HBinFive: Master Recipe

For our 1st Official bread baking from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day, our recipe was the Master Recipe on pages 53-59. From that we could make either (or all) pages 53-59 - 1 Loaf of Bread, pages 71-73 – Epi or Wreath shaped bread, pages 233-234 - Spicy Whole Grain Snack Crackers, or something else from the book if we desired. Because I was baking at nearly the last minute, I decided to make 1/2 of a recipe of the Master and make the Hearty Wheat Sandwich Loaf on pages 62-63. I may go back later and make the 3 options. The crackers sound very interesting!

I'm always on the lookout for a good sandwich loaf recipe. I like to take sandwiches to work for lunch but those can get boring very quickly. A big part of the downfall of a sandwich for me is the bread. If the bread is dry and blah...you can forget having a decent sandwich no matter what the filling is inside.

I made and baked the loaf in the minimum amount of time that the authors give for the recipe. I almost forgot to make the bread for this bread braid and I wanted to get it done. It was probably a lot wetter than it would have been after a rest in the fridge. I also don't know if affected the rise in the oven because it seemed that the dough rose very nicely. I didn't have an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pan so I used a 9 x 5 x 3 instead. The bread ended up filling the pan and rising slightly above the rim.

It baked for right at 40 minutes. I was worried that it might have baked for too long because the top was really brown. When I sliced it however, it was just fine. Next time I might start checking at about 35 minutes.

My slices turned out better than my previous attempts. Usually they end up a little wonky. Thinner on top and a little too thick on the bottom seems to be my norm!

While I didn't have a chance to make a sandwich out of this loaf (yet!), I did enjoy a little strawberry jam and honey cinnamon butter on a few slightly warm slices (I can't wait for it to completely cool!). I was worried that the whole wheat would be overwhelming but it was surprisingly subtle. The jam and butter were allowed to shine as they should on good bread. That's not to say the bread was boring or blah. Far from it. By itself it was good. A little plain perhaps. It's not the type of bread you want to eat alone. It needs a filling, spread, or something to be really good. Of course, it is called a sandwich loaf. Obviously it's meant to be filled!

You can also see much more from the HBinFive bloggers here on the bread braid.  Check out the blogroll here to see a member list for HBinFive.  If you would like more information on HBinFive, visit our founder Michelle at Big Black Dog.