I don’t know what the deal is, but my bread dough rarely turns out as described. If the recipe warns that it will be sticky, mine is not. If it says I will get a smooth, elastic dough that’s slightly tacky, I often end up with soup. Not always, mind you, but with enough frequency to leave me scratching my head.

And that is one of the many reasons that I love to bake bread. The sheer unpredictability of it. You take water, flour, salt, and yeast and you can end up with a myriad of different breads. And I am always, always learning.

This month, the Bread Baking Babes made a dark onion rye boule, and then invited everyone to join them. Mary was this month’s host, and the recipe involved preparing and using her sourdough starter. So, a couple weeks ago, I got to work making the starter.

All went well until I actually started to make the dough. I realized that I had only medium rye flour, not dark. I forged ahead. At the point in the recipe where I was supposed to have an elastic dough, I had a bowl full of pebbles that looked like a streusel topping. I added more water bit by bit until I was able to get a cohesive mass. Elasticity was nonexistent. I then realized that I’d forgotten to add the sauted onions, and kneaded those in.

The dough never doubled, but did get about 1.5 times bigger over 5 hours. It rose in the oven, but not by much. And it took about 90 minutes to bake until it reached the correct internal temperature.

The result? A very heavy, dense loaf ( I mean HEAVY) with lots of flavor (I used the optional caraway seeds, as well as the onion) . The crumb was tight, and the interior was moist, much to my surprise. I really liked the flavor, especially toasted with a bit of butter, but didn’t much care for the texture.

Thank you, BBBs, for another great bread baking experience. I can hardly wait to see what you come up with next month. Check out Mary’s blog in the next week to see who else joined in!

If you are interested in who else is baking what in the culinary blogosphere, be sure to check out Susan’s weekly YeastSpotting roundup on her blog.

To celebrate Bread Baking Day’s one year anniversary, Zorra has chosen bread with sprouts. Technically, soaking the seeds for 12 hours makes them sprouts – you don’t have to see little shoots or roots coming out of the seeds.
continue reading "Flax, Sesame, and Sunflower Rye for Bread Baking Day"

I love a good oat bread. I also love rye bread. Seriously, you know those very thinkly sliced, imported rye breads that you can find in some stores? The ones that taste really sour? I like those, too.

So, I indulged my baking bug (I am now buying sugar and flour in 25 pound bags!). I decided that I had to bake a rye sourdough from Daniel Leader’s 2008 IACP Award-winning book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe’s Best Artisan Bakers. If you like to bake bread, and are fascinated by its history, you will absolutely love this book. Leader’s search for the secrets behind artisinal European breads, from France and Germany, to Italy to the Czech Republic, make for fascinating reading. When I’m soaking in the tub, I take this book with me to read. Yes, in the tub.

Above, right, you will see a picture of Boris, my sourdough rye. It took about eight days for him to truly come alive, but my patience paid off. He’s about a month old now, and I refrained from officially naming him until I was sure he would stick around. I hope that Breadchick Mary approves!

For my first bread, I picked Alpine Baguettes, pp. 279-81, and made two batards (or, what passes for batards) out of the dough. The recipe calls for a rye sourdough, but uses unbleached bread flour – no rye flour. It has rolled oats; and sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and sesame seeds. The recipe had only 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and I would double that amount the next time I make this bread. Because I will be making it again! (I did not adapt the recipe in any way, so I won’t be posting it.)

This bread is absolutely delicious – moist, flavorful, with a chewy crust. It is wonderful toasted and slathered with butter. It was also my first sourdough bread, ever, and once you go sourdough, it’s hard to go back! If you are interested in learning more about Daniel Leader and his breads, check out his website, Bread Alone.