July 8, 2007 - 6:26am
Struan, simply delightful
I baked a loaf of Struan, following Peter Reinhart's recipe and I have to agree with what he said in his book Brother Juniper's Bread Book, "Struan became the mainstay of our bakery, and I still think it is the most beautiful and delicious bread I have ever made or tasted."
This multigrain bread is simply delightful, from the first to the last bite!
Noy
PS: There's a 2nd loaf that's almost proofed and ready for baking in the next few minutes! Gotta go!
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I agree that there's something about Struan...the book also mentions what fabulous toast it makes. I was completely skeptical, and after my first taste, completely convinced. Very pretty, Noy. Did you put rice in yours?
Yes, I used brown rice which I believe adds to the texture and the aroma. A toasted slice is indeed very delicious.
The 2nd loaf is on the cooling rack. Can't wait to have a slice....
Noy
You can cook the brown rice, then freeze recipe portion sizes for ease of later use. PtrRnhrt says after 3 days in the fridge, the rice will have a negative effect on the bread. I love this bread.
SDBaker
beautiful loaf and beautiful picture. I really should make this one weekend. I bake mostly hearth breads and its easy to forget how delicious loafs like struan can be.
Ben
Funny you should mention it. I decided to try it, too, but the updated version in BBA, with the soaker. It's in for the first rise right now.
I did make some adaptations. For one, I had some yogurt I needed to use up, so I put that in instead of the milk or buttermilk - but maybe it was too much (2/3 cup) - we'll have to wait and see. I substituted about 2 cups ww flour (plus 1 T vital gluten) for some of the bread flour.
As for the cooked brown rice, I coarsely ground 1 ounce of the dry grain in my NutriMill and threw it into the soaker along with an extra ounce (2T) water.
Rosalie
I usually skip the rice--too lazy and I'm not sure it adds that much. I usually make it 50/50 WW too!
Sometimes when I use yogurt in place of milk in recipes I add a few Ts of milk or water to "dilute" it to a similar consistency. I'm sure it will work fine for you.
I love this recipe too, I alternate between baking round boules right on the baking stone, or baking it in a pan. Both are good, and it's a lovely toast and sandwich bread. Great on the grill too brushed with butter--YUM.
I haven't done it in a while, but for a while I was making the BBA version with extra whole wheat (I can't remember how much because it has been a couple years, but I think I have notes somewhere-might have been as high as 2/3). It is really excellent bread. I'll have to remember to do that next time I need bread. I made the basic WW bread recipe from Mollie Katzen's Enchanted Brocolli Forest last night because I was out of bread (I just moved, and had to feed my kids store-bought bread, oh the humanity!!!). I have been putting in a cup of cooked brown rice in this bread recently with mixed results. The first time I used 1 cup of cooked short grain brown rice in a 2-loaf recipe (I can't remember how much flour off-hand). It added a nice nuttiness and moistness. The one I made last night used cooked brown Basmati, which I liked less, it seemed less moist, and more bitter. I will have to try it again tonight to see what I think.
Incidentally, my mixer is broken so I made a sponge, mixed this dough and did 3 folds, spaced at half hour intervals. I actually think it is overkneaded. I have become a convert to the fold-don't-knead method.
My BBA version turned out a bit disappointing to me. In particular, it's a tad too sweet to my taste. Has anyone else had this experience? It calls for 3T brown sugar and 1.5T honey. Maybe I should eliminate the honey.
I mostly followed the recipe except for substituting ww flour and using yogurt (2/3 cup) instead of the milk. Could the yogurt (plain non-fat) account for the increased sweetness?
Rosalie
Rosalie,
I don't think plain yogurt would make the bread sweet. If I were you I sould cut back on the sweetening. I noticed that a lot of the BBA enriched breads are kind of on the sweet side, this one in particular. Maybe you just don't like your bread as sweet. I don't think messing with the sweetener will affect the bread much (maybe slow the rise a little, but not much if at all). I'd say scale back until you like the way it comes out. That is one of the benefits of making our own, right? We get to make it the way we like it.
I kind of like it, but I can see what you mean. I don't thnk cutting back one of the sweeteners would hurt either.
It's kind of a multigrain for people who don't like multigrain, ha ha. It's fairly light, and sweet, versus heavier and sour-er breads that people are used to. Definitely worth tweaking, I think!
Rosalie, I've made this many times with yogourt and I also find that this bread is too sweet for our taste so I just cut down on the sweeteners - no problem at all.
L_M