Back in Bread

Hi Friends!

After a yeasted bread baking hiatus, I've been trying again to learn to make bread with 100% home milled whole wheat. It's going a bit better this time. I'm using Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" with enough resulting success to keep baking. It helps that I'm currently feeding a household of two adults and three 18-year-olds on a tight budget! Past me was kind enough to purchase lots of nifty tools, like a grain mill, a pizza stone, a Dutch oven, etc etc, so I can make bread for the price of the grain in my local bulk bins (pretty darn cheap.)

Here is a picture of 50% hard red winter, 50% Kamut brand khorasan wheat, with chia seeds added.

This is PR's recipe for whole wheat focaccia, with two modifications: chia seeds added, hydrated separately as how Janet described in her chia sourdough post; sifted-out bran,  hydrated with boiling water before cooling and returning to the dough. 

The khorasan makes the dough very strechy. I was expecting a more open crumb but probably over-handled the dough making the boule and degassed it. Nonetheless I was very happy with the crust, crumb, and flavor.

I have also subsequently used this same dough to make two long loaves, more like ciabatta style, which came out (slightly) more open, with an extraordinary sweetness to the smell of the crust. I have no idea why.