Warning...if you don't like the flavor of coffee you will not like this bread. I have used coffee in my breads before and usually it is very subtle since I use a higher percentage of whole grain flour and add-ins but since most of the flour in this bake was on the white side the coffee flavor was very strong.
In hindsight I should have baked this bread as a Ciabatta since it ended up such a slack and wet dough. While I was working on the final formulas and trying to figure out what hydration level to use for maple syrup and sweet potatoes I discovered that sweet potatoes are extremely high in water. In fact they are around 85% water which I now know is the main reason why this dough ended up so wet. Next time I bake this one I would definitely adjust the water content to get it down to around 70-75% hydration or cut down some of the sweet potatoes.
One of these days I will sprout my own whole wheat berries and grind them into flour, but for the time being I will use the KAF flour version. The combination of the Sprouted Wheat flour along with the KAF European flour, spelt and potatoes made this a moist bread with a nice open crumb and chewy crust.
The KAF European Artisan flour is one of my favorites and contains a small amount of white whole wheat flour and comes in at 11.7% protein level which is ideal for artisan loaves.
Karen from Brot & Brad and the Fresh Loaf posted an exciting baking challenge to create a German style multi-grain rye bread called an Urbrot. This was based on her recent trip to Germany while visiting Fredrick the Great's Sanssouci. Please read her excellent write-up on her travels and a recap of all the challenge bakes from fellow TFL members here.
This is my second bake of this bread in the last few days. I had made a batch of dough to go with my wife's football party eggplant parmesan and chicken parmesan with homemade sauce, meatballs and sausage. She also had made some fresh croissants with chocolate inside and all I was going to do was make some bread.
I just returned from my latest trip to China for work and was itching to have some decent bread to eat. China is not known for their bread so I was starting to suffer bread withdrawal.
My starter is in serious need of some tender loving care after sleeping in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks so I had no choice but to make a yeasted dough.
I used a good portion of First Clear flour along with durum, white whole wheat (to get a little healthy grains in there), bread flour and some potato flour.
Ever since I read about this bread baked by Varda (recipe here) I have wanted to try to bake one. I managed to pick up what I thought was Chocolate Malted Rye which is one of the key ingredients at a local brewers supply store. Unfortunately I later learned that what I bought was chocolate malted barley. Never the less I still figured it was worth giving it a go anyway.
I have made sourdough rolls using the Tangzhong method before and they usually come out great. I decide to change it up a bit and used buttermilk instead of cream or milk and added some sour cream for an added flavor boost. I also added some fresh parmesan cheese and used rolled oats, white rye and spelt flour to try to make it a little healthy.
I have to say when these were baking the whole house smelled amazing.
I wanted to make a fairly uncomplicated bread with a good portion of spelt flour and while I was at it I decided to add some walnuts since I love nuts and my new apprentice Max is quite the nut as well.
My wife picked up some chocolate infused olive oil on close-out at William Sonoma so I figured that along with some chocolate vinegar would be a good compliment to the mix of nutty flours along with the walnuts. I'm not sure you really end up tasting too much chocolate flavor but it did add some nice chocolate undertones to the final bread.
This bread was inspired by my friend and fellow TFL member, Khalid. His beautiful bread was a 100% whole wheat version using yeast while for my version I chose to convert the recipe to sourdough and used three different whole grain flours instead of one.
I decided to use my trusty Krups coffee grinder to make fresh ground flour for the entire recipe and I was quite happy with the results.
I used a 2 step build for the starter mixing Einkorn Ancient Whole Wheat with a Hard White Whole Wheat.
