HBinFive: Whole Grain Garlic Knots

It had been a while since I had made this one up and because we can always use a loaf of bread for sandwiches and what-not, I made the Hearty Whole Wheat Sandwich loaf first. I find the dough pretty sticky to handle before it has been refrigerated, but also find it rises better before refrigeration as well. So if I'm just going to stick the dough into a pan, I can generally get it shaped enough to make a loaf to go in the pan. This one rose so quickly being fresh, unrefrigerated dough that I think it actually over-rose a little. The top looked pretty flat and deflated and dare I say overdone. I was worried for my loaf when I took it out of the oven and Paul commented on my burning it. After it cooled overnight, I sliced into it and was quite pleased with it. Since I've been using the white winter wheat for flour, I haven't had any dark whole wheat bread for a while and this was a pleasant change both visually and taste-wise. I'm not sure that I can really tell any difference using the whey instead of water, but I guess that could be a plus too because it packs some extra goodies into the bread without really affecting how it turns out. Whey is supposed to be very nutritious and good for you--normally I just give it to the chickens and figure I'll get it back through the eggs!
I passed on the pita bread variation because I had no idea where to get black sesame seeds locally and didn't feel like ordering something to finish this bread braid--trying to ease up on the budget a little since some of these breads can run a little pricey when you have to buy unique ingredients for each dough. I was out of regular sesame seeds, and just skimmed right past this recipe. I see on the schedule that a different pita bread recipe is coming up in June, and I will be sure to give that one a try since I've never done a pita bread at home before.

You can check out what others did using this dough by visiting the HBin5 bread braid hosted at Big Black Dog.
