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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Mellow Bakers: Sourdough rye with walnuts and raisins

Just could not get excited about this Mellow Bakers bread, so I scaled the recipe down and made one small loaf. Even my hubby, who normally looks forward to pretty much any new recipe I make, said, "You know, you can't just dump walnuts and raisins into a recipe and call it something different. This is just like all of the other sourdough ryes." I think we're both getting a little tired of this genre of bread, even with some that have been surprisingly good.

With a constant heat index of 110º F for the past three days, I couldn't bring myself to preheat the oven and my baking stone for an hour, so I decided to bake the bread at a lower temperature in a small loaf pan. It baked for 30 minutes at 350º F, and, with no steam, it was one of the most anemic-looking loaves I've ever made.

We tried it toasted, with a little butter; the sourdough, rye, raisin, and walnut flavors were all very distinct. It seemed a little weird to combine the sweetness of raisins with the strong sourdough rye flavor, and hubby called the walnuts "startling" (not in a good way). At any rate, it wasn't bad, but we were not big fans.


4 comments:

  1. I once accidentally baked one of the Hamelman breads at a much lower temperature, and only realized it when I took it out and, as you say, it looked totally anemic! (Interesting that it still was fully baked at such a lower temperature, but definitely not as nice).

    I like raisin and rye, so I was thinking this sounds good, but I haven't been around the Mellow Bakers too long and I'm guessing this isn't the first one then?

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  2. This looks good to me, especially toasted! I could go for most any bread toasted and be a happy camper. If I ever get around to this, I am going to have to think very carefully...I usually trust others' judgments as one can not judge just by looking at nice picture!

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  3. The slices do look good, especially with the nice plump raisins! I love them in warm bread. I've only made one of the sourdough ryes so far so maybe I'll like this one, however if I use the walnuts I don't think my hubby is going to eat it. Looks like a good breakfast bread!

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  4. But it does look very pretty, Abby! :)

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