This months Fresh From The Oven bread baking challenge was for a Wholemeal Walnut Bread.
I have a confession.
I don’t like walnuts.
That’s not strictly true. I remember eating a whole bowl full of walnuts whilst staying in a farmhouse in France many years ago. They were straight from the tree outside and we had to smash them open with a bread board. I think I quite liked those at the time, although I think that was something to do with the where and the how. So generally, walnuts aren’t my thing.
I decided to make this bread anyway, as I had missed last months challenge and didn’t want to make a habit of it. Thank for this months recipe that was hosted by Sarah of Simply Cooked.
I had a few issues with the ‘sponge’. I kept putting the yeast in the warm water and it wouldn’t froth up. On the 3rd try I decided to go with it anyway, as I know I have used this batch of yeast for other things and it’s been okay.
Once I made the sponge it seemed to bubble away fine. Lesson learned. I think it is because I use easybake yeast and it doesn’t respond well to the warm water/frothing thing, but is best when it has some flour to work with. I even left the sponge overnight and it was still happy doing its thing the next day.
The dough made enough for 2 loaves so I put one into a 1lb loaf tin and left the other boule stylie. I still added walnut oil, just left the nuts themselves out.
It made a lovely rich, good textured loaf with a nice, slightly sweet flavour, due to the honey. I think I would add more salt if I made it again as I think my Maldon Sea Salt, when measured in teaspoons ends up being less quantity than table salt.
We had the round loaf with soup yesterday, still warm from the oven. I polished off the rest of it with chocolate spread for supper.
The tin loaf made a smashing sandwich today with strips of chicken, Little Gem Lettuce from the garden and a side order of our own weeny new potatoes in mayonnaise. I think it will also be good toasted, I will find out in the morning.
I’m glad I’m back on track and looking forward to next months challenge.
Apryl
July 28, 2010
looks good to me.. I’m not keen on walnuts either so would have substitiuted another nut or left them out as you have. The new potatoes look fab though and so does the sandwich!
thingswemake
July 28, 2010
I know, I should have been more inventive and added a replacement to the walnuts but I couldn’t find inspiration. Love tato salad.
Sally
July 28, 2010
Agree with you on the salt. Lovely pics as always.
thingswemake
July 28, 2010
Thanks Sally. Just looked at your Turkish Pide post. How lovely. Beautiful stuff!
Pascale
July 28, 2010
Great pics! I love walnuts (but I have found some that were bitter and not nice) especially big creamy Californian ones. Maybe I’ll give a try with the nuts back in…
thingswemake
July 28, 2010
Thanks Pascale. Hmm…I think my dislike of them may mainly be due to the bitter ones. Perhaps I need to track down some Californians!
Silvia
July 28, 2010
I had the same issue with the yeast – it didn’t start bubbling in the water but it’s normal since there is no food for it. When I put the flour everything was ok and the bubbles appeared.
Your loaves look great!
sarah
July 28, 2010
Hello–Your loaves are beautiful. I made the same recipe twice: once with walnuts and once with cashews; it was great both times. I realise now that if you use active dry yeast you need to add honey or sugar with the warm water, but if you use instant yeast the sugar is not needed. So that might be the reason your yeast didn’t bubble but everything still worked as usual.
I love your photos. And also your round loaf is so perfectly round!
presleyanne
August 1, 2010
My yeast did the same thing, but I usually don’t wait for it to froth up and have never had trouble with it before (except those times when I haven’t given it time to come to room temperature after being in the fridge), so I assumed it would be fine, and it was.
I’ll have to try using a loaf pan…my breads lately have been so flat! Yours look great!
thingswemake
August 1, 2010
Sylvia, Sarah and presleyanne: Thanks for your kind comments. Glad I wasn’t the only one with sponge issues!