Caraway and orange bread

I've been wanting to do something with caraway seeds for a while - felt like they were missing from the spice cupboard.  Found some in the Indian store at the weekend, and was inspired by our epic vegan thanksgiving feast to try making bread with them.  This one sounded fancy, so I went with it.  On reflection, the method is weird, another time I will use a method that's worked better for me in the past.

3/4 cup water

2 tbsp brown sugar

Zest of 1 orange, grated

1 tbsp marg

1 tsp caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp yeast

2 cups bread flour

Heat water, sugar, orange, marg and caraway seeds in a small saucepan for 3 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Once the warm mixture is lukewarm, mix it with the yeast and 1 cup of flour.  Knead (it will be sticky), and let rise for 1 hour.

Add the rest of the flour (1 more cup) slowly and knead well.  Shape, lay on baking sheet lined with paper, and prove for 1 hour.

 

Bake at 180C / 350F for 50-60 min (until sounds hollow when bottom is knocked).  Let cool before eating (warm is OK).

 

 

The caraway-orange-bread combination was interesting and worked - nice mix of sharp spice and sweet orange.  But the method was odd - the second cup of flour was hard to get in, and the loaf ended up quite small, seemed dry, and didn't rise very well.  Looking at the pics on the original site perhaps a dense crumb was the intention, and it certainly wasn't inedibly dense or un-risen, but think I might prefer to make it lighter next time - perhaps using the method from the olive bread, or trying rolls?