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.
