Saturday, January 15, 2011

The Miracle of Flour

I have a new recipe for bread since my original starter did not survive my little Hawai’i trip in December. This recipe asks for beer, which is always a winner in my book. Since I did not want to waste a bottle of beer (the recipe only needs ¼ cup, plus 2 tbls), I thought why not bake four breads (which take the entire bottle – I could have drank the rest you ask….well it was only 10:00am in the morning and one does have her standards. We all know that saving the bottle until the evening was not an option since there is nothing worse than stale beer). Back to my bread….
I decided to conduct a little experiment (not really earth shattering since bakers have been doing this for centuries). I wanted to know what different results I would get in MY KITCHEN with different types of flours (holding all other variables constant – a true sociologist speaking here :) Except for the flour, the ingredients, conditions, temperatures, times etc. were identical. This is what I got: 
1. Rye Bread:



2. Wheat Bread:





3. Bread-Flour Bread:



4. White-Flour Bread:




And all of them...
Guten Appetit!