struan

Struan is a bread of Scottish origin which is traditionally made with whatever grains are left around the house. I used steel cut oats and rolled oats along with home-milled whole wheat for this 100% whole grains loaf (well, I did dust the top with white flour). Yummmmmmmy.

exercising self control

So last night, I was making our traditional Friday night pizza ala Peter Reinhart, using his Neo-Neopalitan crust. Mmmmmm..... This isn't your throw-the-dough-together-an-hour-before-it-goes-into-the-oven pizza. Usually, I make the dough the night before, or even prepare it as far ahead as four days prior. Yesterday's version had a meager eight-hour fermentation.

I was pulling my pie out of the blazing 550* on convection oven. Flip. Cheese-side-down hanging on the rack. Dripping onto the door. Toppings becoming one with the floor, glass, gap between the door and oven. Grrrrrrrrr. SELF CONTROL, STEPH -- there are children present. "What's wrong, Mommy?" "What happened, Steph?" "I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!"

So I scraped up the salvageable bits, plopped them onto the side-right-up crust, cut it into four and devoured it. "Mommy, you're right! It doesn't matter how (horrible and grotesque) it looks! It's GOOD!"

sourdough

I've been neglecting my sourdough starter so I decided to refresh it and try a couple of Peter Reinhart wild yeast recipes.

The first just came out of the oven: classic San Francisco sourdough from Bread Baker's Apprentice. I started to build the mother starter on Friday afternoon, refrigerated that overnight, pulled it out on Sunday to build the starter (biga), and then mixed the final dough yesterday morning, rose it for 8 hours, and finally formed the loaves last night, retarded their rise overnight in the fridge, pulled them out this morning for a 4 hour rise and baked. Wow...this bread is the best-looking I've made in months.

I've got a Pain au Levain (from Artisan Breads Everyday) starter on the counter now, which will rise for 8 hours; I'll mix and rise the dough tomorrow for a Thursday bake. One thing about sourdough: you have to plan ahead.

peter reinhart's new bread forum/bread stuff

Peter Reinhart has started a new bread-baking forum. I'm so excited! I hope I don't waste too much time there....

For Christmas I received two brotformen (bread forms, or banneton) -- an oval and a round. I'll be testing them out today on Pain de Campagne.

another bread book to recommend

My newest bread book just arrived: Whole Grain Breads by Peter Reinhart. It was my birthday gift from the fam (I got to choose). This book in conjunction with the grain mill rounds out my collection of artisan bread baking tools. This book is not for the casual bread baker who decides some lazy Saturday afternoon that they want a loaf of bread for dinner. It requires planning, sometimes 3 days in advance. Many of the formulas require a sourdough-type starter (which had to be made weeks before!) or a biga made "yesterday". But this is the way I've already been making bread, and I have a starter in the fridge from which I will spin off a whole-grain starter. I'm excited!

pain de campagne

Made Reinhart's pain de campagne yesterday utilizing the new Nutrimill on the finest setting, grinding Wheat Montana Bronze Chief for the whole grain flour component of the recipe. Soooooooo good, I can't tell you! The crust was crackly thin but a bit chewy. The crumb was soft, slightly chewy with mild tang.

It could've used another 5 to 7 minutes in the oven, but I had to pull it a bit early. It was definitely done, but not perfect. I was running out the door as it was...I had to meet my husband and deliver two of the loaves to some friends.

portuguese sweet bread

I'm kind of surprised. I'm the only one in the family who liked this Portuguese sweet bread from my new Bread Baker's Apprentice cookbook. It is SO GOOD -- slightly sweet with hints of citrus and a creamy crumb. The crust is soft, not burned like it appears...that's just caramelization from the higher sugar content. Go figure. I have a second loaf of dough in the fridge. All the more for me!

the bread baker's apprentice arrived

I have been watching this book on Amazon for about two years now...and finally it went on sale. Even the used ones on Half.com never got this low, so I snatched it up. I'm SO excited I'll probably never leave the kitchen.

awesome 100% whole wheat bread -- finally!

I found this Peter Reinhart 100% whole wheat sandwich loaf recipe that ROCKS. The recipe states it makes two loaves, and I believe it now, after the fact. But I did one humongo loaf in a large 10" breadpan. I think two 8" pans would have been fine, but the two dough blobs looked so sad and teeny when I divided the dough...but then I couldn't believe how large the shaped single loaf rose. It actually rose like white bread! It was HUGE.

It was a really different technique: about a cup of flour and some water on counter overnight in a container (the "soaker"); about 1 1/2 cups of flour with some water and a 1/4 tsp of yeast on counter for 2 hours, then overnight in fridge (the "poolish"). Combine these two with some more flour, a little bit more yeast, salt, honey and an egg; then hand-knead about 10 minutes. Satin. Smooth as a you know what. Gorgeous! Requires some planning, but was sooooo worth it. The toast was great, and made wonderful sandwiches as well. The crust was crunchy but not too thick.

So all of you bread bakers, which Reinhart book would you get? "Crust & Crumb" or "Bread Baker's Apprentice"? Both have great almost 5 star reviews on Amazon with zillions of people reviewing. I would like a bread baking book that has both artisanal and loaf/sandwich style breads represented. I love going up on the web, but honestly there is just something about opening up a book...