Snow Day Bread

It was really a last minute thing. I had spent the past two days (both snow days for me since my college closed down–no work, no class) shoveling snow, doing homework, reading, and watching movies.

Well, I know I should have written something–anything–but that wasn’t happening. I won’t go into details, it just wasn’t.

So, today, around 4, I decided I needed some fresh bread. Too late to take Lennie (My sourdough starter–named after the character from Of Mice and Men) out of the fridge for proofing, I started looking for a recipe. I came across this one, for a flax seed bread:

It looked good, so I went for it.

I deviated slightly from the recipe in a few places. I didn’t have flax seed, so I used flax meal, which still had some chunks of seed in it, but it did throw off the water content levels. Also, I used honey in place of the malt, since I had no malt. Lastly, I chose to add three tablespoons of rolled oats to the dough, just for the heck of it. I topped it with some sesame seeds (also for the heck of it), and that was that.

It was nice to not have to wait for the slow proof and rise times of the sourdough for once, but I didn’t miss the flavor.

Still, it came out hardy and tasty. I would have liked to see some larger holes in the crumb, but what could I expect from such a heavy dough?