Heart of Wheat

Last night I finished a Heart of Wheat bread.  The recipe again coming from The Bread Bible.  This bread is close to the first one I baked a few days ago, but has a few tablespoons of Wheat Germ (not toasted) mixed in.  As with most breads in this book it uses a sponge preferment and needs to sit for 1-4 hours at room temperature.  I had to run out and wouldn't be home for at least 6-7 hours so I stuck it in the fridge which supposedly you are able to do.  I've never put activated yeast back in the fridge for fear of killing off the yeasties.  When I got home I took out the mixing bowl and set it in a slightly warm oven to get back to room temp before I began to mix and knead.  While kneading the dough was a little wetter than I had anticipated and it made it hard to handle,  I probably should have mixed in a little extra flour but decided to stick it out.

It took a little longer to begin rising as it was still cold from resting in the fridge.  Maybe a half hour extra time, so not too bad.  I'm still pretty bad at trying to shape these things and this dough being on the wet side did not help much, I had to handle it much more than I should have.  I'm also still very bad at scoring them!

The results were fantastic!  The crust was super crisp and had a nice golden brown color with random splotches of light and dark.  The crumb was very fluffy and moist, but not crumbly.  The color was much darker than the previous breads I've made due to the added wheat germ.  The wheat germ also gave it a very strong wheat flavor.  Dipped in some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, it turned into a great midnight snack.