#30 Julekage, Panettone, and Stollen

These are three very similar recipes, varying only slightly in terms of flavoring and shaping. According to the original schedule, we were to select one of the three. But, since the recipe makes three small loaves, I decided to make one of each. My strategy was to mix the dough with out the flavorings, cardamon for the jutekage, almond extract for the stollen and orange extract for the panettone. I then added the flavoring to the mixed dough after dividing it into three portions. This strategy worked well with the stollen and panettone, but the cardamon was a bit sharp tasting in the jutekage.

Overall, the loaves worked well. With the whole grains, all three loaves were heavier than what you would normally expect for these loaves, at least for traditional recipes. Still, all three were fine. The loaves, as shown top to bottom, jutekage, stollen, and panettone.

#28 Whole Wheat Sprouted Grain Bread & #29 100% Sprouted Grain Bread

Because both of these breads use sprouted grains, I elected to make them at the same time. Since I was using wheat berries that I had purchased and frozen sometime ago, I was uncertain whether they would sprout properly. As it turned out, the grain was fine. I must admit, I was a little skeptical of the idea of a sprouted grain bread, having never had the bread before. Being unsure of how the bread would turn out was part of the motivation for making both loaves at once. For these reasons, I made a full loaf with the first recipe. For the second recipe, I made two mini loaves, the equivalent of a half a loaf.

The grain was sprouted as directed. I ground the sprouted grain using a meat grinder. The texture was a little strange but the doughs worked fine.

Frankly, the results were quite surprising. Both loaves were quite good. The texture was chewy and the flavor was fine. Perhaps more surprisingly, I preferred the 100% sprouted grain bread over the whole wheat sprouted grain bread. This is clearly a loaf worth remembering and, at some point, trying again.