Thanks Marjie!

Marjie left a comment on my blog when she tried the Sweet Potato Bread. Of course I had to go check out her blog, and when I did, I found some great recipes to try. Today was her Pane Toscana, (Tuscan Bread).

Marjie's Recipe:

Starter:

1-3/4 cups water
2-1/2 tsp. yeast
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour

Put these ingredients in your machine and set it for the dough cycle. Let it mix for 10 minutes, then turn it off and leave the starter sitting in the closed bread machine for one hour.

After one hour, add:

2-1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Restart the bread machine to mix these with the starter. After about 15 minutes, when the dough is completely mixed, remove from the machine and form into 2 round, country style loaves. Let them rise for an hour or more, until doubled in size, then bake 35 to 40 minutes at 375.

And my changes:

Instead of forming into two loaves, I used my deep dish baking stone from Pampered Chef for one big, round loaf. I also lightly punched the dough down after the first rise and let it rise again for about 45 minutes. After baking for about 10 minutes, I brushed egg white over the top of the loaf and sprinkled on flax, toasted sesame, black caraway, midget sunflower, poppy, & anise seeds which is a mix purchased from King Arthur Flour and then let the loaf finish baking. It's out of stock—I almost typed OOP!— right now, but don't they look delicious!




The bread turned out nice, with a wonderful crusty-crust. The seeds add a nice country flavor (I sampled it!). I can't wait for the rest of dinner to be ready.

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I'm plugging away on the Burda jeans and I'll update about those later.