#46 Whole Wheat Naan

Naan is traditionally made with whole wheat flour so its inclusion in this book makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, naan is typically cooked in a tandoor oven at extremely high temperatures so cooking it at home can be less than optimal.

Unlike pita, the previous recipe, this is much simpler. While the dough is prepared the night before, this does not require a soaker or preferement. (You still need to refrigerate the dough overnight.) Baking is done on a stone but with out a steam pan. (I can't help but wonder if a preheated cast iron pan would have worked better. I didn't try it.) The picture shows two naan before being brushed oil or butter. I prefer the butter.

Overall a very nice recipe. But having made naan without the delayed fermentation, I can't really say this is better. Perhaps if I tried them side-by-side?

#45 Whole Wheat Pita

For so simple a bread as pita, this seems an overly complex recipe with soaker, biga, and overnight fermentation. I think of pita as a relatively quick bread. Still, it seemed worth trying.

The recipe is not difficult if a bit tedious. The recipe worked as expected. The picture shows three breads. The first was overcooked and hardened in its puffed state. The second shows the browned side that rested on the stone. The third shows the puffed side.

Overall, the bread was fine. I have no real complaints. But then again, I wasn't overwhelmed by it either. This is probably a recipe that would work better as a transitional bread than as a 100% whole wheat bread.

#44 Multigrain Pizza

This was another combination recipe—either whole wheat or multigrain pizza. Having previously made Reinhart's whole wheat pizza, I elected to make a multigrain pizza this time around. (In the interest of full disclosure of biases, I typically prefer multigrain breads to whole wheat breads.)

I followed the recipe as written. For my grains, I used the Harvest Grain mix from King Arthur, a longtime favorite of mine. I used a variety of toppings, including leftover taco filling, salsa, and cheddar cheese; two pizzas with pesto, feta and nuts, one with pine nuts and one with walnuts; and two with tomato sauce and cheese, one with onions, mushrooms, and pepperoni, and another with sausage and walnuts. All were excellent. This isn't your usual pizza but the crust worked well, particularly with toppings combinations that include walnuts. Another pleasant recipe worth making again.

#43 Whole Wheat Focaccia

I love focaccia but when I think of focaccia, I think of a light, open bread. The idea of a whole wheat focaccia is a bit contradictory for me. Still I thought it worth a try. And indeed it was.

I made half the recipe following the recipe closely.  I topped the focaccia with Gorgonzola, walnuts, and caramelized onions. The results weren't as light as a traditional focaccia, but were nonetheless quite tasty.

Overall, this is an approach that works beautifully for whole wheat giving an unexpectedly light product. (Also, if you are trying to work your way into whole grains, along with the transitional breads, this is a good place to start.) The recipe gives an option of making Pain À L'Ancienne Mini Baguettes which I did not attempt. This is certainly work going back and doing in the future. This recipe is a keeper.

#42 Multigrain & Pumpernickel Bagels

Once again, I've had a very long break in writing. In the meantime, I've taken on a couple of new challenges. As the Hamelman challenge has drawn to a close, the Mellow Bakers have started up a new challenge to bake through The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard. I haven't created a blog for this yet, but I've made ten recipes from this book, the first four recipes in the challenge along with six others.

I've also created a personal challenge, to bake through Baking Artisan Bread by Ciril Hitz over a period of ten weeks. This book is organized around ten basic formula with variations for each. I'm eight weeks into this challenge and am on schedule. Again, I haven't created a blog for this either. As to this challenge, I'm five posting behind. So, over the past couple of months and done lots of baking but very little writing. So it's time to catch up.

Having previously made Reinhart's whole wheat bagels, for the next recipe I opted to make multigrain and pumpernickel bagels. Using the biga recipe as given, I made half a recipe each of the soakers for the multigrain and pumpernickel bagels. I divided the biga the next day and made two sets of bagels otherwise following the recipe as given. In each case I used the barley malt syrup. With the pumpernickel bagels, I opted for the molasses over sorghum. My memory is a bit hazy at this point. For the grains, I believe I used a Quaker Oats Multigrain cereal. In the photo, these are the ones with the black and white sesame seeds.

Frankly, the results were less than stellar—okay but not exciting. Since bagels tend to be dense and chewy to begin with, the use of whole grains can lead to a very heavy product. This was not my favorite.

#41 Hapanleipä

Having already done the Christmas breads, Hapanleipä and Vorterkaker are the last two international breads. These are very similar breads, one Finnish and one Norwegian. The challenge calls for making one or the other because of their similarity. Since the Norwegian bread is flavored with anise, I went with the other.

As a rye, I went with hand mixing and kneading. Overall, the recipe was fairly straightforward and I didn't encounter any problems. The loaves are thin and almost cracker like. Actually, I wished I'd baked them a little longer and gotten a crisper result. Still a very pleasant loaf to be eaten like a cracker.

Next week it is on to bagels and flatbread. I'm looking forward to these!

#40 Santa Lucia Buns

As we near the end of the sections on International Breads, we find Swedish Santa Lucia Buns commemorating the Sicilian saint who, Reinhart tells us, was blinded rather than renounce her faith. These are whole wheat rather than rye and so much more to my liking. As can be seen, than can be made with or without the raisins that symbolize the girls eyes.

Overall, these were straightforward to make and very pleasant. They make pleasant dinner rolls, but have, like many dinner rolls, a short shell life.

A pleasant bread worth making again.

Aside: Reinhart Video on Epoxy Method

If you haven't seen it, there is a nice TED video by Reinhart in which he explains the epoxy method, the method he uses to create the loaves used in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. It can be found at:
http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_reinhart_on_bread.html

#39 Swedish Limpa Rye

After the last two fiascos with rye bread, I decided it was time to change my strategy and shift to making ryes by hand rather than using my Kitchenaid mixer. This, I reasoned, would give me greater control and a better feel for the dough. And, as the next bread was another rye, it was time to make the switch.

And I have to admit, the strategy seems to have paid off. While not a perfect loaf, this was a considerable improvement over the last few loaves. This was a much lighter and well behaved loaf with a nice crumb. It wasn't quite as light as I would have liked, but was definitely not the sort of heavy loaf I have come to expect. It also had a wonderful aroma from the orange flavorings. Unfortunately, the anise gave the loaf a disappointing taste. Still, I'm going in the right direction.

Bottom line, if you like anise, you'll probably like this bread.

#37 Bavarian Pumpernickel and #38 Hutzelbrot with Dried Fruit

Because both of these breads require a mash, I chose to make them at the same time. For both, I went with the powdered malt and the optional altus. Other than that, I pretty much followed the recipes.

Considering my track record with ryes, it shouldn't be too surprising that both of these produced heavy, dense, unpleasant loaves. And, frankly (as you can see from the pictures,) two butt-ugly loaves.

Clearly, my technique with ryes needs works. These were two forgettable loaves I don't plan to make again.

#36 Vollkornbrot

It has been about five weeks since I've posted anything. I've still been baking, but I just haven't made it back to the blog. Unfortunately, that means I'm writing from rapidly fading memories. So I'll keep these next few entries short.

This is a heavy, dense bread. You often hear the expression "sandwich rye." Then, by extension, this must be a cracker rye. This certainly isn't a bread I'd use to make sandwiches, but it is quite appropriate to eat with cheese or deli meats, very much the way you would use a cracker. In generally, these heavy 100% ryes don't work well for me, but this one came out quite well. This was something of a surprise.

I've made Hamelman's version of this. I preferred this one, but, considering my track record with ryes, I may not be being fair to Hamelman.

Overall, a pleasant loaf (and a pleasant surprise.)

#35 Whole Wheat Brioche

Note: Recipe #34 call for spent grains. Thus far, I have not been able to locate this ingredient. Once I have done so, I will return to that recipe. But for now, I'm moving on.

The whole wheat brioche is a repeated recipe for me, so I elected to do the optional Kugelhopf form of the recipe. Compared to most brioche recipes, this is a remarkably easy loaf to make. The almonds didn't want to adhere to the pan, so I just pressed them into to the dough. Other than that, there were no problems.

While the recipe doesn't produce the decadent loaf you might expect of a brioche, the results are quite tasty. The bite of the whole wheat is more than off-set by the added butter. So while not exactly a desert loaf, this isn't a stogy whole wheat loaf either. Overall, a good loaf. Dust with powdered sugar!

#33 Steamed Boston Brown Bread

First, this isn't bread, this is dessert. This recipe produces a very soft, sweet bread that is more like a cake or a muffin than a traditional bread or even a fruit bread.

For the most part, the recipe is straightforward. It calls for cooking the bread in a coffee can (whatever that is). I found an old charlotte mold and used that instead. The bread cooks for three hours, so if you make this bread, plan accordingly. But it is made on the stove top.

Still, when all is said and done, it is a delicious bread and worth the effort. Reinhart mentions using other fruit, but I can't help wondering how well walnuts would work?

#31 Whole Wheat Mash Bread and #33 Multigrain Mash Bread

Frankly, this was another set of loaves that I had my doubts about. It should be clear that I'm not really a whole grain kind of guy. I'm doing this challenge to broaden my horizons and see what I might like and what I don't like. And occasionally, there are a few surprises along the way. But these loaves didn't look that promising to me.

Creating the mash for these breads is an involved processes so I decided to make both loaves at once. To create the mash you take flour or grains, add hot water, and then bake it in a low oven (150 degrees) for one to three hours. If your oven won't go that low, Reinhart suggests cycling the oven on and off every 10 minutes. Fortunately, my oven did go that low although I needed to use an oven thermometer and play with the settings. The dial was not particularly accurate in this range. But that a lot better than cycling the oven every 10 minutes.

For my loaves, I cooked the mashes about two hours. After that time, they turned into gelatinous gruels that looked even less promising than the original recipes sounded. I created the soakers and let both sets sit out over night. Forming and baking the loaves was straight forward and uneventful. As can be seen, I elected to use loaf pans rather than make freestanding loaves.

And the results? These were two excellent loaves, if somewhat nondescript. (I brushed both with butter and that helped their appearance somewhat.) But the flavor was excellent. Really! Typically, my tastes run to multigrain over whole wheat, but in this case I preferred the whole wheat loaf. Live and learn.