Not An Auspicious Beginning

First off, I should say I LOVE whole wheat bread.  So I was really excited back in November when I heard about a new book coming out with a revolutionary way to make it.  (I Read about it at Kalyn's Kitchen) Of course, I immediately began surfing the web for more information and came upon a bread group that was just being organized based on the book.  It is sponsored by Michelle at Big Black Dog.  I've never done anything like this so I was, and am, very excited about it.  This is the way Michelle described the group:

   "The mission of HBinFive is to bake our way though Jeff and Zoe's new book, "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" which will be available for sale October 27, 2009. "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" is basically the same technique as in their first book but takes the method one step further and incorporates whole grains and healthy ingredients and of course there's all new exciting recipes as well. I know baking every recipe in a book sounds like a daunting task, but as a group, one recipe at a time and the support of other HB5ers, it will be fun!" 

    

I immediately ordered the book!  In the meantime, Jeff and Zoe kindly gave Michelle a preview recipe for "Pumpkin Pie Brioche" (how yummy does that sound??)to get us started.  I could hardly wait!

     It turned out, our kids were coming into town for the week before Thanksgiving and that seemed like the perfect time to begin this adventure.  So, I eagerly mixed up my first batch of this new bread the 1st evening they were here. Unfortunately, I must have gotten a little distracted by my adorable grandchildren as they prepared for bed (goodnight kisses are never discouraged by this grandma!) because I left out a little minor ingredient..  Totally unaware, I let it raise for the 2 hours and tucked it into the fridge.  The next morning I pulled it out and began to form my dough.  First I made 2 small loaves.

Then, I did a version of the ever popular 'monkey bread' by rolling small balls of dough, dipping them in melted butter and then a cinnamon sugar mix.  I put them in my mini bundt pans. 

 

They both baked up so pretty. I was feeling pretty good about this new bread.

 

Well, these looked so good that I decided to use the last of my dough to make a filled bread for dinner.  I put together a sausage/apple/onion filling and  rolled out a rectangle of dough.  The filling went into the middle.  Then I cut the sides every inch and braided them over the filling.  It ended up looking like this:

 

I baked it up and proudly served it to hubby.  T'was then we discovered which little ingredient I had forgotten the night before. The ...salt!  Oops.  He gamely struggled thru his piece by opening it up and generously salting the filling.  But, needless to say, the rest of my beautiful bread went into the garbage.  Lesson learned?  Never, ever, EVER forget the salt!