhouse. In greenhouses, heat control is done artificially while in hoop houses, temperature control is natural through doors and window openings.
Source: https://gardenine.com/hoop-house-vs-greenhouse
Now that the high tunnel is built, we’ve been experimenting with growing different vegetables and herbs in the raised beds inside the hoop house.
In late February, we planted kale, different kinds of lettuce and beans, cilantro, red and white radishes, spinach, and a couple of different types of red beets.
The lettuce, kale, beets, cilantro and radishes were prolific. I was amazed at how well they grew.
I am so excited about the possibilities of high tunnel gardening and using some of what we grow in the hoop house as well as what I grow in my home garden to make seasonal breads.
The community garden will be donating a portion of what we grow in the hoop house to our local food co-op, but there will be some left over to enjoy.
In fact, we harvested so many beets, I decided they needed to be featured in this roasted beet bread.
What type of beets should you use for this bread?
As I mentioned, the beets I used for this bread were grown in the hoop house at my local community garden.
However, even if you don’t have access to homegrown beets, you can still make and enjoy this bread.
Just use the freshest beets you can get – whether they are homegrown or bought at the market.
Using roasted beets vs pureed or boiled beets
In my previous experiments with making beet bread, I was going for color and found that pureeing the beets produced the best color.
Refer to my post on Sourdough Beet Challah for my thoughts on roasting, boiling & pureeing beets to use in bread.
For this bread, I was going for flavor, not necessarily color, but I ended up with a nice color as well.
I roasted the beets instead of pureeing them to get rid of the earthy undertones. Roasting the beets gives them a tender and sweet flavor. I added a couple of sprigs of thyme before roasting them.
My previous experiments with roasting beets didn’t produce as nice a color as this experiment. I believe it’s due to the freshness of the beets. The freshly picked beets produce a very rich color.
How many beets should you use?
The first time I made this roasted beet bread, I made two loaves and used ~260 grams of roasted beets (about 130 grams per loaf). For subsequent bakes, I made one loaf and upped the number of beets used to 175 grams (2/3 cup) of roasted beets per loaf. The formula I’ve provided is for one loaf.
What I found with this experiment is that adding more beets produces a moister loaf, and a richer color, but it also intensifies the beet flavor.
I recommend that you start by determining what you want to achieve with this bread – i.e., flavor, color, moisture, etc. If a deep color is what you are aiming for, then add more roasted beets.
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