07/30/07

Essential's Columbia Bread

The last time I baked this bread, I was short of some ingredients and made a yeasted version. I revisited this bread again, making a more authentic version with a sourdough starter. This bread was featured in Maggie Glezer's book, Artisan Baking Across America and was the subject of interest by many forum-ers in The Fresh Loaf site.

Using the recipe as a guide, I added 3 teaspoons of malt powder since I did not have the syrup version. I will know by tomorrow if this was a correct amount.

The bread is 90% white flour, 8 % whole-wheat and 2% rye. Hydration as given in the book was 67%. Halfway through the making of this bread, I was 'sent' to top up petrol for the car. This threw my schedule off a little. As a result, shaping was a little rushed and one of the loaves had a blow-out. Anyway, the loaves turned out very ugly so I hope the flavor can compensate this. In a way, this bake is going to be like taking the 'exams' :)