rye

After seeing so many lovely rye loaves here, I wanted one for dinner. Since I didn't have time (or enough yeast) for a yeast bread, I decided to try and find a quick bread recipe online. This was a bit sweet for my taste, but I might make it again with less honey. With the sweetness, I quite enjoyed it for breakfast the next morning. I'm also going to order the deli rye flavor enhancer from King Arthur for future loaves - whether yeasted or quick.

CARAWAY RYE QUICK BREAD
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (I used all WW pastry flour ~kip)
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or use all-purpose flour)
1 cup rye flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup buttermilk (plus 2 tablespoons to account for extra WW flour ~kip)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan.

Toast the caraway seeds in a small dry skillet over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes, or until fragrant. Transfer to a small plate to cool; set aside. (I ground these in a spice grinder before adding to the flour mix. ~kip)

Combine the flours with the baking powder, baking soda, toasted caraway seeds and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter, eggs, honey and buttermilk. Stir liquid ingredients into flour mixture until just blended. Do not overmix; the batter will be lumpy. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes until top springs back when touched lightly. Cool slightly in the pan, cut into wedges and serve warm, if desired.

This bread is especially good warm. To reheat later, wrap a wedge loosely in a paper towel and microwave on half heat for 20-30 seconds.
http://www.apinchof.com/caraway1035.html

I'm wiped out tonight. Had a great weekend taking the kids camping for the first time, rafting down the Sandy River, and generally enjoying summertime.

Nevertheless, I baked. Well? No, not at all. I made a mess of most everything I touched, but they still tasted quite good.

(Perhaps that could be a a new motto for the site: "Artisan Baking: Because even your mistakes are tasty!")

I tried a bunch of recipes from Daniel Leader's soon-to-be-released book Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers. As I said, I screwed them all up, but that isn't the books fault, that was me thinking "Oh, I can make it down the river in time to not overproof the loaves." I was wrong. I also mixed up my whole wheat starter and my rye starter, so my final rye and whole wheat breads ended up tasting quite a bit like one another.

Picture time.

Simple French Bread Loaves

Polish Rye Bread

Inside the Rye (with Caraway)

I'll write up a real review in the next few days, but I definitely think the Daniel Leader book is a winner. Solid recipes, nice design and typography, very accessible. Definitely a good one, and going to give Peter Reinhart's new book a run for bakers interested in whole grain baking's money this fall.

I also baked an Orange Honey Prune bread from Beth Hensberger's The Bread Bible. Convenient since, as zainaba22 pointed out, the theme of this month's bread baking day is bread with fruit.

Very good stuff. I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.