Diving In

How many of you thought I'd nail the perfect pumpernickel on the first try? Just me? No, not even me. But all things considered it was not bad. I predict 3rd time will be the charm. :)

I was worried that the recipe might be too big for my food processor and that proved to be true. When the kneading should have been starting, my cuisinart was grinding to a halt. It was still very sticky as you can see from the dough left in the work bowl when I pulled the dough. Had to knead it by hand! As you know, I haven't been doing any hand kneading. So the odds that I underkneaded it are very high.



Despite that, the loaves turned out pretty well. Got an ok rise, with a medium crust. The flavor is pretty good too.



I would prefer more chewiness which was mentioned in the recipe intro. Also I think it has too much bran. I felt like I had traces of residual bran in my mouth after I ate it.

Next time...
1- Halve the recipe to make one loaf at a time. My cuisinart should be able to handle that.
2- Reduce the amount of wheat bran.

Next next time...
1- possibly play with adding some gluten
2- maybe try All Bran instead of straight wheat bran

But I'm open to suggestions! If you have ideas about what to play around with, I'm all ears. But I'm no longer a pumpernickel virgin.