As I've said elsewhere, I'm
fascinated by the whole wheat pull apart rolls I can buy here in Gotham City.
The are dense, moist and full of some combination of raisins, cranberries and
walnuts. Here is my first shot at them. I dressed one up by adapting a yeasted
pumpkin bread recipe.
Also, on The Baking Circle message board, the topic of bread bowls came up. This
is my version.
First up are pumpkin, cranberry & walnut pull apart rolls. When I think of pumpkin bread, I usually think of a sweet quick bread. This is not that. It's the yeasted bread form Steve Sullivan as presented in Baking With Julia. The recipe calls for three small pan loaves. When baked in the pan this bread is light and airy.
I scaled out 4 OZ. rolls and placed them on a sheet of parchment, each touching their neighbor. Then I baked them on a stone. They were dense and moist and delicious. When I do them again I will go with 3 OZ. and bake them in a 9x13 pan.
Next came whole wheat walnut cranberry rolls. The recipe is from Beth Hensberger's The Bread Bible. I'm getting close. Like the pumpkin rolls, I scaled 4 OZ. rolls and baked them on a stone.
They weren't as moist and dense as I would have liked. I think smaller rolls, wedged into a pan will get closer to what I can buy.
They weren't as moist and dense as I would have liked. I think smaller rolls, wedged into a pan will get closer to what I can buy.
At these same stores, I can buy the same dough as above but in the form of some fraction of a boule. It's great when there is more than one for dinner (or when I'm a little hungry). My first attempt was dividing the dough into thirds.
I shaped the dough inot 3 small boules. The were placed, at an angle, inot a floured banneton. Initially they didn't look like they would fill the basket. By the time they had proofed they were climbing out of it.
The boules grew "apart" as they baked. They were easily seperated into individual "loaves" which add to the staying power of the remaining sections. These were really dense and chewy.
Last but not least, the bread bowls. I started with a basic sourdough. I think I had about 4 pounds of dough when I was finished. I scaled it to 1.3 pounds and shaped it into boules.
They baked up nicely. Really good color on the crust with lots of nice blistering. It was almost a shame to hack them open, but hack them open I did.
It reminded me of Halloween and carving pumpkins. I sliced off the top and cut out the bulk of the crumb. I was carefull not to go too deep so as to prevent leakage.
As it would happen, my M.A.G. had just made up a batch of fresh tomato soup, with saffron aioli, of course!
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First up are pumpkin, cranberry & walnut pull apart rolls. When I think of pumpkin bread, I usually think of a sweet quick bread. This is not that. It's the yeasted bread form Steve Sullivan as presented in Baking With Julia. The recipe calls for three small pan loaves. When baked in the pan this bread is light and airy.
