Bread making

Making whole grain breads has always been a challenge for me. Recently I picked up Peter Reinhart's book on the topic and decided to try again. Using only Bluebird Grain Farms whole wheat flour, I came up with a pretty acceptable loaf and some good rolls too.

Reinhart says it's best to weigh all ingredients.

This is called a soaker. It was made last night.

This is the wild yeast starter, also made last night and incorporating a starter that took most of a week to get started using only wild yeasts.

Here the two batches are chunked up to go into the mixer.

I like my Kitchenaid mixer.

Here is the dough after the first knead, resting for five minutes.

And here it is after just another minute or two of hand kneading.

Ready for the first rise.

And after the first rise.

In the pans.

Ready to bake. It probably rose just a little too much.

And the rolls ready to bake.

Fresh rolls for dinner!

Well, there were six........

And the finished loaf!