Recipe: Millet Porridge Sourdough

A Wordloaf subscriber extra

A few months back I received an ‘accidental’ 25 lb bag of millet (the accident being that I’d signed up for a shipment subscription just to get a deal on the price, and forgot to cancel it before the second installment shipped). With all that millet on hand, I naturally looked for ways to use it up, and started making a millet porridge sourdough (I also add the grains regularly to my sourdough discard granola). It’s quickly become a favorite around here, both for its attractive appearance and super-moist, plush texture.

Unlike many of my other porridge bread formulas, this one requires precooking the porridge, since you can’t get millet to fully gel just by mixing it with boiling water. And unlike most other porridges, millet doesn’t break down when cooked (at least at this ratio and cooking time), but rather gives a sticky paste of burst-but-still-intact-grains, making it midway between a thick, uniform porridge and a grain soaker.¹

I’m sharing the formula below for Wordloaf subscribers, I hope you like it as much as we do.

—Andrew