Once again, the Bread Baking Babes have come up with another winning loaf of bread. Don't let the flaxseeds and prunes fool you -- this is one delicious bread.
This was also a very noisy and exciting bread for me to bake. Mixing the ingredients and letting the unbaked loaves proof was pretty straightforward. The baking part, however, was unique.
My newly purchased house came equipped with a gas range (not my first choice), so I'm still learning its limits. Now, for this bread, the oven needs to be heated to 450 degrees, and thereby rests the problem. I'm not sure whether it's really 450 degrees, but the smoke alarms in the house weren't pleased. At least two alarms began shrieking loudly (a two-alarm bread!!). The cacophony increased with the addition of howls from the resident German Shepherd Dog. Understandable. If I were a dog, I'd have howled, too.
This noise continued until the bread was baked, and the oven turned off. The dog and I spent much of the time outside in the front yard.
As for the bread, it was supposed to have a hole-y texture, and only the ends achieved this result. Being an analytical type, I think next time I will make 3 or 4 loaves instead of 2, and see if that helps with hole formation.
I would dearly love to make this bread again; however, I'm not mentally ready for dealing with the smoke alarms again. I've bought a new smoke alarm, so perhaps that will make a difference.
This wonderful bread was brought to you by Cathy of Bread Experience. While I've missed the deadline for being included in the round-up (family matters), be sure and tune in to her website to see who participated.
(Burnt parchment -- most probably a contributing factor to smoke alarm noise.)
