BBA #2 – Artos, or Greek Celebration Bread

This week, the BBA group, which is baking its way through Peter Reinhart’s classic, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread, made Artos, or Greek Celebration Bread.  Originally, I had planned to make Christopsomos, which includes fruits and nuts, but as you will see, my brain was on cruise control while I was making this bread, and I completely forgot to add them, even though they were sitting on my counter.  I also used the poolish option in the recipe.

I won’t keep you in suspense:  I loved this bread.  Phenomenal flavor, and while it baked it perfumed the entire house. Lesson learned:  pay attention when you’re baking, or you will over-proof your dough.  My sourdough-only breads (I don’t use any commercial yeast in them at all) take a long time to rise so, out of habit, I was a bit absent-minded when I was making this, and let it rise for an hour longer than it should have.  When I wandered into the kitchen again, an ENORMOUS loaf of dough greeted me.  I popped it into the oven, and was surprised to find that it did not collapse, at least not right away.  That happened while the bread cooled on the counter, but I still had a gargantuan loaf of bread on my hands.  You can compare the size in this picture to my kettle and my 6-quart Dutch oven (sorry the pic is a tad blurry):

It was at least six inches high, and about a 10 inches across.  My husband’s eyes bugged out when he saw it.

Here is a photo of the slight collapse:

I will definitely make this bread again; it’s easy, and packs an enormous flavor wallop.  The bread is delicious plain or toasted.  And be sure to make simple glaze, because it send the loaf over the top.  I had orange oil on hand, instead of orange extract, so I used 1/4 tsp. of that in the glaze.  I sprinkled flax seeds on top because I couldn’t find my sesame seeds at the time.  I have since tracked them down.  All three pounds of them.  One can never have too many sesame seeds on hand.

You can find a list of those participating, here, and you can find the recipe on-line, here.   Until next week, when we bake bagels, which I’ve never made before, so I’m looking forward to it!  And please check out Susan’s bread baking roundup every Friday:  Yeastspotting.