I've been intrigued by several recent posts that feature a 100% whole-wheat Hokkaido milk bread, such as this one by Benito. So I decided to try my hand at it. Almost. The "almost" being that I changed it from a sourdough bread to a yeasted bread.
This is a bread from Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker. It caught my eye as I was casting about for something to use for the current rye bread Community bake.
It is about as simple as a rye bread can be. There are no multi-stage levain builds, no scalds, no soakers, no seeds, and no spices. The only components are rye flour, potato, water, and salt. My sole departure from the formula was to use whole rye flour, rather than medium rye flour.
One of the things I enjoy about Christmas is the opportunity to bake without having to ask myself “How are we going to eat all of this?” I can have fun baking and give the finished goods away as Christmas presents. Yes, I know, bread can be gifted any day of the year; it somehow seems even more enjoyable this time of year.
Whole Wheat Cranberry-Orange Country Loaf
This cake, a Jamaican Christmas tradition, came to my attention from a very strange direction.
Back in October, my wife and I, along with my sister and her boyfriend, spent a long weekend in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula. That's the “horn” pushing up into Lake Superior at the western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We happened across The Jampot, a bake shop operated by the Holy Transfiguration Skete Society of St. John, a Byzantine Catholic monastery. Seriously, where else would one go to find out about a cake that is beloved on a Caribbean island?
The grandfather of the husband of one of our nieces (nephew-in-law?) died recently and my wife made a meal for his family. I pitched in with ciabatta bread, using Reinhart’s ciabatta with poolish formula from BBA. Since each loaf was a different size, we gave them the Papa Bear and Mama Bear sized loaves.
A good part of yesterday was spent helping my brother-in-law cut, split, and stack firewood for his winter heating. After that, I came home to clean up (and take some ibuprofen!) and make hamburger buns. Those will be used for this afternoon's Halloween gathering.
Paul
Although, really, I think it would be better named “Apple Chopped Bread”. One could almost treat it as a pull-apart bread but it toasts up so nicely that I prefer to slice it. As its appearance suggests, flavor matters more than beauty for this bread.
Using the recipe from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, I recently made teething biscuits for two great-nephews who are each 6 months old:
Peter (I've no idea why the picture refuses to display in the correct orientation.)
Amos
Getting them off to a good start with home-made baking.
