Apples & Honey Whole Grain Challah

Our HBin5 assignment was to make 1/2 batch (2 pounds of dough) of the Apples and Honey Whole Grain Challah. 

Carefully, I wrote out the ounces of a full batch everything on one side of the ingredients in the recipe, and ounces for half batch on the other side. 

I began making the dough, using white whole wheat flour instead of regular whole wheat.  I even made sure to use 1 1/2 eggs (an egg and a white)!  All was going well until I added the water.  After I added 3 cups of water, I realized my goof--enough water for a full batch was used.  Not the first time this has happened, so I started adding enough of everything else to make a full batch. 

I'm glad I had enough apples in the house.  You can see the chunks of apple in the dough.

Still, it was kind of hard to mix by hand, so I put it all into my mixer.   It looked kinda thin in the mixer, and I kept adding flour...  I don't know if the dough is any different when making the dough properly, but there's no way this dough could be braided.  It's not quite a dough, thicker than a batter.

I put it all in my square dough bucket (that's the one I use for assignments and experimenting) and went out for about 1 1/2 hours.  When I got back, this is what I saw:

 It was like seeing something from one of the old "Blob" science fiction movies. 

Quickly, I cleaned up it; part went into another dough bucket.  Both buckets went into the refrigerator. 

It was comical--the dough still kept growing over the square dough bucket.  More dough was transferred:

Even after tossing the dough that got onto the counter, there was still a lot of dough left. 

 The next morning, the dough firmed up a bit.  However, it wasn't firm enough to braid.  I stuck with my original idea to use a loaf pan.

I used 1 1/2 pounds of dough in my 8 1/2" loaf pan, letting it rise 1 1/2 hours.  Then an egg wash was applied.  I used raw sugar on top instead of sesame seeds.  The loaf seemed to need more sugar.

That gave the loaf a nice golden color.

I ended up having enough dough to make four 1 1/2 pound loaves.  I was supposed to make only 2 pounds of dough, if I hadn't made the water mistake.  It's ok.  This was like a good, soft sandwich loaf with apple chunks.  We only had a small piece after a few days. 

I baked one loaf at a friend's house yesterday.  This morning, she called and said it was really good.  She said it's a nice sandwich bread, but you get a surprise of apples when you bite into it.

Would be great with peanut butter, I bet.  Oh, that sounds like a good idea!

I hope your loaves came out nice.  Even though this one wasn't braided, it came out tasty.  Plus, I have 2 loaves in the freezer for gifts.

Judy

Brown Rice and Prune Bread

Many thanks to Guff of Old Pops Blog and Elwood at Flour Today Bread Tomorrow who gave me the courage to try this recipe.  Prunes? Dried Plums???  In a bread?


I took a tip from Guff, and floured the prunes before chopping them in my mini chopper.  Still, some of the prunes became a paste.
The dough, after being mixed, looked like this:

After rising in the pan

 Pumpkin seeds were added to one loaf.  They were leftover from a previous recipe....

And the taste?  I thought the bread started off when I first bit into it.  Just before I began to swallow, I detected a bitter aftertaste.

My husband enjoys this bread, especially with cheese.

Thanks for stopping by,

Judy

All Purpose Flour Test--King Arthur and General Mills Unbleached

As many of you know, I love King Arthur Flours.  I guess I just resonate with this brand, my dough recipes respond to it.

However, if I could use a less expensive unbleached flour, it could save me money.  Is there really a difference between King Arthur flour and less expensive Gold Medal unbleached flour?  I decided to put them to the test.  I made two batches of the AB5 challah dough:

I think the texture and color of the dough was slightly different after rising.  The King Arthur dough definitely rose higher in my warm sunroom!

Here's a closeup for the doughs, after rising.

The champ is King Arthur!!! 

I found some comments and other flour tests online.  Here is a comment from one test:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2770/baguette-cross-sections-king-arthur-vs-gold-medal-flours

“Also I had tried GM AP a few years back. A friend brought it to me when I was teaching her my technique for cinnamon rolls. I almost curled up my nose. LOL. I went ahead and tried it again though, thinking well, it might be better. Wrong. KA is my favorite and what I tell my breadclasses to use.

One photograph is worth a thousand words. Well, here is a composite of 2 images. The baguette on the left was made with King Arthur flour. The baguette on the right was made with Gold Medal flour. My preference is for the baguette on the left made with King Arthur flour. It had a better chew to it. What's a baguette if it doesn't have some chew? I also liked the slightly better flavor - as opposed to very little flavor with the Gold Medal baguette. Then there is the gas bubble formation. Again I liked the larger holes in the KA baguette. Toast? Glad you asked. Again, the KA baguette was the winner.
Both baguettes were made with the same amount of dough."

I posted the last picture on the King Arthur flour Facebook page.  They were very appreciative, and said it's a "great go-to photo."

By the way, I tried both General Mills' "Better for Bread" and Unbleached Flour.  I actually preferred the Unbleached Flour to their "Better for Bread" flour.

The King triumphs over the General!!  :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Judy

Toasted Millet and Fruit Bread

I made a couple of slight changes to this recipe.  White whole wheat was used.  The optional nuts weren't added to the dough; they were rolled into the dough.

I used the letterfold technique, and it gave me nice long loaves.  I made a half batch of the recipe, enough for 2 pounds of dough.  In the center of one, I put almonds.  Walnuts were put in the center of the other loaf, which was going to be a thank you gift for a friend.

I put the corresponding nut on top of each loaf, so I could tell them apart:

My baking stone was used.  It's been in my warming tray for storage too long!  I baked it a bit differently, though, to save my tempermental oven.  The bread steams and forms a crust the first half of baking only.  Therefore, the loaves were baked at the higher temperature.  Halfway through, I changed to 325 degrees convection.  The convection baking moved the hot air around, while giving my oven a break.  The results were wonderful!:

I decided, however, to freeze our loaf for a week.  It was great after being frozen and reheated.  The loaf had a nice texture, but it wasn't crunchy from the millet.  Maybe the freezing softened the millet.  It was a really good bread.  By the time I realized that I hadn't taken a picture of the loaf's inside, this is all that was left:

Our friend loved her bread!  She said she ate half the loaf the first day, it was so wonderful.  She emailed my hubby that "your wife is awesome!"  Wow, what a wonderful complement!

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will leave a comment.  I look forward to what you will bake!

Judy

Breakfast Breads

I just made 2 HBin5 breads that would be great for breakfast--Bran Muffin Bread and Oatmeal Date Bread. My hubby and I felt that, although these would be great for breakfast, we wouldn't make a savory sandwich from them.

Here's the dough for the Bran Muffin Bread.  I didn't have enough maple syrup, so I used more molasses.  The dough was pretty thick, and it was probably because the molasses is thicker than maple syrup.

Bran Muffin Bread

We ate this bread up before I took a final picture!  However, I thought it was good enough to sell at the Farmer's Market.  Some loaves were sold, when it was sampled.  However, it's a pretty pricey recipe.  We think we will keep this bread for ourselves!

Next, I made the oatmeal date bread.  Here's a picture of it in the loaf pan.  After seeing a comment by our friend, Guff, at http://oldpopsblog.blogspot.com/ , I decided not to add the optional walnuts.  He said it made it a bit dry.

Oatmeal Date Bread

Here's the finished loaf, which was sprinkled with raw sugar.  We had this for dinner, and it was like eating cake!  The next day, however, the bread firmed up considerably.  We enjoyed it, but didn't "go crazy" for it as we did the night before.

Our group baking member, Nancy, was kind enough to give me her light wheat bread recipe.  A test was made, and we almost ate the whole loaf the first day!  I sold some loaves at the farmer's market. 

Nancy's Light Wheat Bread

The demand for sourdough bread has skyrocketed lately at the Farmer's Market.  I heard the Amish stopped bringing it to the Market.  I've been using sourdough starter in the AB5 Master dough.  Last week, I graduated to 2 larger jars! 

Still, I just about ran out this week!  "Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble! "  Do you have any easy methods to share for sourdough?

Thanks so much for visiting.  I loved making these breads.  I hope to be baking our group recipes again soon.

Judy

Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal Bread

Our co-baking buddy, Guff, developed a steel cut oatmeal bread.  I had mentioned that  I was looking for a new, lighter multigrain bread.  Recently, I purchased some oat groats at a really good price, and he gave me this recipe.  You can see his fun blog at Old Pop's Blog
Although it wasn't whole groats, it sounded like it would be a good thing to test out at the Farmer's Market.

Here are the mini loaves, after an overnight rise in the fridge.  I think they rose too much, and the edges had to be trimmed with a scissors.  Only a half batch was made the first time. 

One loaf was cut into samples, and the other two loaves sold to happy customers.

The next time, I made 3 small loaves and one larger ( 1 1/2 pound) loaf.  All the loaves sold. 

Here's a picture of the second batch of my smaller loaves baking--sourdough and Guff's Steel Cut Oatmeal bread:

You can tell them apart because of the oats in the dough.  I was really careful of this because of a mixup of 2 whole wheat recipes in the past.

Thanks for stoppping by.  I hope you will leave a comment and suggestions.  Come back soon!

Judy

Bran Muffin Bread

This week's assignment is Bran Muffin Bread.  I've been looking for a somewhat sweet bread to replace Anadama bread for my farmer's market menu.  Anadama bread is a hearty bread, probably enjoyed in the cooler months.  When it got hot, Anadama bread sales plummeted, and lighter breads began selling more.  I was considering a raisin bread, and this seemed to fit the bill.

A half recipe was made.  There wasn't enough maple syrup, so half maple syrup and half molasses was used.

Before rising

An oiled, 7" glass bowl was used as a couche.  The dough roller was used to make rectangles of the dough, which were folded in a letterfold fashion for the mini loaves.

Here are my breads, rising in the "warm" sunroom.

The round loaf was baked on my Silpat.  I placed my Silpat on top of the glass bowl, after rising,  The bowl was then flipped over to put the dough onto the Silpat. 

I like the idea of baking at 350 degrees, with steam.  My meter shows that higher temperatures really use a lot more energy.

The finished loaves.  This is a really good "breakfast bread."  I might use a larger bowl as a couche, for the round loaf.  You can't really tell that the round loaf is 5 ounces heavier!

This bread was sampled at the Farmer's Market yesterday, and people really liked it.  It's like a good raisin- cinnamon bread.  One small loaf was used for samples, the other two loaves sold.  I'm thinking of making a few muffins for use as samples, to save on dough.  The breads sold before half the loaf was sampled!

I'm going to make some changes in the recipe, since maple syrup can be really expensive.  I plan to experiment with combinations of honey, maple syrup, water and molasses.

Thanks for stopping by.  Be sure to leave a comment.  Hope to see you again soon.

Judy

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