Monday, March 15, 2010

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.

7 comments:

Mimi said...

I love the flavor and aroma of yeast breads. I usually make some type of it weekly. I need to check out this book.
Mimi

Di said...

Looks great, Leslie! I should finally get to this one this week. My kids will be happy. =)

Susan said...

I have a batch of artisan dough rising on my counter right now. I love fresh baked bread!

Julie said...

Your bread looks delicious. I love fresh bread.

This cookbook is on my list of one's to purchase. I just don't know if I need the fresh bread...the scales keep tipping the other way and not the good way.

Velva said...

I have yet the courage to learn to bake bread-My hat is off to you for doing such a fabulous job.

Unknown said...

I think it's so cool that you guys are making such great progress through the book. I already have too many blogging groups, but once I finish up with one I'm going to work on baking through a bread book. Great job so far!!

Anonymous said...

I've made this bread before and it's next on my list to make for BBA challenge. Your loaf looks great. I'm glad it was a success for you.