I am dreadfully behind in my Slow and Steady posts. I have been baking the breads, but not finding time to tell the story. The S and S group is about two months behind schedule – seems the holidays wreaked havoc on Nancy’s well devised plan – and I am about two weeks behind that. So I hope you don’t mind a twofer with the breads!

    Light Wheat Bread

I have only recently discovered that I really like wheat breads. I have eaten them often in the past, but didn’t really like them. The more I use whole wheat in my baking the more I appreciate the depth of flavor in the breads and other baked goods. This wheat brad was a little disappointing. It was rather bland in taste. I like it with more ‘oomph’ in the flavor. It was much better toasted.

The bread was doing beautifully. although it may not look like it from the picture, but it fell because life got in the way. 60 minutes into the 90 minute final rise I was called outside. When I finally made it back to the kitchen the bread had risen and fallen like an empire on a bad day. I went ahead and baked it. It probably didn’t affect the flavor, but I have to blame it on something. There is another wheat bread further along in PR’s book. Maybe I will like that one better. Ah, well.

    Marbled Rye Bread

I like breads with flavor. Rye bread has always been a favorite of mine. Ham and Cheese on Rye holds a special place in my lunch box heart. Wrapped in double foil, under the mat on the floorboard of my little MG Midget, by the time I reached school (two hour drive) it was warm and ready to devour savor. Graduate school makes you do crazy things sometimes. This formula, as PR refers to the recipe, calls for two different rye breads, one light and one dark, which are then swirled together to make a beautiful marbled bread. The only difference between the two doughs, basically, is the addition of cocoa, carob or coffee powder to make the dark rye dark. I used the cocoa powder. I placed the light dough on the bottom topped with the dark dough and rolled them up together. It gave me a beautiful swirl — and a great sandwich bread.

The Ham and Cheese is back – grilled instead of ‘road warmed’ and a little more sophisticated with a variety of cheeses (Fontina, cheddar) and slowly enjoyed rather than eaten in a frenzy while running across campus to class.

Other members of the Slow and Steady BBA group have made these too. Go by and visit with