Mongrel Bread

Yes, you guessed, it’s the famous and well paraded Oat and Honey.

One of the sad things, when you no longer bake for sale, is the lack of variety. We used to bake at least seven breads every week with three (Special, Rye, Flat Bread) changing every bake. So there was always a big variety to dip into.

When there’s just the two of you, you need a basic loaf, and the specials rotate very slowly; there’s only so much bread you can eat. So this is the first Oat & Honey maybe this year.

Mongrel Bread because of my laziness. As you see from the formula, two flours are called for – Strong Bread Flour and Wholemeal Wheat. Things have become a little more complicated since I started milling my own grain and sieving different extractions. I was a good boy and made the porridge, toasted the oats and refreshed my starter the night before. But I didn’t check my flour supply. So in the morning I weighed out the my “whitest” home milled flour – not enough. Added some Emmer I’d milled the previous day. Added some commercial bread flour. Added what I thought were Middles (between highest extraction and bran) but it turned out to be bran. Added the Wholemeal as in the formula (gotta get something right). Juggled the hydration a bit.

But I have to say the flavour was worth getting out of bed for even on a Saturday …