I hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah.
For Christmas Eve at our good friends I made some German style pretzel rolls which are always a big hit and went perfectly with the Saurerbraten that was served for dinner. I also made some potato pancakes to bring as well which everyone seemed to like.
I had some Chocolate Coffee flavored Malted Wheat left-over from a rye bake from last year and it was just crying out to be used in a porridge style bread. Throw in some cream cheese and shaved Parmesan cheese (not that grated powder stuff that tastes like saw dust) and mix with some freshly ground Spelt and Whole Wheat and a few other goodies and what's not to like?
After returning from my annual pilgrimage to North Carolina and finding my kitchen devoid of fresh bread I got busy milling some fresh flour.
I wanted to use a beer in this bake and decided that fresh spelt and Kamut would go great with the Pale Ale I had in stock. Of course some caramelized onions would also go well with this combination and some Greek Yogurt and honey rounded out the flavor profile.
I added some smoked sesame seeds and garlic sesame seeds to the top and baked it boldly.
After the nice and hearty apple cider walnut rye bread I baked I needed something a little lighter. This bake with durum, spelt, cream cheese and baby purple potatoes that I roasted the night before was just the ticket. The cream cheese and potatoes really made for a nice soft and moist crumb.
You can see the pretty purple bits of potato sticking out of the crumb and the nice nutty flavors of the spelt and durum really make this one worth baking again.
This is a great fall bread made with apple cider, rye flour and lots of walnuts. If you don't like walnuts you can certainly leave them out or cut down on the amount used which was quite a bit.
I really like the combination of flavors in this one. I ended up with a little more of a bold bake than I would have liked but it tastes great.
I wanted to bake a nice soft and flavorful bread but one with some healthy grains as well. In went a soaker left for 24 hours in hot water comprised of grits, rolled oats and barley flakes. I also added some left-over mashed potatoes and some grilled onions.
This is another version of the Pain au levain I made a few weeks ago but I changed up the flours using some spelt and high gluten flour. I made 1 batard with about half of the dough and 2 baguettes with the remainder.
I didn't include any photos of the baguettes this time since they are still a work in progress and even though it's almost Halloween I didn't want to scare everyone. The crumb and taste was perfect but my scoring and the color was not pretty.
I had never used squash in my bread baking before and didn't know how it would effect the end result. I only used a small amount of leftover roasted butternut squash that I mashed up with a spoon before adding to the final dough.
I have to say it really added a nice nutty and slightly sweet flavor coupled with the maple syrup I added. The freshly milled WW flour and Spelt which were both sifted once along with the other additions turned out a moist and flavorful bread. I brought one of the loaves into my office today and everyone told me they loved it.
