.png "Revisiting Carrot Bread for a BBBuddies Roundup | www.girlichef.com")
The original recipe has minor hydration issues...in other words, I don't think there was a single baker that embarked on this journey that didn't have to add extra liquid to the poolish. Some even added more to the final dough. The bread also contained a mix of flours, add-ins, and potentially difficult to source ingredients.
I cannot tell you how much I love the fact that not only some of my fellow BBBabes rose to the challenge, but so did NINE BBBuddies! You couldn't wipe the smile off my face as I read through their adventures, trials, and adaptations - and found myself craving the final results. Each bread turned out a little differently; each bread looks fantastic.
Here are the Bread Baking Buddies final results (each picture is clickable, but there is also a small intro to each at the bottom)...enjoy!
- Cathy from Bread Experience: Cathy added spelt flour to her dough, debated the use of active dry yeast, and came away with four loaves instead of three; who said bread baking wasn't an adventure?
- Karen from Karen's Kitchen Stories: Not surprisingly, Karen had to add more water to her dough...but after a slightly sticky kneading process, the dough came together beautifully and had mad oven-spring!
- Renee from Kudos Kitchen By Renee: In true Renee form, she put her own spin on this bread by adding Carrot's spicy, feisty sister, Parsnip, to the mix! She also skipped the crackle glaze. The result was something that even her white bread preferring husband could get behind.
- Rita from Ipernity: Rita omitted the carrot juice, replaced the flour with a whole wheat rye and whole wheat spelt flour blend, forgot the crackle glaze, and slashed the top - but boy, oh boy, did she get a gorgeous loaf out of the deal.
- Carola from Sweet and That's It: Carola figured out my evil plan (mwaa haa haa) - aka throwing a somewhat testy, somewhat challenging bread out there for the month. But Carola aced this midterm exam, and cranked out three beautifully hued loaves, even throwing some thyme and spice into the mix!
- Natalia from Gatti Fili e Farina: Natalia loved rising the the challenge and called this bread a pure joy, in part due to it's beautiful color and the addictive toasted seeds that welcome you with every bite.
- Kelly from A Messy Kitchen: Kelly decided to give her dough a little boost by adding a bit of sourdough - and what a wonderful decision; the rye in the dough just devoured it. She also skipped the glaze, and gave it a little bit of egg wash. The results are stunning - that color!
- Louise Persson: Louise doesn't blog, but we love that she still bakes along as a BBBuddy. Taking note of some of the other Babes add-in variations, she added a generous scoop of a seed and grain mix to her dough. She also cut the recipe in half, doubled the carrots, and made just one large loaf. Her house enjoyed it toasted as the base to an open-faced sandwich, utilizing the last of their summer tomatoes, avocados, and cucumbers. She declared it "a great success"!
- Sandie from Crumbs of Love: Sandie didn't notice the need for carrot juice in these loaves until she was ready to get started, luckily she had carrots in her garden - and made her own juice! The result, even after 10 minutes of overbaking, look divine!
I am seriously so impressed at each of these amazing efforts. Thank you BBBuddies for making my first Kitchen of the Month experience an amazing one! I will see you next month.
And if anybody else out there would like to join in as a Bread Baking Buddy, simply watch for the Bread Baking Babes posts on the 16th of every month, where we announce our challenge of the month, the kitchen of the month, and give a date to submit your breads. One can never have too many BBBuddies....
