black carbon powder used in black atta flour flat bread and black multi grain bread
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A spoonful of carbon makes the bread go black and the brioche, cocktail, pastry, english muffin, brownie, mayo, crackers, sauces, cupcakes, butter, potato, ice-cream, waffle and caramel too!
You've seen the black brioche burger buns, it's not just for Halloween, Darth Vader day or goth get together... adding carbon powder gives a sophisticated and modern twist to your sweet and savoury cooking.
What is carbon powder? It's vegetable matter combusted at high heat, producing an insoluble activated super fine carbon that doesn't have health risks, is vegan and no seafood squid ink allergies.
You can buy carbon powder at health food stores, organic purveyors, chef supply stores and maybe your local supermarket.
Flavour wise it's barely there in the couple of brands I've tried, a slight char flavour that is easily overridden by stronger flavours. So it's mainly for aesthetics, I do like the drama of the visual impact.
Each brand will have it's own depth of pigment, today I tried 'Vader Black' from a local store 'Melbourne Food Depot' because of it's promised ultra blackness and ok and because it was named "Vader".
Tried it out in whole egg mayonnaise first. Haha a tiny bit stirred in and you have a super black mayo for piping, painting or plonking with your chosen contrasting food.
Next tried butter, you can see the powder mixes totally into the softened butter.
We've probably all seen the black glossy brioche burger buns but I was wondering could you use it with whole grain? Yes, you can successfully use it with whole grain like in this multi grain feta/cucumber number, I like seeing the flicks of grain through the black.
Here I used wholemeal Atta flour with carbon to make flatbreads for tofu and peanut salad wraps, you can see the flicks of bran in the finished wraps here too.
I used recipes that I make often because you loose the "seeing the item brown" once it's coloured black. This is the same flatbread dough not coloured black. But if your going to make black brioche buns for the first time just allow a tester bun to check for doneness.
The flat bread wraps.
Ingredients
2 cups of Atta flour
150ml warm water to start (more as needed to form a ball of dough)
1 tablespoon of peanut oil (I was making Malaysian wraps with peanuts so matched the oil... match your oil to what you are making)
1/2 tsp of salt
2 to 3 tsps of carbon powder (you may need more or less depending on the colour density you require)
Pop the flour in a food processor along with the salt and carbon powder, give it a whizz to combine.
Starting with your 150ml of warm water pour enough water down the chute to form a soft dough. For hand method and to see video of it being made see the past post of Indian flat bread here.
Wrap you resulting black dough and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
Pre heat your cooking appliance I used an electric crepe maker to cook mine but any flat bottomed pan/griddle would work.
Divide your dough into four and roll out one piece, leave the other pieces loosely covered whist you are cooking your first piece. I used a non stick mat so I didn't need to add extra flour.
Lightly oil the pan you are using, add your bread disc, cooking until the top is bubbly, flip and cook another minute. Remove bread to plate and cover with clean cloth to keep warm and pliable for rolling. Repeat steps for other pieces. Fill with salads and protein of choice, roll up and eat!
Other quick ideas for your black breads are making pita or flat bread chips.
Don't let your left over black loaves go to waste, make a jar of croutons up and server them with your sweet potato, pumpkin or potato soups.
Pros...
I love the drama of the black. Perfect for many Asian inspired dishes, adding punch to vegan offerings, reinforcing the char of a burger and of course Halloween.
Works well with sweet and savoury.
A little goes a long way.
Cons...
If your after char flavour it is barely there with the carbon powder... a piece of charred veg or BBQ chop has far more carbon flavour.
Cost, it's not inexpensive especially the good quality high pigment powders.
It can stain/be messy working with the black, but honestly coming from a cake decorating background it didn't stain like mixing up a batch of black fondant. Carbon washed easily off with water, that said take care with porous surfaces.
Happy baking :) I had fun playing with carbon powder, if you decide to give it a try in your brownies to tacos shells hope you have fun too.
*Extra flat bread cooking instructions on the past Lime paneer and paneer parantha post.
Try "the other natural black" with squid ink grissini.