Struanbo

As you probably realize by now, any word with -bo means bread. :)

Today's recipe is brought to you by Rose Levy Berenbaum, the author of "The Bread Bible" and whose recipes you have already seen in previous posts (challah and raisin cinnamon bread).
Bobo is just growing and growin and there ain't no stopping him. ...:( I dont' know lah, this batch of yeast very active. heh.
(I was somewhat obsessed with the 2 little seeds..and wanted to take a picture of them. so cute! :P )

Anyway, I found this recipe some time ago.

Here's some background taken from The Fresh Loaf:

About Struan Bread

Struan Bread (properly pronounced "STRU-en bread", but most people I know call it "STRON bread") is a harvest bread. I believe the story is that Peter Reinhart read something about a traditional bread that Irish villagers baked into which they threw a little bit of everything they were harvesting. Struan Bread as we know it is an attempt to capture the spirit of that loaf.

Regardless of the origin, this bread is wonderful. One is certainly free to experiment with including different or additional grains. I've done so a bit and the bread has turned out quite good, though I don't think any of them have be as excellent as the combination found in the original recipe (reproduced below).

Oh yeah, I need to add that this recipe is roughly the recipe found in Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice. I believe he includes versions of it in most of his other baking books (Crust & Crumb and Brother Juniper's Bread Book come to mind). If you don't already have one of his bread books on your shelf you owe it to yourself to pick one up.

I made some slight changes to the recipe
- 3/4 cup of sourdough instead of 1/3
-I added Tuff flour. ..TUFF FLOUR?? I know, what is tuff flour right? I went to bulk baking store and found several packages of tuff flour sitting there..so lonely. I thought to myself, ah -hah! Tuff flour....*think *think *think..nopes, I couldn't think of any recipe that calls for tuff flour. But I decided to buy a small packet of tuff flour. Ok I can't find a link to tuff flour..but I'm pretty sure it is NOT this. :P At least I'm hoping not lah. The lady gave me a hand out - apparently it's some ancient grain...oh OH!!!
It is TEFF flour, not tuff flour. ...HAHAHAHAH!!
*phew. I was getting worried there for a minute, I thought I was eating volcanic flour. heehee. *blush.
Alright, 2 tbsp of teff flour. :)
-1/2 cup of multigrain bread flour.
-I know that polenta is cornmeal..but is it really just the name? I don't know, anyway I used cornmeal because I only had instant polenta and I didn't really want to cook the polenta by pouring hot water on it.
-corn syrup instead of honey
- Scottish oats (cut oats) instead of rolled oats
- couple of drops of almond extract - I thought that will give the bread a hint of nuttiness.

and that's pretty much it! I made the bread round instead of shaping it into a loaf since I don't have a loaf pan. :D

Ta daaaa!! It tastes pretty good too!!