A day late with the November bread, but it was worth the wait. Our Kitchen of the Month this time is Kelly of A Messy Kitchen. She chose a wonderful, hearty rye bread that starts the old fashioned way, with boiling water poured over the rye flour and grain flakes, for a pain bouillie.
I didn't have rye flakes, but I did have Bob's Red Mill Mixed Hot Cereal grain flakes so I used those. I also substituted some King Arthur Flour Irish Wholemeal Flour for some of the all-purpose flour. Could have sworn I had caraway seeds, but they were hiding from me, so the raisins were all on their lonesome in the paste. Never have had a use for a mortal and pestle, so don't own one. Instead I forced the raisins through the smallest holes of a grater, which seemed to work well.
This is an interesting bread because you shape it into two loaves that touch in the bread pan, because the rising after shaping is in a cold oven, and because the baking is done starting with a cold oven, too, although I didn't do that last part.
I love the crust which is chewy and delicious.
I'm not going to include the recipe because you can find it (and some great photos) on Kelly's post and I actually followed the recipe, with the exceptions noted above and, because I read comments from fellow Babes, I preheated the oven to about 325 before putting the loaf in to bake, hoping to bake it through before it burned. The oven-spring didn't happen but we love this bread!
I gave some to friends, one of whom had lived in France for many years. She said it was her favorite of all the breads I have shared. She loved how flavorful it is. The crumb is pretty nice, too.
Now I know you want to bake this, even if it does seem a bit different. Think of the toast and sandwiches! Would be a great bread for stuffing, too. To be a Bread Baking Babes Buddy, bake the bread, share via email with Kelly your experience, include a photo for the round-up and she will send you a Buddy badge. Get the email to her by November 29th for the round-up. No blog? No problem. Post a picture of your bread on Flickr or another photo sharing site (if you use Snapchat, don't us a filter, OK?) and tell about your bread baking experience. Be sure to email Kelly and give her a location/link for your post.
Also, be sure to visit the other Bread Baking Babes to see what beautiful breads they have baking.
It looks wonderful, Elle!
ReplyDeleteHa! What IS it about caraway seeds that they want to hide from us?
I know I should try it with the cracked grain as written at least once, but I do love how it turns out with the flakes. Your loaf looks great!
ReplyDeleteElle, I had to laugh.... That's exactly how I cook / bake - never having quite all of the right ingredients, but coming close and happy with the results. Your breads look lovely.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful loaves.
ReplyDeleteOh how I wish I'd thought to try some of the Irish bread flour from KAF...or the sprouted wheat. Maybe I have to bake again tomorrow. And I won't start it in the cold oven again.
We all have something that hides from us!
Remind me before we see you next & I'll bring you a ziplock of whole rye berries. T. bought 100 lbs of them, so fully 1/5 of our deep freeze is occupied by them. We really enjoy them, and I think you will as well!
ReplyDeleteElizabeth, perhaps caraway are shy seeds?
ReplyDeleteHB, the flakes are easier. I've been using cooked cereal in bread making for years, starting with my triple oatmeal bread (the cooked rolled oats, oat flour, and uncooked rolled oats), but I've never done it with rye. Fabulous flavor!
Katie, as I get older the substitution of ingredients seems to grow along with a less acute sharpness of the brain.
Tanna, I suspect any kind of wholesome flour would work well in this bread. Sprouted wheat always reminds me of my first BBB recipe, which I flunked. I blame it on my wimpy food processor which couldn't process the sprouted grain.
David, sure, I would love to help you lighten the load in your freezer, plus it would be great to see you two.