Whole Wheat

3/27/11      I made a baby sponge in the middle of the week and was too busy  to get to it until Sunday. On Saturday I put 1 cup back into the mother sponge, and added a cup of flour and 1 cup of water to the baby so I had enough for 2 breads. I used whole wheat flour for the first time. I bought some King Arthur whole wheat flour and I do like it. I made a batch of whole wheat bread based on a recipe from the King Arthur web site.

I also did a basic 3 cup loaf recipe splitting the flour 50/50 between my bread flour and the whole wheat. Both came out well. The flavor is definitely different and has a nutty sort of flavor. My next loaf is going to be a rye loaf.

 Both batches have a softer crust than the all white flour recipes. I have a good looking crumb on the Half and half loaves. I split the batches so the loaves are a little small, but Jan likes smaller bread. I am sure Jerrin will love these too.

Cinnamon rolls sort of

3/20/11     Used a sponge this morning to make the Joy of Cooking  Scandinavian pastry for some cinnamon rolls for this afternoon. I need to go get some ingredients, but I will do that as the dough rises. It is a good recipe that gives a very nice pastry.

• 2 eggs, beaten and stirred into the baby sponge
• 4 cups of flour sifted with
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs Sugar
• 1/2 cup butter cut in

The recipe calls for Cardamom seeds or ground cardamom, but the cinnamon roll recipe says to leave it out. I left it out since I do not have any at the moment, but I think I want to include it next time. One think I have learned from Brad is to get the dough a lot flatter, and once it is rolled up to put the cut slices into a rectangular pan instead of the muffin tin I have been using. I ended up getting a great roll, good fillings and filled a glass rectangular dish. They rose nicely and I put them in the oven. The pan sides were fairly high and as it baked, it did not brown well, so I kept them in the oven, big mistake. They looked great, but were way overdone, kind of hard. I did have a few, but I ended up taking Jan's advice and tossing most of them because they were rock like. I did not even take pictures this time.