Black Bread

In my last post I introduced my homey John, who tries to keep me in line.  He has given up trying to keep his bride in line.  A long time ago.  In addition to offering editorial input, he also offers other tidbits.  Recently he sent me a link to a recipe for Black Bread from 101 Cookbooks.  Since John had made all that effort I thought I would give it a try.  I became a little concerned, however, because when I asked him if he wanted to be a taster, he declined, claiming that he was going to be out of town, out of state, even, for the foreseeable future and would not be available to taste the bread.   HMMMMM.

Well, the recipe seemed safe enough, so off I went.  The flavorings are similar to the AB/HB in 5 pumpernickels, with espresso (I used instant), cocoa (I used Dutch), molasses, and rye flour.  It does not use the caramel color, so just common ingredients.  But it does call for 2 cups of shredded carrots!

I mixed up the dough in my Kitchen-aid, and kneaded it there as well.  I had to add a fair amount of extra flour to get the "soft, tacky, cohesive dough" the recipe called for, but then my measurements could have been off a bit.  I then put it to rise, and boy did it!








The recipe then suggested forming it into a ball and placing it on a cookie sheet for the second rise, but the dough was soft, so I put in in a 10" oven-proof skillet lined with parchment paper.  The sides of the skillet helped contain the dough.  Then I covered the whole thing with a bowl. 

Here it is after the second (substantial) rise. 

I slashed the top, sprinkled with caraway seeds, and into the oven it went, pan and all.

Voila!

The recipe notes that it makes "one extra-large loaf."  And it was not lying. 

But it was very good, soft, tender and flecked with carrots. 

Since the dough was fairly well hydrated, I wonder it it could be adapted to the 5 Minutes a Day method.  It would easily make 2 loaves.  Maybe I will play with that, because we really liked this bread. 

For another adaptation, I was watching French Food at Home on the Cooking Channel and she made an Onion Tart.   She called for a pre-baked pastry round, but I thought "why not some bread dough?"  So I rolled some of my HB in 5 dough (a Broa I had in the fridge) into a thin rustic shape, pre-baked it, then topped it with some light sour cream, thinly sliced onions, and turkey bacon, and baked it until lightly browned. 

Pretty darned good.

And now for a gardening tip.  If you force paperwhite narcissi you know that they can get leggy.  To accomodate that I start them at the bottom of a deep vase.

But according to Master Gardener Sam, once you get about an inch of growth, replace the water with a mixture of water and alcohol--5 parts water to 1 part rubbing alcohol. (You could use booze, but why would you?)  This mixture affects the growth, and the narcissi stay short!  I am trying it now, and will let you know.

So that is it for this time, see you next time for our monthly challenge.