Whole Wheat

I've just taken two loaves of a simple whole wheat bread from the oven.  They look and smell great but you can never tell with our oven.  I baked them for 20 minutes less than the recipe called for and at 50-75 degrees less because of our wonky stove.  20 minutes less...I'm a little afraid to slice in as the insides may not be baked through despite the outside being quite browned.

Fingers crossed!

I've decided to document my adventures in baking bread as they have been just that...adventuresome.

Since moving to the North it has been my goal to learn to bake bread so that we don't have to rely on buying stale stuff from the stores in town. I envisioned myself whipping up healthy loaves of whole wheat bread, baguettes, rolls, you name it. Our house would always be filled with the smell of fresh baking bread.  Oh how naive of me.

Challenged by a stove that runs hot and likes to surge, a very dry climate and a drafty house things haven't gone quite a smoothly as I had expected.  My baking adventures to date have included; white bread, pizza dough, focaccia, whole wheat bread and rolls and pita bread.  The white bread, turned out well, but it was baked in another person's kitchen under her guidance.  The focaccia is fool proof and turned out well as had the pizza dough after a few trys. I would even consider my pita bread a success.   But the whole wheat bread...3 tries and three failures...its killing me.  I can't get it to rise.  And so my bread loving friends, mastering a loaf of whole wheat bread is my current challenge.  It is on this subject that we will continue in future posts.