First HBin5 bread braid: crackers, boule and epi
The first recipe for the HBin5 Bread Braid(a bake along) is the Master Recipe. Now, I'm not going to be posting the dough recipes here. The book is copyrighted, so you'll have to buy the book or find it at your public library. The good news is that the authors of the book put the Master Recipe on their website along with the method of baking it, so you can try it before you buy it. :c)
I made one recipe of the Master Recipe using a freshly ground mix of red and white wheat. I mixed the dough one day and baked the next, letting it chill in the fridge overnight. From that I made 1 small boule, Spicy Whole Grain Snack Crackers and Epi shaped bread with about a pound to pound-and-a-half of dough leftover. This was my first time making a shaped bread!
I have made many boules because I have baked from the Artisan Bread pre-quel to this book, so this wasn't something new for me. It has a gorgeous crust and color.
I had never attempted a shaped bread before. Luckily, I watched a few videos online of people making Epi which helped. What didn't go so well was that my scissors didn't have a very long blade at all, so I didn't snip through the dough quite far enough. The finished loaf is supposed to look like a stalk of wheat. I think I also let it rise too long(I had to put the baby down for a nap!) so the "grains" aren't as separate as they should be. Still, it's a good first attempt, I think. It was very easy and fun!
The crackers were the most labor-intensive of the things I made. I will admit that while I was making them I thought they were more trouble than a cracker could be worth. I managed to get the dough paper-thin, but then transferring them from the counter to the pan was difficult. For the second batch, I rolled and cut them on parchment paper then just transferred the paper to the oven. That worked well, except I think I need a different brand of parchment paper. Everything sticks to the brand I have. I used only salt on the first batch and added the spiciness to the second batch. I have to admit I think I like the salt-only ones better. They are like super-delicious wheat thins. Very yummy! If I can streamline the process by finding a better parchment paper then I will definitely make these again.
Overall, a lot of fun! I don't think all my HBin5 or BYOB'10 posts will be this photo-intensive. Maybe every once in a while. :c)