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Shaping them is trickier than it seems, some came out looking pretty good, others look a bit lopsided, and the ends got a bit messy. They're a little bigger than I thought they might be, I got 14 of them from a half batch so they're pretty close to the size the recipe calls for.
We made a three-day trip to Spring Mill Indiana State Park. One of the highlights of the trip was walking through the restored pioneer village from the early nineteenth century and seeing the old mill, complete with wheel and flume, which can bring water from Hammer cave and power the mill. The structures are not unlocked at this time of year, so we could not go inside any of the buildings, and the mill was not running, but it is fully restored, and they do grind corn there, which the DNR sells at the gift shop in the inn (from the ice cream freezer). I bought a two-pound bag, because I’m a baker, and that is what bakers do! It is medium grind.
On Saturday, I pulled out a recipe that was one of the early breads I baked, and which I had not baked for years. It’s “Danish Sesame Bran Bread,” yet another recipe from a Pillsbury Classics cook booklet, When Less is Best (#60). It calls for a cup of stoneground yellow cornmeal, so I opened the bag. I made a few changes. I replaced the ½ cup bran cereal with ½ cup oat bran. (I’ve learned that wheat bran binds calcium, so that the body does not get the calcium.) Instead of ½ cup low-fat milk and ½ cup plain low-fat yogurt, I used 1 cup buttermilk. I used 4 tsp. yeast (recipe calls for two packets or 4 ½ tsp.). I added 1/3 cup special dry milk for the nutrition. I reduced the molasses from ¼ cup to 3 tbs. and the honey from ¼ cup to 3 Tbs., after considering halving it. I left the salt alone, as it is 2 tsp., and I find 1 tsp. per loaf is usually fine. I used 2 ½ cups bread flour in place of AP flour (2 ½-3 cups), because I recall that with all the wholegrains, the bread sometimes sank a bit. As I always do, I initially mixed the wet ingredients (except for the oil), then added the whole wheat flour and a cup of the bread flour. After mixing, I let it sit for 15 minutes. Then I mixed in the oil, then another cup of bread flour with the salt. At that point, I switched to the kneading spiral. I added an additional ½ cup of bread flour as it kneaded. The first rise was an hour, next to the wood stove. The second was 40 minutes, then baked for 45 minutes to a temperature of 198F. I look forward to cutting into the bread at lunch tomorrow. I'll add a note to this post about taste and texture.
Promised Note: The bread has great taste. It's a firm, slightly chewy bread, which is to be expected with the nearly 2/3 whole grain. It is delicious now and will also shine as toast. It's not too sweet, and although I generally do not care for molasses in breads, it works well with the honey in this one.
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