An Everyday Bread: WW bread from ABin5

The Whole Wheat Bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

Here's a bread that I come back to from time to time, just for the ease of it.  Last time I made it was with ginger, and some dried peppers.

The bread does contain some honey, so it is fairly sweet, but it works up fast.  It fit into my schedule this week.  I knew that I'd need a bread today, since I was down to crusts, and I wouldn't have time to properly bake a Tartine-style loaf using wild yeast. 

The dynamic duo that author the '5 Minutes a Day' books gave us this whole wheat bread in their first book, and I actually like it better than most of the breads that I've tried in the second book, which mostly contain vital wheat gluten.

I stirred up the dough last night and it sat in the fridge until morning after rising at room temperature about 2 1/2 hours.

misshapen

the loaf remains in the cooling oven

I baked it at a lower temperature

Today I was making some Sourdough Discard Whole Wheat Apple Cinnamon Muffins, using the recipe from 'The Baking Barrister', and made this loaf at the same time.  I didn't let the loaf rise in the tin any length of time, just took it from the fridge, formed the loaf, put it in the tin and right into the oven, at the muffin temperatures, which is kind of low for this recipe (350 degrees).  It baked for the first 20 minutes under another, overturned tin, and then 20 minutes more with the lid off.  Then I took it from the tin and turned off the oven, leaving the bread in a cooling oven until I could return, about 7 hours later.

I didn't expect the bread to rise much, I was rather expecting the crumb to be dense.  And certainly it is, but that's okay for a sandwich bread: it holds the butter and tomatoes just fine.  For a quickly made bread, its okay.

More about the Muffins

I'm always on the lookout for good sourdough discard muffin recipes.

These were a failure (no doubt my fault, not the fault of the original recipe).  My sourdough was likely a bit wet.  The recipe calls for 100% wild yeast discard, and mine was just mixed up ad lib, Tartine-style.  And my backyard-chicken-laid egg might have been a trifle large.

The original recipe, and the weights I found as I made it:

• 3/4 c sourdough discards 200g
• 1 c ww flour 148g  - I think I would increase this to perhaps 175g next time
• 1/2 c sugar 103g  - I think I would decrease this to 50g next time
• 1 tsp baking powder 3g
• 1 tsp baking soda 5g
• 3 Tbsp cinnamon 9g
• 1 egg 63g - a smaller egg would be okay here, since the mixture was a bit wet
• 2 tsp vanilla 11g
• 1/4 c oil 52g  - I would back this off to about 30g next time
• 1 large apple, peeled, cored, cubed 106g  - use some sour apples, even dried apples
• Topping: 3 Tbsp brown sugar 42g
• 1 tsp cinnamon

The muffins flowed too much, but they did show some promise.  They did appear to be rising a bit as I spooned them into the tins.  But they didn't mushroom up over the top of the muffin tins like a muffin is supposed to.  Instead, they spilled out onto the floor of our new, used oven, causing quite a lot of smoke.

But they taste okay -- if a bit too sweet for my liking.  There is a lot of sugar in them.

Here's another bread from the batch.  This one sat for 1 1/2 hours after being shaped, then baked for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.

Notes to Myself

• As for the muffins: 
• cut way back on the oil, next time.
• Use less sugar.  More whole wheat flour.
• Use a sour apple.  Would your dried apples work here?
• As for the bread:
• Of course, if there is time, let it proof in the tin at least until it comes to the top of the tin
• Try this with no honey, some time.