Ugly Breakfast Rolls

These are something I've been wanting to make since I started my current job in January. I have to get up at a ridiculously early hour, even before my stomach is awake enough to know it wants food. One of the few things I have an appetite for at that time is freshly baked bread. Unfortunately, even when I have good bread to eat, I'll still be hungry well before it is time for my 'lunch', which happens to be about the same time I'd be eating breakfast, normally. So I thought it'd be a good idea to make bread that was full of whole grains, nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, as an attempt at a somewhat nutritious breakfast.

When Lee gave me the recipe for the chocolate cherry stout bread, I also copied a recipe from the same healthy magazine for a sunflower seed bread that looked good. I used that as a base to make these rolls, but I took out some ingredients (dried blueberries, cornmeal), added some (walnuts, dried dates, dried apricots, etc) and made some changes due to my complete inability to read my own handwriting.

The dough was too thick and heavy to rise much at all, and the yeast hadn't seemed very active when I dissolved it in warm water in the very beginning, so I did not expect these to turn out at all. I baked them anyway, but didn't slash the top or coat them in seeds, like I'd planned. They cracked around the bottom from the oven spring and generally look like rocks. I thought that putting them in a picture by some ugly bananas that had been slated to be made into banana bread would make them more attractive by comparison. They taste pretty good, though they're a bit sweet for my taste. They stayed fresh for a long time in a plastic bag and provided many a good breakfast.

Next time I try to do a breakfast roll like this, I'm going to experiment with adding some powdered soy protein, more seeds and nuts, and less honey and molasses. I think I will also try to update this blog with my recipe before I've completely forgotten what it was I put in.

Ugly Breakfast Rolls
1 package instant dry yeast
1 cup warm water

2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup molasses
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup oats
1 1/2 cups bread flour

2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped dried dates
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and let sit five minutes.

Measure the wheat flour into a bowl and add the honey, molasses, salt and yeast water to it. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for one hour to make a sponge.

Add the wheat germ, wheat bran, and oats. Add one cup of bread flour and stir until the dough comes together.

Turn dough onto a floured surface, knead in the remaining flour to make a tacky dough, then gradually knead in the rest of the ingredients.

Let rise one hour in a large, oiled bowl in a warm spot, until doubled. (Or until it hasn't changed a bit...)

Divide into roll-sized portions, form rolls and let rise an additional 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375*F, slash rolls (or don't...) and bake 35-40 minutes.

New Books on Bread

I haven't been baking much, but I have been reading. A friend recently went to Paris for a wedding, and I sent her with a short list of books to pick up. Among those related to baking was 100 % pain : La saga du pain enveloppée de 40 recettes croustillantes by Eric Kayser. I found it on amazon.fr because I wanted a French baking book, but looking through it, it is more amazing than I had hoped. I've just skimmed the beginning so far, but it has what looks to be a fairly thorough description of the history of bread and its cultural significance. I was just eager to get to the recipes.

All the breads seem to be based off the same levain liquide, which is just a half flour/half water sourdough starter. A lot of them call for additional yeast to be added, so they're just using this like a poolish to get flavorful breads you can bake in a day, as long as you have the levain liquide ready. It seems like baking from this book will be a very pleasant respite from multiple overnight refrigerations.

I'm most excited about the recipes, however. It contains 60 recipes, with some fairly standard breads like baguettes, brioche, and Viennese bread, but some very interesting ideas as well, like seaweed bread, pumpkin curry bread, and fig & fennel bread. Some of these ideas are very much up my alley. I think getting the hang of his levain liquide method will also be helpful in getting away from recipes for a basic bread.

The other bread related books I had my friend pick up are the French translation of a manga called Yakitate! Ja-pan. It's about a boy who wants to become a baker and create "Ja-pan", a bread that Japanese people will prefer to rice. It's hilarious and interesting and also useful for learning more about baking bread creatively. I wanted to read the manga in French because I know more baking terms in that language than in Japanese, but I've also got a few episodes of the anime a Japanese friend taped for me, so I'm picking up the vocabulary slowly. If only the translation company I work for would release this manga in the U.S. I'd love to translate it.

I've got some bread ready to go in the oven now, but I think it's lost unless I get some amazing oven spring. It is very dense, but it's hardly risen at all.