The next bread I did was marbled rye. I love marbled rye, so I was very excited to make my own and see if it measured up. I went to the store to get the white rye flour…except they didn’t have any. The only thing they had was a stone milled dark rye flour, so that would have to work. I brought it home and took out the first scoop–wow, they weren’t kidding when they said stone milled! I found it to be quite chunky…thought briefly of sifting it but then realized I don’t have a sifter and really, it would be fine. So I proceeded according to the directions (kneading in the stand mixer…my hands needed a break since last time) and made the light and dark rye doughs. Incidentally, the only difference between the two is the addition of cocoa powder or coffee grounds. Naturally I added both. Once they set to proof, I realized the chunkiness of the flour really added a lot of weight, which I’m guessing(?) is why they didn’t rise very much in 90 minutes. I let them go a little longer, and then rolled them into a spiral. Man, I really need to work on my spirals; I just am not happy with them. I’m thinking that if I staggered the pieces of dough as I rolled them, there would be less of the last one getting globbed into a big ball (the part under the upside down U), but we’ll see. Into the oven it went and here’s the result! It is pretty hearty, but I love the flavor, and Drew says it tastes like the bread at Outback, which I’ll take as a compliment because I like their bread. Since he likes it I’ll try and do a little force feeding, with butter or whatever at dinner, etc. We’ll see. ANYway, I think next I have a multigrain bread, so I better finish up these two before I move on to another sandwich bread. Feels good to be back in the challenge again, so hopefully it won’t be a month until I bake the next one. We’ll shoot for a week.
Tag Archives: bread
BBA #18 Light Wheat Bread
After a long hiatus, I baked two recipes in one day! The first is this light wheat bread, which turned out quite well. It is only 1/3 whole wheat flour, so it is still very light, and tastes only slightly more hearty than white sandwich bread. It uses the direct method, so I was able to complete this bread in just one day (I have to say–I am very excited when these recipes only take one day…2 days just seems like such a long time to wait!). Actually a very easy bread to make, and I cheated and kneaded it in the KitchenAid, so I practically did no work. So far I’ve had toast with it, but I’m planning to make a sandwich with it a little later, and since Drew is opposed to eating bread, probably some french toast later on. Yum!
For more info on the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, see Nicole’s blog.
BBA #17 Lavash Crackers
Here it is–the latest installment of the BBA Challenge! This week we had Lavash Crackers, which initially I wasn’t looking forward to that much. After planning to make them weeks ago, I finally made them this week to bring to a potluck for my new book club (our first book is the Unbearable Lightness of Being, and if you’d like to follow along, I think I will blog after each meeting to sum up the most interesting points! Our first meeting is on November 22. SUPER excited about reading this one especially–I’ve heard such good things!).
But back to baking. Anyway, like the past couple of recipes, I kneaded this one by hand, and wow, it really took a lot out of me given that the dough was so stiff! When Reinhart mentioned that the dough should be firmer than french bread, but less so than bagel dough, I admit to feeling a bit squeamish about returning to that one sans mixer. The ten minutes of kneading felt like an eternity as my hands turned arthritic and my shoulders and triceps burned faint flames, but it is quite satisfying. I really do enjoy the sound of the gas bubbles getting squashed up as you sink your hands into the dough. Luckily this was a one-day bread, so after one rise it was ready to be rolled out and put on the cookie sheet.
After lamenting the fact that we don’t have poppy seeds or sesame seeds to use as spices, I stuck with my grindable sea salt to season the top of the crackers before putting them into the oven. Well, about 10 minutes later when they should have been done, I realized my crackers were probably (a lot) thicker than they should have been, because they were nowhere near done! So they stayed in for about 20 more minutes and then I took them out to cool, then broke them apart into “artful” triangles. Then I packed them up along with the chicken corn chowder I was making concurrently, and set out towards Petworth! Just got around to taking pictures of the remains from the party–I think they were a success and a friend took most of the bag home to munch on..hooray! Looking forward to the light wheat bread…perhaps tonight…
BBA #16 Kaiser Rolls
Hey hey!
Did these before the marathon but just got a chance to load the pictures onto my computer. I apologize for the terrible quality but I had to take them at night because I was leaving at 6am the next day and wanted to bring them with me (they were all eaten!). I really enjoyed this recipe–I used the knot technique for shaping, and now that I’ve gotten the hang of it, I think my next batch will be even better looking. Didn’t realize that kaiser rolls are part of the rustic family, but I have to say, I’m really enjoying my ghetto method of hearth baking!!! (If you haven’t been reading my posts, I use a turkey baster for the water sprays) Anyway, really liked the flavor…crispy crust, and I liked the texture on the inside because of the roping. It almost felt like eating a croissant at certain points, because chunks would tear away like they do from the folds of croissants. Very fun! I think I will do more experimenting with fun shapes in the future…up to know I have been pretty conservative in my boules because I just like the look so much! Sometimes the braids on top of braids on top of braids just looks kind of chunky, you know?
Looking forward to the crackers! Should be able to whip those out tomorrow. Then onto light wheat bread—hooray a sandwich bread!!!! I can’t wait. Oh, and stop ogling and start baking!
BBA #13 Focaccia
This was fun! Different than a lot of the other breads because of all the oil and dimpling and more oil and more dimpling, but in the end it was quite tasty. Still turned out a bit more “bready” than I had hoped, but did get some smaller holes still. Must resist the urge to pop those little gas bubbles! I’m always super concerned that there’s going to be a weird blob on the finished loaf and forget that it all seems to even out in the oven. Still tasty…if I made it again I would use more oil on the top (skimped a bit this time because it just seemed like so much!).
The end of Day 1…putting it into the pan with the oil mixed with an herb sauce I had made for something else a few days ago. Ended up quite nice even though the herbs were pretty much pureed at this point
Here’s it after the first dimpling…
And voila!
STILL not too late to join us in the BBA Challenge!






















