Dionysus, Hestia and Demeter's Ancient Greek Bread
Submitted by glory on January 20, 2003 at 9:57 pm

This recipe came about as part of a school report that my third grade daughter had to do for school. The following is a copy of the oral section of her report which narrates this recipe which we developed together. If you are further interested in this recipe see the thread Ancient Greek Bread on the BC.
Oral Report Olympian Gods and Goddess by Glory's third grade kiddo!

My written report was on the 12 Olympian Gods and Goddesses. Today, for my project, I will share a bread with you that my mom and I created and baked in honor of three of them, Dionysus, Hestia and Demeter. Let me tell you about them first.

Dionysus was the god of the vine, wine and fertility. He wandered the world teaching people how to make wine, accompanied by wild, functional followers. When Hestia resigned her place on Olympus, Dionysus became one of the 12 Olympian Gods and Goddesses. Dionysus carried a special staff called a thyrsus.
Hestia was the was the goddess of the hearth. Every Greek city and family, had a shrine dedicated to her. She was gentle and pure, and stood aloof of the constant quarrels of the other gods and goddesses.
Demeter was the goddess of all plants. Her symbol was wheat. When Hades kidnapped her daughter Persephone, Demeter neglected the plants to search for Persephone. This caused Winter. When Persephone returned to Demeter, she brought Summer.

Dionysus, Hestia and Demeter’s Ancient Greek Bread

What we learned before we made the bread.

The Greeks didn’t have sugar so we used honey. They used olive oil instead of butter. They used wheat but they didn’t grow it, they traded for it. They had grapes and made wine. They drank wine and they used cloudy wine to make bread. There is wild yeast in grapes that’s in wine. The Greeks grew a lot of barley and they had emmer wheat which we call spelt. Sourdough is made from wheat flour, water and wild yeast sometimes from grapes. We’re lucky because my mom keeps a crock of sourdough in our refrigerator.
We also learned the Greeks used many grains. They were the ones that taught the Romans, who were terrible bakers, how to bake. The Romans imprisoned the Greek bakers as slaves!

The first morning of the bread making, this is what we did. We did not have a recipe and we knew we could not use packaged yeast or baking powder or baking soda. We did not know if this would work and my mom was worried it would be flat and hard! In a bowl we mixed up:

1 cup of sourdough starter
1 cup of spring water
2 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup barley flour
½ cup whole wheat flour for Demeter
2 tablespoons red wine for Dionysus
¼ cup spelt
½ cup French style flour

French style flour is a white wheat with malted barley flour in it.

We mixed it up with a spoon stirring it for 11 minutes. We then covered the bowl with a damp dish towel to let it rise.

Four hours later it only had one bubble.

Barley and spelt don’t have gluten which the sourdough needs to eat and grow. We got worried.
We added 1/3 cup of high gluten flour which is made 100% whole wheat.

That night the dough was risen and bubbling!!

We added ½ tsp. diastatic malt which is something that is in wheat and sourdough uses it to grow.
We also added 1c.artisan bread flour which is wheat vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Vitamin C is found in citrus such as lemons.

We kneaded the dough for 5 minutes.

We covered it with a bit of olive oil & let it sit out all night long in the bowl under the towel. In the morning it looked like real bread dough! It had risen just over the top of the bowl!

We punched it down and added 1/3 cup water and ½ c, artisan bread flour. We kneaded it for 5 minutes.

We made it into a round loaf and coated it with a little olive oil.

We took a willow basket called a brotform and dusted it with flour, rosemary, sea salt and sesame seeds. We added the loaf. We let it rise 2 hours with the towel over it.

We heated our hearth kit for Hestia in our oven for two hours until the hearthstone was 450 degrees. We added a little steam by throwing some water into an iron pan at the bottom of the oven. We baked it for 40 minutes until the loaf sounded hollow when we thumped on it.

The loaf cracked a little because we didn't add salt to the dough other than what we put on top. We were afraid it might kill the wild yeast! This is the first time we ever made bread with no yeast. When we started we didn't even know what kind of bread it would turn out to be.

When we cut it though it was tangy and had a hard crust on it. The inside was nice and soft. It is the best bread in the whole world! When the Greeks ate bread they dipped it in wine to soften it. Their flour was ground in a stone bowl with another stone doing the grinding. It wasn’t as soft as the nice wheat we have today. With the whole wheat for Demeter, the wine for Dionysus, and the hearth for Hestia, my mom and I came up with the name for the bread: Dionysus and Demeter's Ancient Greek Bread!
Enjoy the bread!