Loaf 53 – 9 Grain Gifts for Friends
These loaves began as a routine batch of my 9 Grain wheat bread as gifts for friends… except for a few brain freezes along the way.
I was making five loaves, so needed to make about 2.5kg of dough (500g being my regular size). Somehow I typed in 1,500g in my bread calculator and blindly went along mixing dough. Once it was mixed and starting to rest I realized my mistake. I quickly mixed up an additional 1kg of dough. I merged the two batches together, added the adjusted amounts of 9 grain and honey and was on my way. The double-brain-freeze part is that when it was time to put the dough in the fridge overnight I needed to divide it into two batches to fit in my containers. I could have, and just should have, finished the 1.5kg batch and made a second 1kg batch and avoided the panic part altogether.
The final brain freeze happened when I shaped the loaves and forgot to roll the in seeds to make a nice seeded exterior to the loaves. This affects the visual appeal of the loaves a lot, and I believe also significantly affects the eating experience. Dang. They were appreciated by their benefactors, but I wasn’t as proud of them as I’d like to be.
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- Shaped and ready to proof. Two round bannetons and three batards. Wait! No seeds on the exteriors!
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- Proofed only 1.5 hours instead of usual 2, but they seemed ready (and the kitchen was warmer than usual).
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- Scored banneton rounds, ready to bake.
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- I really wish they had seeds on their exteriors.
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- Nice interior (yes, we kept one for ourselves).
