Mellow Bakers in August

Another month of baking with the Mellow Bakers. Let see what was on the menu. It was an easy month for me because the baguettes and the 5 grain bread I already baked a long time ago, so I didn't bake them again because of lack of time. Tomorrow school starts again, well at least for one of the kids. And to be honest and even that I don't look forward to the getting up early, all those clubs and appointments they're going to have every week again (and I'm the one responsible to get them there in time) I'm glad we're getting back to our normal routine.

Without further ado here are the breads of this month.
There were Baguettes to bake, one with  pâte fermentée (left picture) and another batch with poolish  (right picture. I must say I'm a bit better in baking baguettes than I was in 2006 when these were made, but they look good and baked without problems, a shame I didn't make a crumb picture.

Five grain bread is next. This recipe has a lot of exclamation marks in the book, this is one of my favorite recipes in the book. Next to the five grain bread with pâte fermentée which will come later on, that even scored better! I just love grains and seeds in bread. I retarded the dough overnight with about 2 folds. My notes say I had to add a little extra flour, but I don't think I had the bread flour then that I use now. Because most of the time the recipes are spot on. This is a bread highly recommendable if you like breads with seeds/grains. Great to eat in rolls too!

And then the next recipe from the (not my favorite) rye chapter: 40 percent caraway rye . I had to get my starter back to life, that went better than I thought fortunately. And making the dough went very well. A lot of caraway seeds are used in this one... hence the name. I cut the amount in half, cause I'm not a real caraway fan, so you just get a hint and for us that's enough. It had a quite tangy smell, but tasted real good other wise. It had an airy crumb even with 40 percent rye flour, good bread!

That was this month's baking for the Mellow Bakers. I've baked (and posted) 16 breads baked so far. See you next month for the continuing story!