Thursday, November 30, 2006

Loaf #10, buckwheat flour and a tube loaf pan

So, I tried 2 new things at once. The first was a cylindrical glass loaf pan that probably dates back to the 70's, the other was using about a third buckwheat flour in the dough. I used the basic bread recipe as a base, with bread flour in the preferment and the rest had 8oz of buckwheat flour and 8 oz bread flour in the rest of the dough. I also added 2 tablespoons steel cut oats to the flour before adding the preferment, and a packet of unflavored gelatin. It kneaded and rose nicely, I formed a loaf and shoved it into the middle of the tube. Not knowing how big it would proof, I actually divided the dough and put 1/3 of it on a nonstick mat next to the tube pan.
The blob loaf is covered in corn starch, which I made way too thick. Forgive me, it wasn't the smartest move I've made while bread baking. I considered it a throwaway piece anyway.
After baking, I removed the loaf from the tube pan. I muse admit, I was a bit disappointed because it looks pretty much like my Italian loaves in shape.
The result was a nice dark loaf with plenty of soft texture and spots of white steel cut oats for contrast, the loaf was nicely round but my Italian and French loaf pans work as well for nearly round loaves without the breakable factor. I thought that the bread was a bit sour for my taste, but my wife liked it. I'll try it again with less buckwheat flour next time.