Whole Wheat Boule with Pine Nuts

That’s right. Pine nuts.

This came out really nicely — its as something of a surprise. This is a standard 1kg formula using 80% whole wheat flour, 20% white whole wheat flour, 75% hydration and 100 grams of raw pine nuts. We really enjoyed it.

The oblong loaf on the left was proofed in a loaf pan shaped baneton.

A couple of notes on the finished loaves. I fired my small pizza oven with two pieces of wood (that’s it), bringing the oven up to temperature in about 45 minutes and then let it cool for another 45 minutes — and there was easily enough heat in the oven to bake these loafs and at least one (or more) batches afterwards. The oven is great.

Of course my bread is never perfect. These loaves were over proofed in their banetons, while I waited for the oven to cool. They started falling in after I released them from the forms, before I scored them.

The loaf on the left was loaded on the side of the oven where I sprayed water into the oven for steam. The crust of that loaf is not as nice, with less oven spring and the flour was washed off the loaf’s exterior. I am starting to wonder if you even need extra water for steam in this small oven — beyond the water in the dough that is turned into steam during backing. Interesting.

Happy baking everybody. Here is what pine nuts look like when you slice the loaf for toast.