RYE BREAD WITH CARAWAY AND PEANUT BRITTLE

Rye Bread with Caraway and Peanut Brittle image

My daughter, Seane Marie, is quite the successful young business woman. Like me, she has a creative mind. She's been making her paternal grandmother's candy recipes as gifts for many years, and this year decided to create a company called "Ingleside Candies" - Ingleside was her grandmother's hometown in Texas. I'm so proud of my baby for carrying on Memaw's tradition. She gave me two bags of the peanut brittle for Christmas (better than See's, I swear!), and on a whim, I thought I'd switch up the date walnut rye bread I was making New Year's day to caraway peanut brittle. It was awesome!

Provided by Janus Joy Miller @earth2joy

Number Of Ingredients 11

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Ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoon(s) active dry yeast
1 1/2 tablespoon(s) kosher salt, plus a little pinch
3 cup(s) lukewarm coffee
2 tablespoon(s) unsweetened cocoa powder
5 1/2 cup(s) bread flour
1 cup(s) rye flour
- cornmeal to cover the pizza stone or cookie sheet
1/2 cup(s) caraway seeds, or more to taste - i like a lot of caraway
1 cup(s) peanut brittle, crushed, but not pulverized
2 tablespoon(s) cornstarch
1/4 cup(s) water

Steps:

This recipe, a revamping of one from "Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day", makes 3 one pound loaves, or as many smaller loaves as you want. It can be doubled or halved. An ounce of dough is about right for a dinner roll.
Put yeast, salt, and warm coffee in a big bowl. No need to stir it up. If you get a few bubbles in a minute or two, your yeast is good. Proceed to step 2.
Add the bread flour, rye flour, and cocoa powder, and blend until smooth with an electric beater and dough hook or a wooden spoon.
Cover loosely with a clean dish towel and let it sit at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours. BUT NO MORE THAN 4 HOURS! Bread left to rise for too long will develop alcohol. Drunken bread sounds fun, but it's not very tasty, trust me.
After 2 hours at room temperature, you can either proceed to the next step or refrigerate your dough for up to 2 weeks. You can also divide and freeze it.
When you're ready to bake, line one or more cookie sheets or pizza stones with parchment, and cover with dry cornmeal.
Wet your hands and pull off as much of the dough as you want to use that day.
Form the dough into a large disc by pulling out and rolling under at the edges. Then flatten it on a clean wet surface to about a 1/4" thickness.
Sprinkle an appropriate percentage of the caraway seeds evenly onto the dough, depending on the size of your loaf, making sure to get some caraway to the very edges.
Sprinkle the crushed peanut brittle evenly onto the dough.
Starting from the side farthest from you, with wet hands, roll the dough toward you. Use a wet spatula to release the dough from the surface if it gets stuck.
Shape the dough into a loaf or roll and transfer it to the cornmeal covered cookie sheet or pizza stone.
Cover loosely with a clean dish towel and let it rest 40 minutes for room temperature dough, or 1 hour and 40 minutes for refrigerated dough.
20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 400 F.
5 to 10 minutes before baking, use a fork or whisk to blend the cornstarch with the 1/4 cup of water until smooth.
Put the cornstarch water in the microwave for a minute or two, or heat it in a small saucepan, stirring constantly, until it is glossy. You just want the cornstarch to form bonds with the water.
Just before baking, brush the tops of the loaves with the cornstarch mixture.
With a sharp, wet knife, make a few slices in the top of the loaf to allow it to expand while baking. If the knife is sharp, it won't collapse the risen dough.
Bake at 400 F for 35 to 40 minutes - more or less depending on the size of the loaves. Toward the end, you can pick up a loaf and check the underside. If it still seems too wet on the bottom, continue baking. Dinner rolls might only take 20 minutes or so - keep a close eye on them to make sure you don't over bake them.