The Bread-Winner's Bread Baker

The Chief Taster is a creature of habits.  When she (and later we) lived in Arlington, she would go to the Farmers' Market every Saturday morning.  On alternate Saturdays, she would buy a single loaf of a very particular bread, slice it, and have one piece of it toasted every morning until it was gone.  Then she bought a new loaf.

Until we moved.

There is still a local Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings, but this one doesn't have the same bakery.  She bemoaned the loss of her ritualistic loaf.

I stepped up to the challenge.  Keep in mind, the loaf detailed below is not a perfect match to her original choice, nor do I consider it a final draft, but to get a closer approximation, I need to include a sourdough starter.  This alone is a three to five day project, and I'm not always sure five days in advance of whether I'll be in my kitchen, or even in the same state as my kitchen, so this version will have to do for now.  Luckily, she's already pretty happy with it, and there is every likelihood that this new habit will become so ingrained by the time I can revise the recipe that she will thumb her nose at the new version.

Do you have a wire rack where your bread can cool?  It will allow airflow under the loaf and keep the bottom from getting soggy.

Bread-Winner's Bread

2 C warm water

2 T molasses

1 C rolled oats

1 C rye flour

2 C whole wheat flour

4 t dry yeast

2 T melted butter

2 t salt

4 t sunflower seeds

4 t sesame seeds

4 t poppy seeds

4 t caraway seeds

4 t flax seeds

2-3 C all purpose flour

1. Pour water into a large bowl.  Add molasses, oats, rye flour, and 1 C wheat flour, and mix.  Add yeast.  Stir well.  Cover with a dish towel and let it "sponge" for about 20 minutes.
2. Add 1 C whole wheat flour, melted butter, salt, seeds, and about 1.5 C all-purpose flour.  Mix together, drop the dough ball onto a clean, dry surface, and knead until cohesive (about ten minutes).  Add flour as necessary.
3. Put in a clean bowl, cover with a dish towel, and rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
4. Lightly grease two 8"x4" loaf pans.  Punch down and divide into two equal dough lumps.  Gently squeeze and shape each lump into loaf shapes, roughly the size of the inside of your loaf pans, and put each loaf in a pan.  Cover with a dish towel and proof for half an hour.
5. Apply an egg wash, slit the tops of each loaf, and bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes.

This was taken during Step 1, after ingredients have been mixed together. Then you put a dishtowel over the bowl and leave it on a warm area of the counter for twenty minutes.  Now go look at the next picture.

This is the same bowl of stuff after "sponging."  The yeast has started its work, and bubbles are forming.  You can tell even in this picture the dough is slightly risen, and looks like it's been inflated a little.  Think of this as a very rudimentary starter.

This recipe makes two loaves, which I can slice pretty thin, and the Chief Taster only eats one slice a day, so this batch can be frozen after slicing, and it will last her for a month or more.  Your results may vary.  I know I eat two or three slices of this every time I make it when it's still warm from the oven and the butter melts right into it.  I think it's best then, but it also toasts well.  When it's fresh, I can pick up the sweetness of the molasses and smell the caraway seeds.

Counter clockwise from center: melted butter, whole wheat flour, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, caraway seeds, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds.  You don't have to add yours in orderly lines, but I thought they'd photograph better like this.

During early trials of this recipe (which started as an adaptation of one I found online and quickly mutated to a unique creation through my efforts and her feedback), she once told me, "this is good, but make it more like this."  After I pointed out that nothing can ever be more like itself than it already is, she asked for more whole wheat flour and more seeds.  I added a little more yeast, because I wanted larger loaves with a more open crumb.

Here's another before-and-after.  This is the doughball after kneading, before rising.

This is the same doughball, one hour later.  Pretty impressive, huh?  Be sure to put a dishtowel over your dough while rising to keep it from getting too dry.

The recipe we have now has a nice, soft crumb that is still strong enough to be easily sliced, and even used for sandwiches, if you like a somewhat undersized sandwich.  The crust is softer than I would prefer, but it's still well-suited to her purposes, and the addition of an egg wash gave it a nice color.  Slicing the top of each loaf corner to corner about 1/2" deep just before baking allows the loaf to expand a little in the oven without producing irregular tears and cracks.  Think of it as a crumple zone for your crust.

section view

Finally, a word about intellectual property.  I don't know how it works with recipes, but here's the thing: I invented this.  This loaf is my brain-baby.  I encourage you to make it for the breadwinner in your life (yourself, for example), or anyone else you choose, but if you start selling it, I want a cut.  Blogging does not pay my rent.

The bread-winner does.