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Whole Wheat Barm Bread 2008

I have first heard of Monica Spiller from one of Peter Reinhart's books. His description of her 100 per cent whole wheat breads sounded intriguing. There were mentions of her working on a book on bread, but no such thing happened (yet).

Monica Spiller has actually published some of her bread recipes in various sources, including books that she co-authored. (One especially good one is The Power of Ancient Foods, containing a slew of interesting recipes. It's not a bread book, but the recipes are healthful and tasteful). I looked at the recipes in some of these books, and one vital piece of information was missing. The recipes are based on a natural yeast culture that Monica Spiller calls "barm." The way to get barm was to purchase it directly through Monica Spiller. I wanted to make barm myself.

Could my own sourdough act as a barm substitute? This is not the same barm as in Peter Reinhart's older books. This is something completely different. I always could try using my own sourdough instead of barm in her recipes, but I never got to it. Then, a few weeks ago, she published on the website of her non-profit organization, The Whole Grain Connection, a complete recipe for Barm bread. This time, the recipe included directions for everything, from making the Barm, to making the bread. The directions are in metric, which is even better (though she does include a volumetric recipe). It was time to try it out.

First, I had to transform my stiff sourdough into barm. This involves feeding it daily with a whole-wheat mash for seven days. The mash is a pretty interesting preparation. Whole wheat flour, salt, and active malt are mixed together with water at a certain temperature. The mixture is held at that temperature for a given length of time, and is cooled very slowly and gradually. Monica Spiller's instructions are very easy; the easiest mash making instructions I've seen. The only modification I did to her instructions was to put the mash in a steamy microwave rather than wrapping it in a blanket.

Feeding my sourdough with barm really did transform it into something else. Its flavor and smell changed. It actually smells much better as barm than it did as sourdough. It has a buttery smell. It tastes sour and fruity, but not very sour. It also exhibit excellent rising properties. I'm very happy with the transformation.

The recipe for the bread itself is quite interesting, too. The recipe begins by making a mash. All the mash will eventually be used in the bread. A portion of the mash is first used to feed the sourdough. After ripening for 24 hours, half of the sourdough goes to storage, whereas the other half is fed with the rest of the salt to make a sponge. The sponge ferments for 12 hours.

When the sponge is ready, it is mixed with the rest of the flour, water, salt, and some active malt. I kneaded the dough by hand until it was ready. This took a considerable amount of time, maybe 600 strokes or so. The dough is very wet, but I did not need to use any extra flour while kneading. Next time I may try kneading it using the mixer, just to compare. When the dough was ready, I shaped it into a loose ball and placed in a bowl to rise, about 4 hours. At this time I went about to day-to-day activities.

When I came back to the dough, I found it very well risen. It had at least tripled in size. The culture, apparently, was very active. I could have gone to the next step earlier. Then I gave the dough a fold, shaped it into a loose ball, and gave it 20 minutes to rest. I then shaped it, and let it proof.

After 2 hours of proofing, the dough had risen nicely. The oven was already hot, and I was ready to transfer the bread into the oven. Unfortunately, the dough stuck to my peel as it was rising, and when I tried to transfer it into the oven, it wouldn't budge. I had to help it a bit, and as a result, it lost a lot of gas. It baked out fine, though, and still exhibited some oven spring. It came out slightly flatter and wider than it was supposed to be, but it did regain some height.
I let the bread cool, and the next day I sliced into it. Since this is a 100 per cent whole-wheat bread, the crust does not stay crisp. The crust, instead, is chewy and delightful. There is a beautiful color to it. The crumb is moist and relatively open for a whole wheat bread. The flavor is very slightly sour, and very delicious. I had some bread today with some home-made chicken soup, and it was fabulous. I heartily recommend it.

BBD#9: Multigrain Pan Bread

When Paulchen's foodblog announced the subject of Bread Baking Day #9, Bread with Oats, I was slightly disconcerted. I had made bread with oats twice before, and was pretty much disappointed with the results. The bread was fine, but not great, and it had pretty much turned me off of baking bread with oats.

I didn't want to miss out on BBD, though, so I sought a recipe that looked interesting enough to try. Of course, I could always make any other bread and sprinkle some rolled oats on top, but that wouldn't really count. Dan Lepard's book, The Handmade Loaf, had an interesting recipe for a bread with apples and rolled oats that I thought would be interesting to make. But shortly thereafter two other bloggers (here and here) made this bread. So, I looked for something else.

Joe Ortiz had an interesting looking recipe for Muesli bread that I thought I would try. And then I got Michel Suas's marvelous tome, Advanced Bread and Pastry. The bread recipes in this book are not in the traditional form, but come in formulas and very short instructions. One of the recipe, for a multigrain pan bread, sounded interesting -- and it includes oats!

When I make wheat bread, I usually make free-standing loaves. I like to shape the bread (and I need to improve, a lot). This recipe is specifically formulated as a pan bread; i.e., it is to be shaped and baked in a loaf pan. I shaped it into balls placed inside a loaf pan, to get a nicer look.

The bread formula is complex, and includes some prefermented dough, a multigrain soaker, and a stiff levain. You begin by making the soaker and preferments in the morning, and come evening time, you make the dough and bake the bread.
However, the result is worth it. The bread rises beautifully (you won't believe how much!), is nice and soft, has a good, even, crumb -- that's what we're looking for in a pan loaf, after all -- and is absolutely delicious. The prefermented dough and sourdough provide natural dough conditioners: they flavor the bread, and also help it last longer. This is far superior to a sandwich bread you may get in a store. Although this bread has a large amount of white flour, it is still nutritious, thanks to the various other flours and multigrain mixture. The entire loaf has approximately 1735 calories and 30.5 grams fiber. The baked loaf weighs 650 grams, so each 43-gram slice has approximately 115 calories and 2 grams fiber. Compare that to supermarket sliced bread. This bread also freezes and toasts beautifully, and makes great sandwiches.

Here is the recipe:

Multigrain Pan Bread
Adapted from Advanced Bread and Pastry by Michel Suas.

Prefermented dough

• 100 grams bread flour
• 65 grams water
• 2 grams salt
• 0.6 grams instant yeast

Mix all the ingredients together. Ferment for 1 hour at room temperature, then refrigerate for 12 hours. (You will need 160 grams of prefermented dough)

Levain

• 25 grams bread flour
• 25 grams whole-wheat flour
• 30 grams water
• 20 grams stiff sourdough
  

Mix all the ingredients together. Ferment for 12 hours at room temperature. (You will need 60 grams of levain)

Soaker

• 20 grams flax seeds
• 20 grams sunflower seeds
• 20 grams sesame seeds
• 30 grams rolled oats
• 50 grams water

Mix all the ingredients together. Soak for at least 2 hours. I mix this at the same as make the preferments. (You will need 120 grams of soaker)

Dough

• 120 grams bread flour
• 40 grams whole wheat flour
• 20 grams rye flour
• 10 grams semolina flour (I used patent durum)
• 10 grams rice flour (I used brown rice flour)
• 136 grams water
• 5 grams salt
• 2 grams instant yeast
• 12 grams honey
• 12 grams oil
• 60 grams levain
• 160 grams prefermented dough
• 120 grams soaker

1. Mix together all of the ingredients, except for the soaker, and knead well until gluten is developed.
   
2. After gluten is developed, add the soaker and knead for a couple more minutes until well incorporated.
3. Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl. Ferment for 90 minutes at a warm place (27ºC).
   
4. Give the dough a fold, and shape into a light ball. Let rest for 20-30 minutes.
   
5. Shape the dough into a batard and place in a greased loaf pan. (I divided it into four balls and placed them one by one).
   
6. Proof for 60 minutes at a warm place (27ºC). Preheat the oven to 200ºC (375ºF).
   
7. Score the bread as desired.
   
8. Bake, with steam, for 40 minutes at 200ºC (375ºF).

Rye bread with whole grains

By now you already know that I am a fan of dense, whole-grain, rye breads. I am always on the lookout for interesting recipes for such breads. I decided to make such breads more often. My first foray into such breads was with Andrew Whitley's excellent whole-grain rye bread (the recipe can be found here). It was a fantastic loaf of bread, to be sure, but I wanted to try other recipes.

I first heard of the name Jan Hedh in Dan Lepard's book, The Handmade Loaf. He mentions Hedh almost in passing, in conjunction to interesting rye bread recipe. Sometime later I learnt that Hedh has a bread book. Moreover, an English version of this book existed. I was excited about this, as it is always pleasant to find new, good, bread books, and in English, too. I quickly ordered the book. I found a good price for it from a second-hand seller using Amazon.co.uk. When I received my order I was further pleasantly surprised to find it was brand new, still in the shrink-wrap.

I asked that the package be sent to my work, and when it arrived I was distracted for a good 15 minutes or so, just looking at this truly beautiful book. Later, at home, I looked at the book more carefully. It has gorgeous pictures, and a wide variety of interesting, intriguing recipes. Many of the recipes are a little rich to my taste (too much butter or sweetener), but that can be easily modified. The book has a good section of "dark breads", and other interesting sections (such as a section of scalded breads). All in all, the book showcases a very wide variety of European breads.

I do have a few gripes about the book. First, the recipes in the book use Fresh yeast but fail to mention it. The author does state that he prefers fresh yeast to dry, but the recipes don't state that fresh yeast is used. Judging by the quantities, however, an experienced baker can understand that the yeast amount in the recipes is for fresh yeast. Second, the book is riddled with small typos. Again, an experienced baker can easily overcome these, but the beginning baker might find it difficult.

Regardless, the book is beautiful to look at; and it contains a very wide variety of interesting recipes. The dark breads section has a few recipes I want to try, and I selected this one to begin with. I will also be bringing it with me to the upcoming bread-bakers meeting this Saturday, where the theme is rye breads.

The recipe make a great amount of dough that is divided into two 2 liter loaf pans (this is equivalent to a standard 9x5 pan; however, a 4.5 inch by 8.5 inch pans works fine, too). According to the recipe, you bake the bread on high heat for about 1 hour. Since I was going to divide the bread into two loaves, I thought I might as well experiment: one loaf I would bake as instructed, the other I would bake covered, long, and slow.

You begin making this bread by soaking rye berries in hot (not boiling) water overnight. You also feed your rye sourdough to a stiff consistency and let ferment overnight. The next day, you mix the dough, let it rise, and bake. I mixed half the dough about an hour and a half before the second half so that I could conduct my experiment without overproofing one loaf.

The bread baked according to the directions came out with a crust that is a little burnt, in my opinion. The instructions say that you should bake the bread for 65 minutes at 250ºC. Next time, I will bake for only 20 minutes at that high a temperature, and then reduce the temperature to 200ºC. It was delicious, though. And when cutting it thinly, you barely notice the burnt crust. The only problem is that it is difficult to slice.
The second bread I baked differently. I covered the pan with foil, and put a baking sheet on top. On top of that I placed a corningware casserole filled with water. I placed that in a warm oven (a little shy of 130ºC) for about 12 hours. By morning the house was full of that lovely caramelized smell I love. I uncovered the loaf to discover, to my horror, that the part of the bread under the casserole was not fully baked (whereas the rest baked, maybe even slightly over baked). I took a thermometer, and found that the center of the bread was 98ºC, which meant it was ready, but the top was still 93ºC. I took the bread out of the pan, increased the temperature, and baked for another 10 minutes to set the crust. I then took the bread out of the oven, wrapped in a towel, and let it rest for 24 hours before slicing into it. It was well worth the wait. Again, it was difficult to slice into the bread, but once sliced this bread is delicious. The grain has caramalized, and the taste is sweet and complex. Even a small bite lingers in the mouth for a long time.

I still have a way to go learning to make German style whole grain breads (and, again, I welcome any suggestions or comments!), but I'm enjoying the results so far. The baking method still stumps me. Next time I will try a different slow baking method, in which I gradually reduce the temperature.

Anyhow, I will be bringing both loaves on Saturday to our monthly bread meeting.

Here is the recipe:

Whole Grain Bread with Rye Kernels
Adapted from "Artisan Bread" by Jan Hedh.

Day 1:
Soaker:

• 500 grams water, at 90ºC
• 600 grams whole rye berries

Warm a non-reactive (I use pyrex / corning) bowl by pouring some hot water into it and pouring it out. Place the rye berries in the bowl. Pour the hot water over the berries, mix well, and cover. Let swell for 12-24 hours. Drain and measure out 800 grams soaked berries to use in the recipe (you will have some left over).

Sourdough:

• 200 grams water, at room temperature
• 50 grams rye sourdough (100% hydration)
• 250 grams dark rye flour, ground fine
  

Mix the ingredients in a bowl for about 10 minutes. I used a spoon to stir. It is not easy to stir, and you may want to use the paddle on your mixer on the lowest speed for 10 minutes. Cover and leave at room temperature for 12-24 hours. (Make sure the sourdough is ripe before using).

Day 2

• 14 grams instant yeast (or 30 grams fresh yeast)
• 400 grams water, at room temperature
• 440 grams dark rye flour, ground fine
• 25 grams dark honey (such as avocado honey)
• 24 grams sea salt
• all of the sourdough, above
• 800 grams soaked rye berries, drained.
  

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add flour, honey, salt, sourdough, and soaked rye berries. Mix in the lowest speed of your mixer, using the paddle, for 15 minutes. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 75 minutes.
2. Prepare two 2-liter loaf pans, or one large pullman loaf pan, by spraying them with non-stick spray. With wet hands, transfer the dough into the pans. I transferred it in lumps, as I was unable to from it into a log. Use a wet spatula to level the surface. Cover and proof for 60 minutes.
   
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250ºC.
   
4. Place the pans in the oven, and spray generously with water (next time, I would add a pan with water at the bottom of the oven as well, and remove it after 20 minutes).
5. Bake for 60 minutes (reduce the heat to 200ºC after 20 minutes). The bread is done when it registers 98ºC in the center.
   
6. Remove from the pan and bake for a further 5 minutes to set the crest.
   
7. Wrap the bread in a towel and let the bread cool. Wait at least 24 hours before slicing.
   

Alternative baking method: cover the pan with aluminum foil and place a weight on top. Bake for 12 hours in a slow oven. This baking method produced very delicious bread, but it did not work as well as I had hoped, and may need tweaking. I recommend perhaps preheating to a higher temperature and reducing the heat as the bread goes in the oven. Let me know if you try this bread!

Multigrain bread

I have heard that Eric Kayser's multigrain bread (Le pain aux céréales) is an especially good one. Since I refreshed my liquid, Kayser-style, sourdough culture with a lot of flour, and I did not want to throw it away, I decided to bake this bread from Kayser's book 100% Pain.

As usual, I made a few modifications to the recipe. The first modification was out of necessity. The original recipe calls for 2 grams of fresh yeast. I cannot find fresh yeast here in San Diego, so I had to convert the recipe to instant yeast. I used just about one gram of instant yeast instead.

The second modification was out of circumstance. I usually feed my sourdoughs with whole-wheat flour. When I last fed the Kayser-style liquid levain, I fed it with all whole-wheat flour. Since whole-wheat flour absorbs more water, I increased the water content of the liquid levain to about 125% hydration, so that it will indeed be "liquid". Consequently, I reduced the water content of the dough slightly.

The third modification was again out of necessity. The recipe requires flour of type T65. I don't have access to French flours. I used unbleached, all-purpose, flour instead.

The final modification was out of choice. The recipe asks you to add a mere two tablespoons of mixed grains. I increased that, and added one tablespoon each of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and millet, and also a half tablespoon of flax seeds.
The recipe makes enough for two 450-gram loaves. The resulting bread is indeed delicious. The sesame seeds on the crust permeate and carry their flavor to the inside of the loaf. The crumb is creamy, open, and delicious. The seeds are fun "surprises" as you eat the bread. It's a tasty, easy, and quick recipe.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams unbleached, all-purpose, flour.
  
• 3.5 tablespoons of mixed grains (1 tbsp sunflower seeds, 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds, 1 tbsp millet, 0.5 tbsp flax seeds)
• 150 grams liquid levain (made with whole-wheat flour, 125% hydration), refreshed 12 hours earlier.
  
• 1 gram instant yeast
• 10 grams salt
• 280 grams room-temperature water
• sesame seeds for sprinkling.

Method:

1. The liquid levain should be refreshed about 12 hours before preparing the dough so that it is fully ripe (and not yet overripe) when you start making the bread. I usually use a very small inoculation of previous sourdough when I refresh (maybe a tablespoon or so).
   
2. Mix all ingredients, except for the sesame seeds, in a bowl, and knead for 10 minutes to get a nice, smooth dough. (Note: I actually added a 20-minute autolyse here).
3. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes, covered, in room temperature. Divide the dough into two parts, round each one into a ball, and let rise for a further 45 minutes.
   
4. Shape the balls of dough into batards, and proof at room temperature, covered, for another hour. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 240 degrees C.
   
5. Mist the dough with water, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top (alternatively, before proofing wet the dough and roll in sesame seeds). Slash the dough lengthwise.
6. Bake in the oven, with steam, for about 25 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway through.
   
7. The loaves are down when they are golden brown, and tapping them on the bottom yields a hollow sound. Remove from the oven and cool. They will last about two-three days in a paper bag.

My bread book library

A very quick post this time.
I recently learnt about a very interesting site called "Librarything". It allows users to enter a list of their books for others to see.
I decided to enter a list of my bread-related books. So, if you are interested, visit it here.

Recipe for Whole Grain Rye Bread

I was asked for the recipe for the whole grain rye bread I blogged about yesterday. Here is the recipe, adapted from the most excellent book, "Bread Matters" by Andrew Whitley.

Sourdough:

• 25 grams rye sourdough
• 100 grams dark rye flour
• 200 grams water

Mix together all the ingredients and leave to ferment, covered, in a warm area for about 24 hours.

Rye soaker:

• 300 grams boiling water
• 300 grams rye chops (or wheat chops).
  

Pour the boiling water over the rye chops. Stir, cover, and leave at room temperature for at least 8 hours. It is best to prepare the soaker at the same time as the sourdough, and let both rest for the same amount of time.

Bread dough:

• 300 grams sourdough
• All of the soaker
• 7 grams salt

Mix all the ingredients together. Grease and flour a loaf pan. With wet hands, shape dough into a log shape and drop into prepared pan. Use a pan such that the dough will come up to about 2/3 up the side of the pan.
Cover the pan with a lid (such as an inverted cookie sheet) and weight it down with a heavy ovenproof object. We want the bread to rise and attain a flat top.
Let rise for about 3 hours. Check the dough every hour or so to see if it has risen to the top of the pan.
Put the bread, covered, in the oven, and turn it on to 130 degrees C (about 270 degrees F). Place a dish with water at the bottom of the oven. Bake for at least 4 hours. The longer the bake, the darker the bread will be.
After baking, take the loaf out of the pan and wrap with a towel to circulate moisture back into the loaf. Wait at least 24 hours before slicing into it.

Good luck! Let me know what you think about this bread (and pictures, too!)

Andrew Whitley's Whole Grain Rye bread

Andrew Whitley is a British baker, who spent several years in Russia working for the BBC. During his time in Russia he became familiar with many North European breads. This bread is one of his recipes, in his recent (and excellent) book, "Bread Matters".

I am a big fan of dense, whole-grain, German-style breads. Unfortunately, the recipes I have for such breads are few and far between (when oh when is someone going to write a book about such breads in English? If you know of a good one -- in any language -- let me know!). Many a time I see a recipe for "Pumpernickel," containing cocoa powder or some other coloring ingredient. I am looking for authentic breads, that require good, long, bakes.

This bread is really up my alley. It contains three ingredients: rye (both rye chops and rye flour), water, and salt. It is prepared unlike any other bread that I have made. And it is baked for a very long time in a slow oven. When I saw the recipe, I immediately knew that I wanted to make it.

The first challenge was obtaining a covered loaf pan (a pullman pan). I did not have one, and the baking of this type of bread requires baking in a covered pan to steam the bread and keep it moist. Yes, I could have baked it in a regular loaf pan covered with aluminum foil, but a pullman pan seemed better. I ordered a pullman pan from King Arthur for this purpose. It is quite a big pan; much larger than a regular loaf pan. But that's okay. When the dough requires so many hours of preparation, I might as well make a large loaf.

The second challenge was greater. The recipe called for rye chops (or kibbled rye). I looked high and low for these around San Diego. I would have settled for coarse rye flour or rye flakes, but even those were nowhere to be found. Even the health stores did not carry it. Then I remembered that a few months ago I bought an inexpensive (doesn't that sound better than "cheap"?) corona-type hand mill. I could use that to coarsely grind rye berries that I was able to find.

After I had overcome my challenges, I began to build a rye sourdough. I used a tiny piece of my existing whole-wheat sourdough. I fed that according to Whitley's feeding regime, which uses twice as much water to rye flour. I gave it two feedings before using, so that the bread will be almost wheat free.

I let the final rye sour ferment for 24 hours before making the dough; this is as instructed by Whitley. By this time, the sour was well past its peak. Perhaps I should have used it sooner? The reason I am mentioning this is only because Whitley mentions that the bread should rise in the pan after mixing the dough, and mine didn't show many signs of rising (it was delicious nonetheless).

After feeding the rye sour, I prepared the rye berries. I ground them coarsely using my corona mill. Grinding a substantial amount of rye berries manually is hard work, let me tell you. It was doable, but it was not easy. Still, I persisted and ground the wheat berries. I put them in a large bowl, and poured boiling water over them, and mixed a little with a spoon. This gelatinizes the rye. I covered the mixture and let it stand for the same amount of time as the rye sourdough. This allows the grain to absorb the water. One or two times I checked to see what's going on, and kneaded the mixture a bit.

The next day, I mixed the soaked grain with the sour and some salt. No additional flour or grain. No kneading whatsoever is required. I simply mixed everything together for a couple of seconds. The best description of the dough consistency is Whitley's: "The mixture will resemble wet concrete." I prepared the pullman pan by spraying it with non-stick spray and sprinkling it with rye flour. With wet hands I shaped the dough into a lump and put it inside the pan.

Then, I covered the pan and let the dough ferment for about 3 hours or so. I didn't show much sign of rising, but I decided to put it in the oven anyhow. Whitley suggests baking this bread for at least 4 hours at 130 degrees C or less. I put the pan in the oven, turned it on to 130 degrees C, poured water in the pan at the bottom of the oven, and left it there for 9 hours. Before I went to bed I checked that there is enough water.

At some point during the baking of this bread, the house filled up with this most wonderful smell. It is a smell unlike that of "regular" bread. It is sweet and complex and very enticing. When this smell hit my nose, I knew I did something right. I let it continue bake, as the longer bake brings out the sugars and the darker colors.

In the morning I took the bread out of the oven. To prevent a hard crust from forming, I took the bread out of the pan and covered it with a towel. Just baked, this bread is very soft, and I was afraid it would break. Two hours later it had cooled and gotten much stiffer.

Now came the most difficult part. This bread requires at least 24 hours of rest before you can into it. Otherwise, it would be very gummy and moist, almost liquid. I did not have the required patience and cut into it after only 12 hours. The crust slice was okay, but the rest of the loaf was very moist. 12 additional hours did it good:
This bread is delicious. It is heavy and dense, sweet and slightly bitter, smells fantastic, and very filling. It is really one of the best tasting breads I have made. It keeps extremely well. I kept it at sub-optimal conditions (inside a plastic bag that wasn't too dry). Only after a week and a half did it begin showing and signs of mold (little white specks that were easily scraped off; I believe they are benign). And that was only surface mold -- the inside of the bread was unharmed. The bread was still moist after all this time.

The reason I had managed to keep this bread for so long, is because of the enormous amount of bread the recipe made: over 1.5 kg of bread! Even after giving away portions of the bread to friends, there was a lot left. And this is the sort of bread that makes you feel full after eating a single slice.

All in all, I am very happy with this bread. I am still looking for other long-baking breads (and German style breads in general). Let me know if you have sources of information for such breads! (Books, in any language, are good).

Strawberry-water Whole wheat apricot rolls

Wao, over at Original Yeast, exposed me, and many others, to the wonders of original yeast. Basically, you take a jar of water, and put in it some fruit. Then, you mix it daily for about a week or so until it ferments (the smell will change, the water will not be as clear, when you open the jar, gas will come out).

After the yeast water is ready, you strain the liquid into a clear container, and press the remainder using a sieve to extract any remaining juices. I used, as you can tell from the image above, strawberries. I also added some honey to the water (I've read that honey contains many yeast strains).

Mixing the bread is very easy. First you feed some whole-wheat flour with some regular water and some yeast water. The result is put aside to rise overnight. The next day This dough should rise. At the point, give it a short knead, and mix some more flour and water. I also added a bit of honey. I let that rise, undisturbed.

I then chopped dried apricots into pieces. The goal is to fill each piece of dough with some of apricots. To fill, I rolled out the dough, placed a mound of filling, and closed it; not unlike an empanada. This idea I got from the excellent (and out of print) book, "Special and Decorative Breads" (volume 1). After shaping, the rolls are left to rise for a few hours.

I baked the rolls in a moderate oven, until they were baked through but without browning the crust to much. I wanted them soft. They came out beautifully. They rose nicely (it wasn't the best rise; as the bread is somewhat dense, but it is still good). They make an excellent breakfast bread. The rolls are nice and soft, with a somewhat sweet crumb, and a lovely, tasty, filling.
I did not get any hint of strawberries in the bread, but the bread is delicious.

I pretty much followed Wao's recipe for original yeast bread, using all whole-wheat flour, and half the amount of honey.

The overproofed Paline

When I heard that Eric Kayser had published a bread book, I just knew I had to have it. Unfortunately, it's in French, and I don't read French. Eventually I caved in and bought a copy of his bread book, 100% Pain (along with two other books in French, Poilane's latest tome and Basile Kamir's book).

Not understanding a word in French did not prove to be much of a problem following recipes in French. I pretty much know the ingredients, or can easily find out. The instructions are pretty similar from bread to bread; I scan the text for times, and I work according to that.

Kayser's book is quite inspiring. He has a recipe for Paline, a baguette made with buckwheat flour (I love the French word for buckwheat, sarrasin). Since buckwheat contains no gluten, this bread also contains a fair amount of wheat flour (60% of the flour, to be exact, not including flour in the liquid levain).

This bread is made from a combination of liquid levain and fresh yeast. Kayser gives a three-day recipe for a liquid levain (100% hydration) using honey. I decided to follow his recipe for the levain as well, even though I have a perfectly good culture. I was surprised to find out that after only three days, the flour had fermented nicely.

I mixed the dough up, and added a smal amount of instant yeast. The dough rose very slowly. I should have used a little more yeast, I guess. I couldn't wait for the proofing to finish, so I baked the bread a little early. I got a nice bread, but with a somewhat cakey crumb. The flavor, however, was excellent. If you like buckwheat, and I do, the flavor really does come through very well.

I did try to make this bread again. This time, I was ready and added a little more yeast. I let the dough rise, only to find out it had overproofed! Nevertheless, I put it in the oven. There was no need to score the bread, of course.

Just as I put it in the oven, the bread flattened. It had definitely proofed too much. I did rise somewhat while baking, but it didn't come out as the prettiest looking loaf. It was far shorter and wider than my original intentions.
The crumb, however, was fantastic. This is truly a bread for buckwheat lovers. It has buckwheat's distinctive smell and taste.