The Beginning: A First Attempt

I've made a few breads in the past, but for the sake of continuity I am going to call this loaf my first attempt.  After recently purchasing Levy Rose Beranbaum's and much inspiration from The Fresh Loaf, I decided to start documenting my breads, expanding off of their basic recipes...for now.

First loaf: Tuesday, November 30, 2010

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/8 cup sugar
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 - 1/2 cup lukewarm water

I mixed all ingredients by hand for about 1-2 minutes and let the dough autolyse for 20 minutes.  I then kneaded the dough by hand for 10 minutes.  I reserved ¼ cup of wheat flour for kneading the dough. After 6-7 minutes I didn’t need to sprinkle any more, it became not sticky anymore

I set it aside to rise for 90 minutes or so, but to my dismay it had not risen much, if at all.  I'm not sure what my problem is at this point.  I shaped and scored the dough and it is in the oven at 350.  Added a cup of water to a pan to steam.

Results:

It was done after about 30 minutes.  I think it baked faster because it was a bit smaller in size.  It also split on the sides; I need to figure out how to score these better.  The crust was nice and crispy but tasted a little salty.  I doubled the amount of salt since I used kosher and that was recommended.  I really should have stuck to the baseline recipe with regular salt and all bread flour first.  The crumb was very moist but overall the bread was a little dense.