Day 114: Pain De Campagne Honfluer

This bread is incredible! I started the French and Italian breads section today and I am so pumped. I expect all of these breads to be incredible, especially if I just base it off this first one. When I think of delicious breads, these are the ones that come to mind. A lot of these breads don't have many ingredients, but use starters and sours to add a lot of flavor to them. This bread used a starter made from honey, water, yeast, whole-wheat flour, and bread flour. After letting that sit overnight you simply add more water, some salt, and some more of each flour. That was it. You then knead it and let it rise for a whopping three hours, and then another two before popping it into the oven for about 45 minutes. While its baking you need to have a broiler pan in there full of water to create all the steam that gives French bread such a nice crispy crust. I have to resist eating more of this bread because it is just that good. I'm looking forward to all of the delicious breads coming up! 

Day 113: Pain Noir

There is a lot of weird stuff going on in this bread. First of all, the past few French breads have included tiny amounts of melted chocolate in them, just to kick up the flavor, and this bread was no exception. In addition to that, there was a ton of molasses to give it that dark color. The molasses also adds a ton to the flavor of the bread. There is also cornmeal for some added textures, and caraway seeds for their signature flavor. This bread is also made with rye flour, whole-wheat flour, and all-purpose flour. It tastes like a regular molasses bread but also a rye bread at the same time. It's really weird, but delicious too. I thought this was a very fitting bread to end the blended grains section on because tomorrow we're starting French and Italian breads!  

Day 112: Multi-grain Bread

Technically all of the breads in this section are multi-grain bread, so I'm not really sure why this bread got this awesome name. This bread is loaded with barley and millet, two grains you usually don't bake with, whole-wheat flour and bread flour. It's got a really great texture and the millet really adds some nice flavor to the bread. This was a pretty standard bread besides using the barley and millet, even though the original recipe calls for baking them in some coffee cans. I still don't have any coffee cans so I just used a regular baking pan. We're almost all through all of the breads in the blended grain section, and then we're going to be onto some really awesome breads! 

Day 111: Sennebec Hill Bread

There is a lot going on this bread, not flavor wise, but ingredient wise. This bread has rye flour, whole-wheat flour, all purpose flour, wheat germ, oatmeal, and corn meal. It's got a great hearty taste and you get a lot of toasted flavor in it. This bread is a little dry, but that is easily fixed by putting anything on it. It makes great sandwiches and I'm sure it would also make delicious toast. This is what I think of when I actually think of a blended grain bread. You can taste each different grain in it, and that's what makes this a special bread in my opinion. We're winding down on the blended grain breads, I think we only have two more to go, but then it's going to get really serious.

Day 110: Three Flours Bread

The names are getting a little ridiculous at this point, but I can't blame Bernard Clayton for running out of ideas/just using what he's given. You can't argue that naming a bread Three Flours Bread, when it does in fact use three different flours is misleading. The flours this bread uses are all purpose, whole-wheat, and soy flour. The only problem is that I couldn't find soy flour anywhere. I looked up some substitutes and it turns out you can use almond flour instead, so that's what I threw in here. I don't think I've made anything that uses this much almond flour so I didn't really know what to expect. It is definitely different when it comes to textures, but not so much when it comes to taste. It just tastes like a great whole-wheat bread, but the texture is hard to describe. It's sort of grainy, but really chewy at the same time. I actually really like how this bread turned out. 

Day 109: Red River White Bread

This bread may have opened up like that one guy's head in The Thing, but it still tastes amazing. It uses that elusive Red River cereal again, but I think it turned out just fine using Bob's Red Mill 10 Grain Cereal. I still think that Bob's Mill is the bomb for having all these weird cereal and wheat ingredients that I didn't even know existed. They always come in clutch. Anyways, I'm not sure why this bread opened up so much, I just sliced it down the middle like a regular bread, but it exploded out at the seams. The texture is incredible, it's just like the oatmeal breads I made before, and the taste is on point. There wasn't really a blending of flours in this bread but technically, Red River Cereal is made from oatmeal, whole-wheat, and rye, so I can see that being the reason it was included. All in all I'm really happy how this loaf turned out (minus the appearance). 

Day 108: War Bread

This bread might not look like much, but it sure surprised me with how good it tastes. I didn't really know what to expect from it, but I actually really like it. It's got a great crunch to it and you get hints of molasses in every bite. It is made with oatmeal and cornmeal, both of which change the texture of anything they're put in to. So to have both of them in one loaf of bread is amazing. There is also whole-wheat flour and all purpose flour. This was a pretty standard bread to make, with the only nifty ingredients being the oatmeal and cornmeal. I'm really glad this section of bread exists so I can use all of these leftover ingredients I have. I never thought to combine them like this and it turns out it's pretty good!