December 30, 2015 - 4:07pm
First bake- coffee can brown bread
Hi there this is my first post on TFL and I can't tell you how glad I am to find such an informative forum I look forward to years of research and contributions! I'm baking hi-rise's version of brown bread in coffee cans. Its a mixture of all purpose white flour. Whole wheat flour. Whole rye flour. And stone ground white corn meal. I have two questions.
1) can I substitute the whole rye flour (35%) for more wheat flour? Stores are sold out of wrf.
2) it's going to be a banana date walnut brown bread but I have an amazing bottle of 8 year rum. Is there any way to incorporate it into the recipe? If so is there a rule for incorporating liquors and beers into bakes in general?
Thanks fellow bakers I look forward to your input :)
Share
Hi spottydotty, welcome! I'm pretty new to posting here too, though I've lurked around this group for a while. Wonderful bunch of bakers!
Re substituting rye for wheat - do you mean to a total of 35% whole rye flour and the rest bread (or AP) flour? I guess it depends on what the original proportions of flours was supposed to be, but that high a proportion of rye flour will make it stickier and more dense (not so much gluten formation in rye dough). It might be worth a try but you might also need to adjust the liquid and ferment / proof time.
And re the rum - when I made the Christmas Stollen this year I soaked all the fruit (and there was a lot of fruit in it) in a mixture of rum and a bit of vanilla. Maybe you should try soaking the dates and walnuts? I use ale as some of the liquid in a couple of my breads - one uses a hoppy light ale as the liquid in the pre-ferment, the other uses a mild brown ale as part of the liquid in the dough (which is then put in the fridge for a day or two before baking). They both taste good!
Sure - the resulting loaf may well rise a bit more too - certainly will have more extensible gluten in the dough.
As for the rum... Personally I'd not put something that expensive into a bread, however do soak the dates in it overnight, but drain off the liquor in the morning before incorporating them into the dough and have a bakers treat :-)
-Gordon
Great ideas guys! Thank you so much I'd much rather soak the dates and walnuts then drain off the excess (the less waste the better when it comes to good rum haha). I'm checking one more store for the WRF then I'm going ahead with the bake. Wish me luck!
Oh! One more question the recipe calls for light molasses all I have is regular can I just water down the molasses or something or is their a drastic difference between the two?
I'm sure you can use whatever molasses you have, without watering it down. The taste may be very slightly different but the texture shouldn't suffer. Light molasses is just from the first boil and is slightly sweeter and 'smoother' in taste, but unless you're using a lot you shouldn't notice much difference. I actually prefer the darker molasses. You could probably substitute honey for the light molasses and get around the same effect too.
Oh ok thanks lazy I was wondering what the actual difference was between the two. Honey aye? Could you also use agave syrup? Not that I'm going to but just brainstorming haha
To my knowledge, from growing up in the south where molasses is ubiquitous, regular is light. Personally, I prefer blackstrap molasses for Boston brown bread as it seems to bring out the corn meal's flavor a bit more.
cheers,
gary
rage to bake brown bread in a coffee can. My mom loved it ......and in clay flower pots too!. Now you can't hardly find coffee in cans anymore:-)
Snockered fruits are one of the great add ins for bread. A real flavor pop when you bite into them. I'm with Gordon - squeeze out the excess and have a fine fruity shot as you wait on the bread! Using dark porter of stout beer for the bread liquid would be a a better choice of brown bread liquid - and a classic too!
Happy baking rum from the soaking
Thanks for the tips everyone you've been endlessly helpful and your tips I'll carry for a lifetime! I already completed the bake so I'll post it on a new thread today one without all the questions haha thanks again!