Next experiment: trying a pretzel roll recipe using Heritage Wheat Bread Flour Mix from Sunrise Mills. My husband found a recipe here. I knotted the buns by rolling a section into a rope, then doing a simple overhand knot and tucking in the ends. I was apprehensive about boiling the rolls, but it worked just fine! I used a slotted spatula to lift the rolls from the boiling water, rather than tongs. I baked them longer in the oven, to get a deeper color, and I think I would even add a few more minutes because the rolls were still very soft. Yummy though. Oh so yummy.

I have been practicing my eight-strand plait using a bundle of paracord until I had the pattern in my head and didn’t need the numbered instructions anymore. This really helped when it came to braid dough. It also helped that I read in a different recipe that if the dough becomes inelastic, to let it sit 10 minutes or so and try again. Game changer. I rolled my strands, did a light coat of flour, let them sit, then rolled them again to get a longer, thinner strand.

Well, I made a wheat-sheaf loaf. In Paul Hollywood’s book “100 Great Breads”, he says that if you can make a wheat-sheaf, you can make any of the loaves in the book. I’m not sure mine counts as a success. It looks slightly like it is supposed to, (although at a certain angle it looks a bit like a sperm swimming up the tube toward the egg), but wasn’t edible. I’m not sure it is meant to be eaten. Some people varnish theirs. Hm.

I bought Paul Hollywood’s “100 Great Breads” book. (I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a huge fan of The Great British Baking Show.) I wanted to use Heritage Wheat (both the bread mix and the whole wheat flour) to make rolls for burgers (calling them hamburger buns doesn’t seem appropriate), so selected a simple wholemeal recipe, then divided it into eighths instead of forming a long loaf. They turned out quite well, and were well appreciated by the whole family! Although I could have made them smaller. They rather dwarfed the burgers.