Sunday, January 11, 2009
Baking Bread
Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire, from The Bread Bakers Apprentice, which I think is a great book, particularly if you're into baking geekery because it gives fairly extensive how and why of different ingredients and techniques. It's one that I don't bake from nearly enough.
I only sort of followed the recipe. I didn't have any wheat bran and was loathe to go buy some just for a couple of tablespoons worth, so I used extra of the other grains. These included oats, polenta-style cornmeal, cooked brown rice, and most interestingly, quinoa. The quinoa I just happened to have a bit of laying around, leftover from last summers' experiments with it where I discovered I didn't heart it as much as I would have hoped. (Revisit that adventure here.)
And I didn't have the instant yeast called for (or rather I have a whole huge pagackage that seems to be dead despite having been stored in the freezer) so I just used a package of good old Red Star from my pantry and added it to the liquids to hydrate it first instead of the direct method, i.e. adding it to the dry ingredients, as is possible with instant yeast.
I was trying for a baguette shape, but I hadn't made this particular recipe before and I realized once I had shaped and set the loaves to rise that it's not really that kind of a dough. So they got a little flat and pudgy but it's a shape that will work great for sandwiches when sliced through the middle.
And it's darn tasty, too. A bit sweet for my palate, but that makes great for eating plain with just butter and the texture is nice and chewy with the combination of grains. The topping is nigella seed because my poppy seeds were, um, not usable. Turns out the nigella is a win...peppery and spicy and a nice foil to the sweetness....yum!
We ate a bit with our leftover squash soup from the other night an the rest got stashed in the freezer. And I have to say that knowing I have homemade bread of any sort in the freezer makes me just so, so happy. Much more so than other kinds of leftovers.
I only sort of followed the recipe. I didn't have any wheat bran and was loathe to go buy some just for a couple of tablespoons worth, so I used extra of the other grains. These included oats, polenta-style cornmeal, cooked brown rice, and most interestingly, quinoa. The quinoa I just happened to have a bit of laying around, leftover from last summers' experiments with it where I discovered I didn't heart it as much as I would have hoped. (Revisit that adventure here.)
And I didn't have the instant yeast called for (or rather I have a whole huge pagackage that seems to be dead despite having been stored in the freezer) so I just used a package of good old Red Star from my pantry and added it to the liquids to hydrate it first instead of the direct method, i.e. adding it to the dry ingredients, as is possible with instant yeast.
I was trying for a baguette shape, but I hadn't made this particular recipe before and I realized once I had shaped and set the loaves to rise that it's not really that kind of a dough. So they got a little flat and pudgy but it's a shape that will work great for sandwiches when sliced through the middle.
And it's darn tasty, too. A bit sweet for my palate, but that makes great for eating plain with just butter and the texture is nice and chewy with the combination of grains. The topping is nigella seed because my poppy seeds were, um, not usable. Turns out the nigella is a win...peppery and spicy and a nice foil to the sweetness....yum!
We ate a bit with our leftover squash soup from the other night an the rest got stashed in the freezer. And I have to say that knowing I have homemade bread of any sort in the freezer makes me just so, so happy. Much more so than other kinds of leftovers.
Labels: cooking food baking bread
