Cookies, crackers, baked beans, salads, pizzas, peach cobbler and other dishes made with sorghum filled long tables at Kearney Research and Extension Center. Curiosity about the uncommon grain and how it may be substituted for other ingredients drew a crowd of about 70 people to a sorghum bake-off and tasting on Aug. 3 in Parlier.
Jackie Atim, UC Cooperative Extension specialist based at Kearney REC, is studying sorghum as a drought-tolerant crop for California. Sorghum is commonly used for livestock forage and biofuel, but Jackie also is studying varieties that can be used for human consumption. To help with that research, she invited colleagues to bring foods made with sorghum for some friendly competition.
Jackie welcomed community members and Kearney REC colleagues into the room. Colorful balloons and jazz music playing in the background created a festive atmosphere. Altogether, participants brought 22 sorghum dishes to taste. She handed out score cards and asked the volunteers to taste and rank samples of 15 of the dishes on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest.
“I’ve worked in sorghum before so I knew how adaptable it was to different field conditions,” said Joy Hollingsworth, UCCE table grape advisor for Tulare and Kings counties, “but it was really interesting to see how adaptable it is as a food product as well, with uses as a flour or a grain, sweet or savory dishes.”
Sorghum, also called jowar, is eaten in Asia and Africa. In the U.S., it is mostly grown in the Sorghum Belt, which runs from South Dakota to Southern Texas.
Atef Swelam, Kearney REC director, noted that in addition to being a new crop that California farmers could grow to address the production challenges of limited water and climate extremes, sorghum offers consumers another gluten-free option.
Ryan Puckett, Kearney REC staff research associate, used sorghum flour to make pizza crust.
“I discovered that working with pure sorghum flour as a dough is challenging as it doesn't want to hold together and it doesn’t want to rise,” Ryan said. “The resulting pizza crust that I made, while edible, was a bit dense and crunchier that your ideal pizza crust.
“I feel like I really took on the sorghum challenge with sorghum purity of heart,” he added. “What I discovered talking with more experienced sorghum bakers at the bake-off was that it doesn’t hurt to add other flours or meals such as from oat, rice, tapioca or flax. A little xanthan gum can, apparently, go a long way. Next time, I’ll peruse more recipes and read more reviews.”
Participating in the sorghum bake-off was a fun opportunity to experiment with the versatile ingredient, said Kross Savas, a Fresno State student intern student who is working with Jackie on sorghum research.
“For one of my entries, I made a thyme lemonade sweetened entirely with sorghum syrup,” said Kross. “The syrup added a beautiful, golden amber hue and a rich, complex depth of flavor. The syrup gave the lemonade slightly earthy undertones that helped balanced the sharp tartness of the fresh lemon juice and gave it a unique flavor.
“For my second entry, I developed a recipe for chocolate chip cookies,” Kross said. “Baking with sorghum proved to be a rewarding challenge; it provided a wonderful, nutty flavor profile and a perfect chewy texture. Showcasing these entries at Kearney proved the exciting culinary potential of sorghum as both a sustainable crop and a delicious ingredient.”
Sorghum can be popped to look and taste like miniature popcorn. Pam Kan-Rice, assistant director for News and Information Outreach, bought popped sorghum and stirred it into melted dark chocolate to make chocolate tahini crunch bars.
After the score cards were collected and tallied, the sorghum bake-off winners were announced. First-place winner by popular vote was Socorro Cisneros (student assistant Valeria Cisneros’s aunt), who made cookies with sorghum flour. Second place winner was Sidney Fernandez, a Fresno State graduate student in Houston Wilson’s lab, who made chunky chocolate chip cookies. Winnifred Aool, a UC Riverside Ph.D. student from the Wilson Lab, took third place with her flavorful chicken curry.
Socorro Cisneros said because she bakes often, replacing wheat flour with sorghum flour to make cookies was not an issue for her.
Jackie wrapped up the session with a survey of the group, who answered via a mobile phone app.
- Have you eaten sorghum before today? Yes, regularly - 4%, Yes, a few times - 58%, This is my first time - 38%
- If you could create a new sorghum recipe, what would it be? Sorghum coconut curry, cookies, sorghum pasta with meatballs and Rice Krispies, Rice Krispies with sorghum, granola, sorghum crackers, pasta puppy chow, sorghum crusted cheesecake, cake, a sorghum and basil pesto, apple crisp, sorghum croquettes, breakfast cereal and sorghum pozole
After today’s bake-off, what is the one thing you will remember most about sorghum? Be specific. The cobbler, versatile, cookies, popcorn.
Jackie Atim, shown at sorghum harvest, hopes that consumers will add the drought-tolerant grain to their menus.
For people who think of sorghum as forage and biofuel, Jackie hopes that tasting so many delicious foods made with sorghum will convince them that it can be a good food for people. The Sorghum Checkoff website offers recipes to try https://www.sorghumcheckoff.com/recipes.
