Bread Experience

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Whole Wheat Wreath Bread: HBinFive

They say practice makes perfect, right?  Well, I’ve been practicing the HBinFive Whole Wheat Wreath Bread.  I made it three times. It’s still not perfect, but I ran out of dough.  So this is what you get.

During the month of January in the HBinFive Baking Group, we’ve been making breads using the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes master dough. The Whole Wheat Wreath Bread is the second bread I made using the master dough. The first bread was the Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf.   

Whole Wheat Wreath Bread

About the HBinFive Baking Group


The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the new HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle’s blog.

Once the dough is made and stored in the refrigerator, it’s pretty easy to bake bread on any given day.  This is the whole idea behind the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes and Artisan Bread in Five Minutes method.  That’s what I like about the method.

Shaping the Bread

To make this bread, all you have to do is take the amount of dough you need out of the refrigerator (1/2 pound) and shape it.

Shape the dough into a ball (boule). I placed the boule on parchment paper so it would be easier to slide onto the peel without messing up the shape.

 

Next, poke your thumbs through the middle of the dough to form the shape of a couronne.  Refer to this post for more info on shaping a couronne.

The first time I tried this, the dough was so wet it kept tearing during this step.  I added more flour on subsequent attempts which made it much easier to shape.

 

Stretch it with your hands so that it’s about triple the width of the size of the wall of the ring.  The first and second time I made this bread, I stretched it more.

The third time I tried this, I didn’t stretch it quite so much. I thought it might look better with a smaller ring.

Let the dough rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap for about 45 minutes. The dough rose much better on the third try.
Right before baking, dust the loaf with flour and use kitchen shears to make shallow cuts at an angle like you would for an Epi. Visit artisanbreadinfive.com for more info on shaping Pain d’Epi.

I’m still working on getting the cuts right.  My third attempt worked better, but I still think I could use some more practice.  I’m sure I’ll be making this bread again sometime soon.

 

Before baking, I spritzed the loaf with a little bit of water, then sprinkled it with sesame seeds. Then I slid the loaf onto the baking stone using a pizza peel.

 
 

Next, to create steam, I poured 1 cup of hot tap water into the steam pan and quickly closed the door.  Then, I baked the bread for 25 minutes. About halfway through the baking cycle, I removed the parchment paper so that the bread would heat evenly on the bottom.

On my first and second attempts, the bread didn’t rise very much.

The third time, it had nice oven spring, but lost some of it’s shape.

Once the bread was evenly browned and firm, I let it cool on a wire rack.

I’m not really sure which version I like better.  I like the shape of the second one because it held it’s shape better during the baking cycle.  However, the third one looks tastier to me. Both of them taste good with Festive Marmalade so I guess it doesn’t matter.
 
 
Thanks for joining us today in the bread-baking blog.  Look for more breads from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Baking Group.  If you want more info on the HBinFive baking group, click here.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

 

Comments

  1. Only a true bread maker would try three times to make such a beautiful loaf. It is interesting how they look different all coming from the same batch. Amazing how science in the kitchen works!

  3. Your wreath is perfect! Thanks so much for all the pictures and tutorial. I was somewhat scared of both the wreath and the epi, but I will use your posts as a guideline and give them a try next time! Great job!

  4. Thanks ladies! This one was a bit of a challenge, but I’m glad I tried it.

  7. I haven’t tried the epi yet and i was thinking about doing it in a wreath fashion. thats my project for today. It’ll be fun to game day tomorrow. thanks for the demo pics. the wreaths turned out beautifully.

  8. i’m really impressed that you did the wreath, it’s the first one i’ve seen and it came out beautifully! i especially love the jam in the middle, how inviting!

  11. Thanks Judy! I still like to braid bread, and form a wreath from the braid, but the joined ends don’t always stay put. This is definitely a neat way alternative.

  13. Yes, that is a foldable peel! I love it! It’s big enough so I don’t burn myself and folds for easy storage. I sound like a commercial.