Bread day

Yesterday was bread day for me.  I made two batches, 1)a white rosemary with mostly organic bread flour (King Arthur) and just a bit of whole wheat and 2) a very dark, multi-grain, raisin bread.  The rosemary bread was fine, two round loaves baked on the pizza stone and one baked in a loaf pan.  One of the round loaves disappeared almost instantly.

The multi-grain bread was a near disaster.  Not because the bread was bad, but because sometimes my brain simply does not work.  People like me should ALWAYS set a timer on their bread because we all know it is a BAD idea to leave the house and forget to take the bread out of the oven!  Do you want to know what happened?  I'll tell you about the bread first.

I used organic whole wheat flour, a bit of bread flour, some oil, brown sugar (I would have used molasses, but I was out), polenta, steel cut oats, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and raisins.  The polenta and oats were soaked in boiling water and cooled before adding to the dough.  I was going for a moist, dense, sweet, chewy loaf.  A hearty breakfast bread.

I do wish I could give you a recipe, but I can't.  I didn't measure.  I was winging it on this one.  Next time I will try and write down the amounts. 

Anyway, about that bread left in the oven.  I scooted out the door to take Joel to a soccer game.  I remembered my knitting.  I remembered my book.  I remembered my ice cold ginger water.  Did I remember that there was bread in the oven?  I did not.  Not until half time in the game - a good hour and a half past the time the bread should have come out of the oven.  As I sat chatting with the soccer moms at half time, all of a sudden I remembered that bread.  OH, NO!

I quickly called Thomas, who thank goodness, had stayed home to study.  Wonderful, marvelous, diligent, studious son.  He knew, of course, why I was calling.  He had smelled the still lovely fragrance of slightly burning bread wafting up the stairs.  Smart, intelligent, helpful son that he is, he came to the kitchen and discovered my error.  The large loaves were only slightly burned on the outside and a little crisper than desired.  The insides were fine.  The small loaf was an inedible brick.

OK, so those loaves didn't turn out the way I wanted, but they are still good.  A little drier than I was planning since they cooked too long, but if I had some of  Erin's butter to put on them, no one would ever notice!