Today's Experiments

Today, I made two loaves of the Whole Wheat Bread in Peter Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice.  They came out OK, not terrific, just OK.  I was hoping for a little more bread in the pans and it was a little more.  The texture seems light enough, but the tops of the loaves look underdeveloped like I didn't knead enough - but I let the dough go for 15 minutes in the kitchen aid mixer so it should have been more than enough.  I didn't want to proof it any more than an hour in the pans because it was beginning to look a little saggy.  Anyway I'll post a picture soon.

Experiment number 2 is Mohn Bars from Inside the Jewish Bakery.  I'm not sure these are going to be a winner.  Lots of work for not so great stuff.  The dough used for the base of the cookies was dry and needed to be patted into the baking dish instead of rolled out.  The poppyseed filling seems runny to me (supposed to be like cooked farina according to the recipe).  The streusal topping is kind of tasteless- I added a bit more sugar to compensate for that.  The cookie base is baking now in the oven and then I will add the poppyseed filling and streusal topping and bake for another 20-30 minutes.  The jury is still out on this one.  Wow!  What a surprise - these are the tastiest cookies ever!  Rich but subtle.