When experienced bread bakers like Peter Reinhart give you explicit instructions, it’s time to stop making up crap and listen up. Yes, yes, we all like to experiment in the kitchen. But seriously, stop. Take a deep breath. Remember bad things happen to those wander aimlessly in the wild frontier. Or, if you’re like me and walking in the rose garden sounds too tame, forge your own path and discover why you are wrong wrong W-R-O-N-G.

I arrived in the kitchen this morning a bit off my game. Sure, I lowered the oven rack and solved the dough consistency problem I bitched about last time (more on that later); I even obtained a nice OXO silicon basting brush and did a fair job at topping my bagels. But I was feeling a bit tired and juggling dinner prep, photography, phone conversations, cleaning, and baking. At times, I walked away from important steps or left things where they were even after the timer went off. Lesson No 1: mise en place, “everything in its place.”

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Okay, I know this bagel looks a little burnt and slightly less bagel-shaped than it should, but the texture and flavor is some of the best I’ve ever had out of any bagel ever. (And that includes the fresh bagels from the bakery.) It’s deliciously chewy throughout the interior, just slightly crusty on the outside, with beautiful subtle flavors of sour and onion. I’m in love.

The three most obvious and important considerations for future success are:

• Baking temperature or the rack position in the oven. The freshly chopped onions on top burned to a crisp and even the dough turned a tad darker than preferable in a few spots. So, next time, use the lower rack or turn the temperature down to 425°F.
• Shaping technique. I thought Peter Reinhart was exaggerating when he said to make the center hole two inches wide. To my great surprise, the hole shrunk drastically as the bagel expanded in the second fermentation. Check out this video for a great example of bagel shaping.

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So I’ve wizened up a little on bread baking since my last post. I’ve learned a bit more about my bread pans (see my updated comments on cast iron baking); I’ve learned to always warm or scald milk for a biga; I’ve learned to keep my starter in the fridge, with weekly regular 1:2:2 feedings; I’ve learned to throw away starter I don’t need, instead of creating a gargantuan monster; I’ve learned to use onion or toasted onion powder in my rye breads because, yes, they really do taste better that way.

Today, however, is a post about my first batch of whole wheat potato rosemary bread.

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My first attempt at Peter Reinhart’s rye meteil was a slight disappointment. The crumb was too dense. The crust wasn’t perfectly golden brown, crisp and chewy. The flavor was definitely an improvement over active-dry yeast bread, but the wild yeast probably could have used a bit more maturation. Finally, the single free standing loaf was huge, oblong and unsymmetrical (due to a mishap during transfer of the bread to the oven); in short, it was an unwieldy beast.

But one never becomes a baker without a second attempt (and a third and a fourth…), so I resolved the second time to make a few adjustments.

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