My 23rd experiment: chickpea round bread

Now that I've grasped the basics, I'm becoming more and more ready to try out baking in an impromptu fashion. Today I have some chickpeas cooked to make hummus. With the leftover chickpea paste, I decided to try making a bread out of it.

Recipe: Chickpea round bread

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup chickpea paste
- 1/2 cup high gluten flour
- about 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/2 tp active dry yeast
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1/4 tp dried dill weed and lemon peel flakes
- 2 tp oil

Procedure:
1. Dissolve 1/2 tp yeast in 1 TB warm water.
2. Add wet yeast into the high gluten flour. Add warm water in small amount and mix the flour to form a  dough that is on the dry side. Knead dough for 1 minute and allow to rest for 1 minute. Repeat this a few times. The resting will help the development of the gluten.
3. Add salt to chickpea paste and mix well.
4. Try adding a spoon of chickpea paste into the dough and work it in. If the paste can work well into the dough, then add the remaining paste. If the paste is too wet, then heat up the paste in a sauce pan to dry it up until its semi-solid. Then work the paste into the dough through kneading.
5. Allow the dough to rest in warmth until its volume has doubled.
6. Punch down the dough. Add 1-2 tp of oil. Allow it to rise a second time, until its volume doubles.
7. Punch down the dough again. Add herbs. Rub oil on the dough's surface and place it on a greased pan. Allow it to rise the 3rd time until volume doubles.
8. Preheat oven to 450F. Brush water on the surface of the dough. Score with a sharp knife. Then bake at 400F for about 10-15 minutes.

5:17pm, initial dough allowed to develop gluten without the bean paste; this bean paste turns out to be too moist and needs to be dried in pan before using:

5:58pm, final dough made and kept to a low hydration:

6:22pm, final dough risen the 1st time on warm stove top, taking only 22 minutes:

6:29pm, final dough punched down, rubbed with oil and allow to rise the 2nd time on a baking pan:

7:02pm, final dough risen the 2nd time on warm stove top, taking only 30 minutes:

7:05pm, final dough punched down, added with herbs, rubbed with oil again, and allowed to rise the 3rd time on stove top:

7:45pm, final dough risen the 3rd time, taking 40 minutes:

7:52pm, final dough scored, and brushed with water, just before baking:

8:07pm, loaf baked about 15 minutes:

8:07pm, loaf's bottom:

8:08pm, loaf's height:

8:21pm, the interior of the loaf after cooling 15 minutes:

8:21pm, a center slice of the loaf:

8:24pm, a bite:

Observations:

1. In order for the bread to hold its shape while baking, I keep the dough at a low hydration. The dough rises fast, nonetheless, because of the large quantity of yeast and the warmth.
2. The volume of the dough doubles in 30 minutes each time. This shortens the whole process to about 3 hours. This technique is good for making breads that are enriched, so that the flavor comes from ingredients other than the fermentation of the yeast. 
3. Like any bread made in a short time, this bread has almost no complexity of taste other than that of the chickpea and salt. It is like one of my very first loaves of lean breads.
4. The crumb of the loaf has very small holes. It's probably because of two times of punching down. Each vigorous punching destroy the bigger holes to form smaller fine holes in the dough. While this allows better fermentation, it prevents the formation of large holes. Again, repeated punching down may be suitable for enriched bread. With lean bread, this makes the crumb a bit boring.
5. This is a great experiment for making round bread.

To do:
This loaf turns out to go very well when eaten with a Panquehue cheese from Chili that I bought from Trader Joe's. The chickpeas and the cheese match nicely. Also, it may be more flavorful to have more dill weed and have it soaked before adding to the dough.
I'm going to refine my skill on hearth baking some time.