Struan Vs. Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

[FoodMan]

In this wonderful Q&A you mentioned your love for Struan bread at least twice. Since I’ve never had it I wanted to give it a try. I looked for it in the BBA, which is the book I own. Instead the index at the end of it lead me to a recipe you call “Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire”. I understood from the intro to the recipe that it is an “improvement” on the Struan recipe you have in Brother Juniper’s. Is it? Which recipe do you recommend that I try first, the one in BBA or the one from Brother Juniper’s? Basically which recipe do you like better?

Since I do not have Brother Juniper’s book I did a web search and came up with this recipe. I assume this is your Struan bread.

Elie

[Peter Reinhart]

Hi,

The struan you posted was the single loaf version I gave to the women who published the bread machine book, and it is basically the same as the one in Brother Junipers Bread Book which, if I recall, made two or three loaves. The Multi-grain Extraordinaire is a variation using preferment and soaker techniques. I think the finished product is almost the same in each, though I'd give a slight nod to the Extraordinaire, which has that extra step in it. One of the nice things about the original recipe is how easy it is to make yet how good it comes out, so feel free to try either or both and please let me know which one you like better. And definitely make some toast with it. I consider the best toasting bread I've ever had.