Laurel's Golden Date Bread
I tried this bread Thursday, having been inspired by Khalid's beautiful results with this bread. Mine was a straight dough, using whole pitted Dates, reduced to a slurry by simmering. I will, on my next try, reduce by half, the date's weight, as Khalid did in his 2nd take, for the same reason, a bit too sweet. Nice, easily worked dough, the extra fiber might have helped with the dough quality, as it came together very smoothly. I used my kitchen aid mixer on speeds one and two, with several rests, (one 15 min.long) to reposition the hook for a better purchase. The dough hardly required the small amt. of hand kneading. Two stretch and folds 30 min. apart durring the first rise. It took longer than an hour to bake at 325 degrees F. perhaps too many spritzes with my sprayer durring final proof and pre loading. Ray
Looks delicious! Sesame seeds on top?
I learned to successfully bake whole wheat bread from Laurel's book many moons ago -- a very thrilling and interesting adventure! I should dip back into it. I have two jars of date syrup that should work in that bread...
Thanks Mary Clare
I can't remember who recommended Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book to me, but I wanted to make a switch from my white flour bread baking, to whole wheat, and somewhere around the late 70's the whole wheat odyssey began. The book has been an excellent guide for me.
Date syrup should work very well. I am looking forward to seeing your version, or take on this bread. I shaped the loaves with toasted sesame seeds on the board, as recipe suggested, then sprinkled more on top. Nice accent flavor with dates.
Ray
Great Results, Ray! such a nice, tall loaves! The crust looks assertively Whole Wheat, and the crumb is delightfully open. With pyrex pans, you managed to achieve such nice looking loaves.
I, too, have date syrup (all derivatives of Dates is abundantly available here). I will try baking with it, as Mary.
Beautiful, Ray!
Thanks Khalid,
The oven spring was spectacular, and the final loaf size was considerably smaller. This happens to me quite often. I wonder if in this bake the low oven temp of 325F was too low to set the shape soon enough, or if it was structural. Your formula helped in a number of ways, even though I made this as a straight dough. I was measuring the dates into a cup and had it sfuffed full, when I decided to put the C. measure on my scale, and discovered I had quite a few dates to go before the gram weight was satisfied. I love the bread, Though it is overly sweet. (overly sweet for me as I need to cut back my sugar intake) I should have made thinner slices, but eating one slice works out fine.
Thanks again for your thoughts. Ray