I have wanted to pick up a new baking project for a while. I do Daring Bakers and then I cook/bake random stuff on the side. But that is not very often. I was looking through the books on Angels' shelf last time I was there and I saw Breadmarkers' Apprentice. It is the quintessential bread baking book. Amazing recipes. So I decided to bake it from A-Z (so I do not skip things!). Googling around it seems that this is a challenge many have tried (and often given up a short way through... whoops). Will see how it goes (and if it goes well I should try it for some of my other cookbooks). So far I have baked the first two.
Pictured above is Anadama bread. It is sort of a cornbread. I had never baked cornbread before and I did not like it. Too coarse and it didn't smell that amazing. Mine also didn't raise enough which might contribute to it. It did go very well with smoked salmon for breakfast. I am too lazy to type up the recipe so you can view it here or here. This is not going to be a bread I make again.
Next up was Greek Celebration Bread. Much better. Soft and fluffy. It is a bit of a sweet bread. You can also spread a sweet graze over it or add in raisins and shape it into crazy awesome shapes but I didn't do that. Too much sweetness. My only problem with it has been figuring out what to pair it with. Jam would be overwhelmingly sweet and any cheese or not-sweet spread is odd. An odd bread. It also rose super high in the oven - I was afraid it was going to hit the top (which it thankfully didn't). You can find the recipe here or here.
Next up: Bagels. I am afraid. I need to procure some malt syrup and high gluten flour first. Hoping Whole Foods does me well.
When you get to the recipes that use barley malt powder, go to a beer-making supply store. No joke! That's where Ryan picked up mine. They might have syrup as well.
ReplyDeleteI just bought a few pounds of high-gluten flour from King Arthur. I've heard you can make your own from bread flour + Bob's Red Mill vital wheat gluten, but I don't know the ratio.
You cannot get the high gluten flower in a normal grocery store? I am hoping Whole foods can have malt powder - some people said they did.
ReplyDeleteyou should be able to find something labeled 'bread flour' - always high gluten, and i think even target or similar places has that. but if you don't already have it, pick up the vital wheat gluten as well - always makes for better bread. :)
ReplyDelete-Vicky
I have bread flour, but the book calls for higher gluten flour than that. I've accidentally baked bread without bread flour and it doesn't turn out so pretty....
ReplyDelete