Weekly Breadcrumb is a weekly series where I look back on what baking has taught me, shown me, or reminded me over the previous week. A lesson, or gift, I have received from baking.
We have had quite a lot of winter weather around here, and we’re not used to it! The cold, ice, and snow are throwing us off quite a bit. Fortunately, we have not lost power. And I enjoyed baking a couple of cozy and yummy things that helped us get through the storms.
I made a pumpkin chocolate bread with fresh-milled spelt, as well as a loaf of German rye. Delicious! One simple lesson, that I will continue to learn and re-learn, is to let your bread cool. With the pumpkin bread, we cut into it before it had cooled down, and its structure was kind of wobbly. It also just tasted so-so at first. But later, once it had cooled properly, the loaf held together really well, and then it tasted delicious. It’s funny how that works.
If you’re interested in making this pumpkin bread with fresh-milled flour, I followed this recipe, without making any modifications (besides using butter for where it calls for oil.) If I make this again, I might add an extra 1/4 cup of flour. I used spelt, but I think it would also work well with hard white wheat.