BBA - Light Wheat Bread

This is one of the last breads from the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread that we'll make before they get more difficult. I dread the second half of the book, with its sourdough starters and pan ancienne. An easy part-wheat bread I can handle.

Or not. The first time I made this, it looked like a bowlful of worms. I added additional water, tried kneading it by hand, and finally gave up. Bread making is enjoyable. When it doesn't work, I shrug it off and start over. I think it was the gluten flour. I've never successfully made a loaf that contains gluten flour.

But this one was successful when I switched to bread flour. So successful, in fact. It rose perfectly, gave me some oven spring and looked glorious. It even tasted wonderful, with its part white/part whole wheat lending tenderness and bite. I used butter in place of the vegetable shortening, and brown sugar instead of honey, and I liked the flavor of the loaf. All in all, it was a subtle loaf, so it played well with other foods.

If you like bread and would like to get better at making it, check out The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread by Peter Reinhart. It's a book that changed my life, and I'm not exaggerating. Peter is aware of our little blogging group; check out his blog post where he mentions the Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge.