Cherry Bomb

After only one mellow bake there is rebellion in our house. "I don't care if it's the Dan Lepard Challenge I don't want cherries in my bread".  Answer: divide the mix in two and only put cherries in half. Dan even suggests dividing the loaf in two (although with hindsight there's really only just enough for one loaf if you go by his weights and measures.)

And hey, wasn't I proud that hounded down those ingredients.

Rye berries - I have wheat and oat berries in stock but I'm not buying a third variety yet so it's wheat berries for me.

Cherries - They just happend to have these babies in the supermarket. Not my normal bag being soaked in sweetened oil but ... the challenge made me do it.

Poppy Seeds:  Black or Blue?  White???  Oh well its a lunchtime visit to the Indian grocers.

Results:

Dan's Loaf

My Loaf

Conclusion: I have some way to go!  Here's an honest shot. A bit flat and a bit stodgey. For the second time running I've suspected that the second proving at the temperature I use (in the unheated upper oven/grill above the heated main oven) is far too long and my dough is past it's peak and even relaxing. I toyed with using my baguette tray for the second rise, but in the interest of the challenge I thought I would restrict my adaptation to a minimum. I thought the cherry and fennel seed combination was great, but this is a tea bread needing just some butter. (I'm a recent convert to fennel seeds via my taralli experiments.)

The verdict from the non cherry consumers surprisingly positive too!