February 21, 2005

Cumin through the rye bread

I wanted some rye bread and I didn't feel like spending a day making it. So I decided to try the speedy bread route.

Speedy bread is heretical and nonartisanal, but this is why we put quotation marks around the name of this blog. Speedy bread is when you forget about sponges and bigas and you just mix all the ingredients together, knead it, shape it, give it one rise, and throw it into the oven.

This will work. It will make bread. It will not be terribly interesting bread, because you're not giving the yeast time to work. The texture might not be ideal. But it will give you bread.

I decided on rye bread, and then I couldn't find any caraway seeds. We might be out. So I added cumin instead. I figured the stronger spice would mask the fact that the bread wasn't all that developed. And we like cumin in this house.

So the bread rose well enough. It took two-and-a-half hours from first mix to coming out of the oven. We ate half of it that night and enjoyed it. This seems reasonable. I am in favor of yummy and intriguing slowly-made bread, and I am in favor of sometimes having bread right away. So. This is good.

Posted by chris at February 21, 2005 11:54 PM