Whole Wheat Rye

Baked another whole wheat/rye combination over the weekend, in preparation for the visit of our USNavy daughter, her USNavy (ret) husband, and their nine-month old daughter -- our granddaughter (aka the most adorable baby in the world; see www.summerprentice.blogspot.com for irrefutable proof of that unbiased statement). Here are the various steps:


6:30 p.m.,5/10/08: "New England" starter working and growing. I put New England into quote marks; I obtained the starter from King Arthur Flours in February, 1997, so I figure after it's been being used regularly in Central Ohio for eleven years, it's probably more a Central Ohio starter than a New England one.


7:23 p.m., 5/10/08: the barm formed; total of about five cups of flour in the barm


3:12 P.M., 5:11/08: the dough mixed--added a lot more whole wheat flour than I'd planned, in part because--without thinking--I added the entire bowl of starter, so there was a lot more liquid than there should have been.


7:56 a.m., 5/12/08: the dough, risen after overnight in the refrigerator. I'll insert the recipe here:

Whole Wheat Rye

Stutzman Farms Whole Wheat
King Arthur Whole Wheat
King Arthur First Clear Flour
King Arthur White Rye Flour
King Arthur Organic Pumpernickel
Stutzman Farms Corn Meal
Soy milk
Ground Flax Seed
Barley Malt
Kosher Salt
Organic Canola Oil
New England Starter



8:21 a/m/ 5/12: the loaves formed, ready for the second rise; I used the basic overnight rise method that Peter Reinhart used in his wonderful whole grains bread book; the ingredients minus starter mixed, then refrigerated overnight, while the starter is fed and expanded. Then on the next day (or the day after, for that matter), after the refrigerated barm is brought to room temperature (usually about three hours), the dough is mixed with the starter, then allowed to rise, loaves formed, risen, and then baked.


1:47 p.m., 5/12/08: risen and ready (if not over ready) for the oven). I had to run some errands and midday was the only time that could happen; when I got home, Ann was cleaning the oven. So the second rise was longer than it really should have been; indeed, you can see that the second loaf from the left (the one in the ceramic pan that we got at Penland several years ago) has begun to fall a bit. The two loaves on the right are rising in Chicago Metallic Pans, while the one on the right is in a long banneton, so it'll go on the ceramic baking sheet directly on a little corn meal base.


3;00 p.m., 5/12/08: the loaves baked--oven preheated to 450 degrees F, then lowered to 350 degrees F when loaves placed in oven. Baked for a total of 50 minutes, until internal temperature reached 200 degree F. Routinely use a ceramic baking pad.

Observations: the dough was slacker than I usually make, and the freestanding loaf flattened out a bit. Ann actually sees that as a plus; better for slicing at the table, she says. Not sure I agree, but there we are. Haven't tasted it yet, so will have to update once we've actually cut into one of the loaves! It'll be the freestanding one; the three baked in pans are already in the freezer.

Whole Wheat Olive Pesto

no time to bake, what with some involvement at the Clintonville Community Market whose Board I've been elected to, and staffing a polling place for elections to the Clintonville Area Commission. So here's a recipe from the past:

Whole Wheat Olive Pesto

3 cups King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat flour
1 cup Barley Flour
1 cup Millet Flour
1 cup Teff Flour
1 cup Org. corn meal
1 cup Chopped burgundy olives
1 cup Grasmere pesto
1/2 cup Ground flax seed
1/2 cup Whole hemp seed
2 TBS Org. canola oil
1 TBS Succanat
3 tsp Kosher salt
1 cup "New England" sourdough starter
1-2 cups milk

mix dry ingredients. Add oil, starter, milk. Knead until smooth. Let rise until doubled in bulk, which will be several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Punch down, shape into loaves, let rise again. Preheat over to 450 degrees. When loaves are ready, place in oven, and reduce temperature to 350. Bake twenty minutes, then rotate loaves, and continue baking until done (about 20-30 minutes) and internal temperature is at 200 degrees. Remove from oven, cover with cloth towels, and let cool.

Whole Wheat -- and a terrific Indian restaurant, Banana Leaf

Baked some rather plain whole wheat loaves over the weekend; no photos, and they're meant as basic sandwich loaves:

Whole Wheat

King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat
Daily Grind Corn Meal
Soy Powder
Ground flax seed
Organic unbleached white flour
Blyth honey
Kosher salt
Giza sourdough

Mixed 4/3/08
Baked 4/4/08

Far more exciting was the discovery of a southern India vegetarian restaurant on Bethel Road, Banana Leaf. More about them at http://www.bananaleafofcolumbus.com/

Because of a Calligraphy workshop, we had visitors from out of town--Ann's first teacher and calligraphy mentor, Lisa Rogers, now of Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, and Sandy Wagner of Indianapolis. So I searched for vegetarian restaurants on the web, and had a couple of options. They went for Indian, so we went to Banana Leaf. And thought we'd died and gone to culinary heaven. Buffet, with a fixed menu. And wonderful, wonderful food. Served dish by dish by the proprietor, who explained in detail what the food was, what the ingredients were, and how it was prepared. We've found a new standard place! So between the world-class Dragon Fly NeoV, the comfort food Whole World, and the downhome Benevolence, we can now add spicy and terrific southern Indian food at Banana Leaf. Yahoo!

Great food from Whole World

Still eating rye bread, so no baking this week. And we're busy with the primary approaching in any event. So we ate out, at a favorate local place--

Whole World Restaurant and Bakery is one of the vegan glories of Clintonville, now celebrating its thirtieth anniversary. Happy to say we've been regular customers since Dan and Kim Otanicar opened the joint. Stopped by yesterday for soup (Ann had the minestrone, I had the tomato-peanut--both terrific, as usual). Brought home a couple of other dishes for later. Here's the nachos, on blue corn chips with black beans, avocado, tomatoes, onions, and a bit of soy cheese


and here's the Moroccan Stew--flavorfilled and terrific


The vegegarian meetup group is planning to eat there on March 22nd--unhappily, we'll be out of town, and so will have to miss. Too bad!

Did a large batch of pumpernickel bread this past weekend; mixed the barm on Friday, mixed the dough on Saturday, combined the two on Sunday, then formed the loaves and baked on Monday. Rich taste; recipe follows the two photos of the loaves, already in plastic bags on their way to the freezer!





Pumpernickel Rye

King Arthur First Clear Flour
King Arthur Pumpernickel Flour
Daily Grind Corn Meal
King Arthur White Rye Flour
Oat Flour
Mashed Potatoes
Ground Flax Seed
Hemp Seed
Caraway Seed
Cumin Seed
Sesame Seed
Kosher Salt
Organic Barley Malt
Molasses
Soy Milk
Budweiser Beer

Rice mixture

been experimenting with various kinds of rices lately, after years (literally) of only brown rice, organic brown rice, or basmati brown rice. So here's a photo of the newest batch, a mixture of black, red, and brown (darker than before) rice. We're grateful for Japanese groceries locally, a byproduct of the Honda plant in the northwest quadrant of the Greater Columbus area, and the demand for Japanese food products from the management and worker teams brought in from Japan.



there's a bit of a bitter aftertaste; we're trying to isolate what it might be from. Tried a small amount of black rice cooked separately, and that wasn't it. So will try the red rice next-----

Double Rye

Having gotten a shipment from King Arthur, made up a variation of their version of Peasant Rye:

Double Rye Bread

King Arthur Organic Pumpernickel Flour
King Arthur First Clear Flour
Daily Grind Cornmeal
Oat flour
Organic gluten
Mashed potato
Caramel color
Ground flaxseed
Hemp seed
Caraway seed
Chopped dried onion
Chopped burgandy olives
Solar salt
Soy milk
Potato water
Barley malt
instant yeast
Organic canola oil


decided not to use any of the sourdoughs I have; will see how the loaves taste with regular yeast--it's been a long time since I baked any breads without a sourdough starter, so it feels a little odd--but today is the only day I had available, and the rest of the week will be packed, so there really won't be time to do the whole aging process. Expediency seems to be necessary this time around--

the dough after mixing



after the first rise



in the pans, ready for the second rise



and the loaves, after baking--