Walnut Whole Wheat Bread

Homemade bread is always welcome, and this recipe showed lots of promise, infused with walnut oil and studded with walnuts.  In my enthusiasm for the recipe, I increased it to fit into my Pullman bread pan.   

Oh, how I hate math!  Good thing Smitty was home, as I would have guestimated how much to increase the recipe.  Smitty made me do it right.  I poured water into a standard loaf pan and weighed it.  Then I poured water into the Pullman pan and weighed it.  The Pullman pan held 2.44 times more than the standard loaf pan.  So I increased the dough ingredients by 2.44.  

I got the proportions correct, but this recipe didn't work well in this pan, as you will see in my finished bread.

The dough is mixed and then left to rest for 20 minutes.  It is "live" and puffy at this stage.  You can tell, this is a VERY big batch of dough, even for my 6-quart Kitchenaid mixer.

Before and after the first rise!  I wasn't expecting it to rise so much in just an hour.

This dough is fragrant with walnut oil and yeast and chunky with walnuts.

Starting to shape the loaf.  The Pullman loaf pan is behind the dough.

I was helped greatly to roll and lift this large loaf by my nice new oak bread flipping board!  
Smitty made it for me and it's just under the front edge of the loaf in this photo.  

The dough has risen above the rim of the pan.  Rose's bread recipes frequently call for a handful of ice cubes to be added to a hot pan in the bottom of the oven just as the oven door is closed.  This creates steam in the oven.

My bread crust is leathery and way too tough--all the way around, as you can see from the photo.  It took so long for the interior to cook on this oversized loaf that the crust got overdone.  I used an instant read thermometer to measure doneness, and it's good thing I had it.  However, the bread is delicious, once you slice through the crust.

Thinly sliced, lightly toasted and served with shaved Gruyere and crumbled blue cheese, the bread is delicious!

Next time, I won't use the Pullman pan!!  

I love the crunch of the walnuts and the soft wheat taste.  


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