Today’s Bread

Each time I make bread, it changes just a bit. I’m going to start recording it here and noting the differences.

Today is 3/4/13.

Today’s Wheat Bread

• 3 1/2 cups white flour
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup steel cut oats
• 1/2 cup coarse cornmeal
• 13 second drizzle of honey (about 1/8 cup)
• 4 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tb salt
• 1/2 tsp yeast
• 3 1/4 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)

Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add water and honey and mix until dough becomes uniform. It will be a very wet dough, closer to batter than dough. You can add another 1/4 cup of water if needed.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and place it in a warm place (i.e., not the fridge). Let dough rise for minimum 6 hours, up to about 36 hours. 8-12 seems to be good. 36 will give the dough a bit of a sour tang, like sourdough. I’ll generally mix up the dough in the evening, then bake it the next morning or evening.

About an hour before baking, split the dough into two greased loaf pans, and let it rise again.

Arrange the oven rack with one towards the bottom, and one in the middle. Place a roasting pan or some other non-glass, non-Teflon pan on the lower shelf. Heat the oven to 450.

Put the pans on the upper shelf, and pour 1 cup of water into the roasting pan, and shut the oven quickly. The steam will help the bread crust stay moist in the high heat.

Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from pan immediately to cool.

Construction Notes

I upped the whole wheat flour content to 3 cups without brining the white down. This made for a dryer dough - much closer to ‘rough’ than to the wet/liquidy dough I usually get. Harder to mix up, though. wen I put it into the pans it kept its shape much more than before, enough that I could cut the top easily

Tasting Notes

The taste didn’t suffer at all, and the bread became a little heartier.