Nut bread & pumpernickel

It's an icky day in Chicago, so I decided to stay in and make some bread to continue with my bread challenge. I made nut bread and pumpernickel to send to my friend in California, who is (like me) participating in National Novel Writing Month.

I kind of made these at the same time, because the pumpernickel has to rise for so long and the nut bread doesn't have to rise at all. However, I'll talk about the nut bread first.

This was the easiest bread I've ever made in my life - ever! You need two bowls and you mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt) in one and the wet ingredients (egg, milk, and oil) in the other. Then you just throw them both together and mix!

Of course, you need some nuts, and I chopped up some pecans:


It bakes in a loaf pan for about an hour - similar to other quick breads I've made. It baked up lovely, too:


Luckily the breads baked at the same temperature, too, so I could just throw them both in together when the pumpernickel was ready. The pumpernickel was not hard to make, although it requires a lot of the same ingredients as rye, which is good because I just made rye. We're talking rye flour, caraway seeds, and molasses - and I'm finding I hate the smell of raw molasses. Oh well, the yeast ate it all during rising.

I did find it interesting that pumpernickel gets its dark color from the large amount of molasses used. I guess I always thought it was just dark flour or something. Weird.

So, I had two beautiful round little pumpernickel loaves:


I am excited to try this bread! I did keep one loaf for myself, so I'll probably eat a slice with some butter and salad for dinner. Yay bread!