My first SUCCESSFUL bake of this bread with Baby Bobby (we don't have to mention the unsuccessful one, do we???) was this past Saturday.
Sidenote: It was not Baby Bobby's first successful bake, only his first success with multi-grain. Baby Bobby made his debut in Sourdough English Muffins (recipe here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/09/11/sourdough-english-muffins ) which are amazingly wonderful and I'd already made twice.
I knew as I pulled the loaf out of the oven that it was light and lovely. It smelled divine. But it had to cool, and I had to go to bed. The next morning we tasted it--light (for a whole grain bread), soft, moist--delicious. Especially good with Trader Joe's Blackberry Jam. Mmmmmmm. Sunday evening it was still soft and moist. Monday night I thought about slicing and freezing it before it got stale, but the texture was still perfect. Tonight I planned to slice and freeze the remainder, but it is still very moist and lovely. Perhaps tomorrow.
Baby Bobby is certainly doing his job!
In other bread news, I got quite a bit of baking done these past 4 or 5 days, knowing that the weather is warming up and it will be too hot to enjoy baking for a while (no air conditioning!).
On Friday I made two AB in 5 olive oil dough boules with kalamata olives. They were lovely--the crumb was amazing and I almost had a smellgasm when I took them out of the oven. I'd glazed them with a cornstarch wash--I don't know what it is about that cornstarch wash, but it really enhances the aroma of savory breads. I stood listening to them sing (crackling crust) and trying to inhale them when they came out of the oven.
Yesterday I made Breadtopia.com's basic pizza for dinner. The teenager had ranch dressing, grilled chicken and tomatoes on hers. The rest of us had ranch dressing and tons of veggies (mushrooms, onions, olives, garlic, artichoke hearts, spinach, and tomatoes. Yummy! A veritable garden on your pizza.
While I was letting the dough for the pizza proof, I made a batch of Alton Brown's pretzel dough. When making pretzels I discovered what a great dough it is and I use it all the time for a white bread sandwich loaf.
I'm not sure what it is about that dough, but it really gets those yeastie beasties going and it is a FAST bread even though I use active dry yeast instead of the instant called for in the recipe. It doubles in less than an hour and I could barely contain it in the loaf pan while I baked the pizzas--I even put it in the fridge to slow it down to no avail. And it practically sprang right out of the pan in the oven. It nearly doubled it's PROOFED size! Yowsa!
Tonight I sliced it up into even slices thanks to my slicing guide. I left a few slices out and froze the rest, two to a zipper sandwich baggie with waxed paper in between. My little one takes out one or two slices to make her sandwiches in the morning. Sometimes the teenager will even deign to eat it.
Finally, tonight I decided to make pita bread. It will be hot tomorrow and we will have a cold supper of salads, fruit, vegies, and hummus along with my pita. I didn't want to heat up the kitchen too much so instead of the oven I made them on the griddle on my stove. They bubbled nicely, but they did not make pockets, so they are more of a khoubz (I think that's what it's called) instead of a pita. But they taste pretty good. Hopefully the teenager won't complain too much (it is finals week and she is not in a pretty mood). There was a bit of burning flour on the griddle, so I'm wheezing a bit.
I like the house to be as cool as possible before the weather warms up. That way it takes longer for the heat to "penetrate our defenses" and make us miserable. Our house can stay cool a long while thanks to two factors 1) no direct sunlight except a small amount in the kitchen window in the morning and 2) Two solar powered attic fans that suck the hot air up and out. But if it starts out warm in the first place, it's miserable.
Now a few days without baking while we wait for the North Bay air conditioning (the cool, foggy marine layer that keeps us comfortable most of the time) to kick back in. Hurry back, fog.
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