The Bread Baking Babes bake bran bread. Say that three times fast or better yet, make it three times like I did to get it right.
Lien challenged us to go healthy this month with bran bread. She chose a recipe by the Simili sisters (sorelle Simili), the famous cooking and baking twins from Italy. We were supposed to use anywhere from 50 – 100 grams of extra bran and try not to make a chipboard. Ha!
When I reviewed the recipe, I noticed that powdered milk was an optional ingredient. That got my creative juices going. I decided that using kefir milk to soften the bran would be a great idea. I also thought it would keep the bread from being too dry. I was right on both accounts; however, I forgot to adjust for the extra moistness from the soaked raisins. As a result, the first two times I made this loaf, it was too moist. I used whole grain spelt flour and oat bran that I had sifted from oat flour. I really liked the color of the loaves, but not the texture.
2nd Loaf: Kefir Milk Spelt Oat Bran Bread a wee bit too moist
You got such an amazing crumb! I love your persistence!
Thanks Karen! I just couldn’t let this one go without a fight! đŸ™‚
Love that pillowlike loaf, it looks just perfect. I must say the 2nd loaf looks really good to me too. Love the combination of all those different kinds of bran and flours. Beautiful bread as always!
Thanks for the challenge Lien! This was a good one.
Oh!! Maybe if I’d scored my loaf, it would have risen….
You are a better woman than I, Gunga Dinn. (I didn’t bother trying again after producing a flat loaf from overly hydrated dough.) Even your second loaf that is allegedly too moist looks wonderfully lofty. (Is that black currant jam smeared on the bread? It looks wonderful!)
I’m with you about the honey. I used malted rye berries instead of honey and the resulting bread was a little flat tasting. I was thinking that some blackstrap molasses might be a nice addition – to sort of mimic bran muffins.
Thanks Elizabeth! Glad it’s not just me that thinks the addition of honey would be good.
The third loaf does look like it is almost perfect. Grilled cheese and that bread…delicious sounding!
I just love the color, wow! And that crumb, it looks so tender. I need to go rescue my kefir, it’s been sitting unfed in the fridge for a couple months. I will have to baby it for a while.
Can I substitute sourdough starter for the yeast? if so, how much starter should I use? Thank you