It's a puzzle whether this event is the last one of 2013 or the first one of 2014. Perhaps it's a bit of both.
Sandra of From Snuggs Kitchen invited us to bake a bread in a pot for the 63rd Bread Baking Day challenge. This was a challenge featuring technique.
So, this was how I spent my Christmas day.
I decided to experiment with my dough, baking half of it in the slow cooker, and the remaining half in a very hot pot in the oven. My dough was a basic whole wheat dough, prepared several days before Christmas and refrigerated. The shaping, clearly, was simple.
The slow cooker bread took about 2 hours to bake, and it was a bit flatter. I placed it under the broiler briefly to darken the crust.
The oven-baked bread looked more like a traditional boule, with a nice crust. Total bake time after oven heating was only 35 minutes. It definitely had more 'spring' to it.
Inner textures for both were ok, not too dense, but not open either. Flavors were equal. If I were to choose this method again, I would opt for the very hot pot in the oven. I can envision another bake-off between the "hot pot" method and the traditional baking method to see if the textures vary at all.
Thanks to Sandra for this challenge, and to Zorra for such a fun event. Keep an eye out for the Roundup in the next few days.
New Year wishes to everyone.
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