For this week's food matters project recipe Melissa chose two of Bittman's bread recipes - Real Whole Wheat Bread and Mostly Whole Wheat Baguettes. We often make Bittman's famous No Knead Bread and were excited to try some of his other bread recipes. We decided to go with his baguette recipe, knowing that it would work perfectly with some cheeses we had in our fridge. In fact, over the past few days we have paired it with dips, soups, and a variety of cheeses - all perfect uses for a simple baguette.
This baguette, because of it's mostly whole wheat makeup, is not as airy as those you may find in a quality bakery, but is delicious nonetheless. Topping a few of them with a mixture of poppy and sesame seeds added a nice touch and good flavor, and next time we might try some fennel seeds, garlic, or rosemary. Next time we are also going to try making a preferment out of some of the dough to give it a bit of a boost in bread/yeast flavor. Stay tuned to see how those turn out!
