Bread Baking Babes bake a Carrot bread

Here we go again, the Babes are baking under the guidance of the sweet Heather at Girlichef and she designed a perfect challenge for busy times, it's a poolish but not too fiddly, it's a dough but not too difficult, and it produces a wonderful bread with looks!

So that's what we did, a wonderful carrot bread, with some carrot juice mixed in, a little rye and a tiger topping. My bread came out really nice and smelled wonderful but alas no tiger topping! My slathering baked up on the bread giving me a nice shiny crust but no spots at all.

I think I picked the "wrong" rice flour to make the topping because it acted strange. Later I realised this wasn't rice flour but baby rice porridge. No wonder 60 grams was so much and needed much more water. Aaargh! It took me two days to figure that one out haha.

Other than that the bread behaved wonderfully! It mixed up nicely, (I even had to add  a little water but that was probably because I made a very stiff poolish). I really like the freckled inside, the carrot showed and even the green of the parsley came through.

Finally managed to get the camera connected to the computer in a way that I can actually get my pics off of it. Nice. A lot of problems are gone with the computer revamped but some new things occur and need some thinking with that fuzzy mind of mine.

All in all I think this is a winner. (Please, if you have any leftovers promise to try it toasted? Grilled Cheese sandwich? with pumpkin soup? Ladeedahdeedah....

Carrot Bread

by Heather Schmitt-Gonzalez

Prep Time: 28 hours (mostly unattended)

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: bake bread vegan dairy-free soy-free carrots flour

Ingredients (3 loaves)

for the Poolish:

• 3/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water + more as needed
• 2-1/2 cups (13 ounces / 364 grams) stone ground rye flour

for the Dough:

• 1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds
• 3/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
• 2-1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup carrot juice, lukewarm
• 1-1/4 cups grated carrot
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 6-6-1/2 cups (29.4-31.8 ounces / 823.2-890.4 grams) bread flour
• 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon golden syrup (or honey or maple syrup)
• 1/4 cup sunflower oil
• 4 teaspoons sea salt

for the Crackle Glaze:

• 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons lukewarm water
• 3/4 cup + 1-1/4 tablespoons (4.7 ounce / 131.6 gram) rice flour
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1-3/4 teaspoons sunflower oil
• 3/4 teaspoons sea salt

Instructions

Day 1: Make the Poolish

Dissolve the yeast in the water, and let sit a few minutes to bloom. Whisk in the flour until smooth - if it is very thick, continue whisking in more water until it is the consistency of a thick batter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours; at this point it should be a bit bubbly.

Day 2: Baking Day

In a large bowl (or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with dough hook attachment), dissolve the yeast in the carrot juice, let sit a few minutes until it looks creamy (bloomed). Add the grated carrot, parsley, the lesser amount of bread flour, and the poolish to the bowl. Knead on low spead for 3 minutes. If the dough doesn't seem too sticky, then don't add any more of the flour; it will firm up as it is kneaded (plus you have more to add to it).

Add the oil to the bowl and knead for another 8 minutes. Add the salt, increase the speed, and knead until elastic, about 7 more minutes. At this point, the dough will not be sticky any longer. Use the extra flour, a tiny bit at a time, to remedy the dough if it is. Add the toasted seeds, and gently mix in.

Place the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl or container and cover. Let sit for 60-90 minutes, *knocking the dough back halfway through. To knock the dough back, remove it from the bowl and set it on a work surface. Use your hands to knock the air out of it. Fold the edges towards the center to form a cushion. Replace in the container, seam side down.

make the Crackling Glaze:

While the dough is rising, dissolve the yeast in the water in a medium bowl. Whisk in the remaining ingredients. It should be spreadable, but not runny. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before using.

shaping and baking:

Turn the dough out onto a lighty floured work surface and divide into 3 equal parts (approximately 78 ounces of dough to equal three 26 ounce portions).

Form the portions into three round balls, and cover them with a clean tea towel. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Shape each circle of dough into an oblong loaf, by gently pressing ball down into a circle and then tucking/rolling into shape. Set loaves, seam side down, onto a lightly floured bread peel or thin cutting board. Glaze the loaves generously with the crackling glaze (you'll have a lot of leftover glaze), and leave to rise at room temperature for 60-75 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size and the the surface is crackled.

Place a baking stone into the oven, and preheat to 475° F during last 20 minutes or so of rise time.

Slide the loaves onto the stone (let them rise directly on a baking sheet or two if you don't have a stone - slide that into preheated oven) and spray generously with water. Close oven door. Lower the temperature to 400° F after 5 minutes. After another 10 minutes, open the oven door to let in a little air. Repeat two more times (every 10 minutes). Total baking time will be 45 minutes.

Remove bread from oven and cool on a wire rack.

if you'd like to join in and be a Bread Baking Buddy, simply bake this Carrot Bread (yes, you may adapt) - and then send Heather a link to your post via email (girlichef at yahoo dot com) or leave it in the comments section of her post.  Submissions are due by October 29th.  Once you've posted, you will be send a Buddy badge for baking along.  I hope you'll join us this month!

Please click to see how my fellow Babes did this month!
Bitchin' Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire - Katie
blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
Feeding my enthusiasms - Pat
girlichef - Heather
Life's A Feast - Jamie
Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
Lucullian Delights - Ilva
My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
Notitie Van Lien - Lien
Paulchens Foodblog - Astrid