Sunday, November 30, 2008

I Spy Mickey in the Rye




With all the baking these past few weeks -- and more to come -- I was glad that the deadline was extended for this month's chance to bake with the BBBs (aka Bread Baking Babes). The time-consuming part was creating the rye sourdough starter from scratch.

Gorel, of Grain Doe, was the hostess this time around, and she chose a Swedish specialty, Rosendals knäckebröd, a yeasted cracker that requires some of that aforementioned rye sourdough starter.

My starter began as a very stiff dough, and I began to wonder if it was progressing correctly. Thanks to comments from Natashya and Tanna, I didn't give up hope, and indeed, it turned into a nice tangy, soft dough. Luckily, the cracker part of the recipe doesn't take long, so last night I was able to play with and bake my crackers. Some have crushed anise seed on top, one has black sesame seeds, and another has Kosher salt. Each batch took a different amount of time to bake, which is most likely due to the varying thickness of the rolled-out dough.


I got to play with cookie cutters, too, which is always fun.



One little guy got nice and puffy.



And for my morning snack today, I melted some Havarti cheese on top. Yum. I can see more Havarti/cracker snacks in my future.


Thanks again to the Bread Baking Babes and Gorel for a delicious challenge. Recipes can be found on Gorel's blog.


5 comments:

görel said...

I love the different shaped holes, especially the Mickey Mouse one! I'm glad that you managed to tame your rye starter, and that you enjoyed baking this! Thanks for baking with us, and may the starter serve you well in the future!

Karen Baking Soda said...

These are great fun! Here's a nice and cheery breakfast waiting for you in the morning. They came out looking yummy!

Lien said...

Great looking breads! mmm, melted cheese on top just makes my mouth water! Thanks for baking with us.

Engineer Baker said...

So cute! I love the mickey one. And I had one puff up too, but it was still quite tasty :)

Megan said...

Wow - you have been a very busy bread baker. Hey - try saying that 5 times fast!

Love the Mickey cut out.