The Slow Cooker Black Bread That Almost Wasn't

I'm so angry the camera ate this picture.  The Slow Cooker Black Bread from Kleinworth and Co turned out really really...special.

The darn thing was so moist I added an additional 2 cups...of super moisture absorbing rye flour and it was still very. Very. VERY wet when I put it in the crockpot.

I baked it for 2 hours on high.  The amount of time I've found it takes to cook every other loaf of bread I've ever made in the crockpot.  However, that was using this recipe from Artisan bread in 30 min a day.  After 2 hours on high, this recipe for bread was no where near being done.  We had to leave the house for over an hour so I turned the crockpot off, thinking that the residual heat from the ceramic insert would continue to bake the bread.

When we got home the bread was still not done.  So I turned the crockpot back on and cooked it for another 45 min.  The bread was still quite raw in the middle.  By this time the outside was getting very brown.

I wrapped the bread in foil and baked it for another 30 min at 400F.

That should have done it.

But alas...

No.

The loaf did split on one side though.  The bread looked sort of like a 3D pacman.

Most of it was done...mostly.  I cut the more done exterior parts off of the round loaf and cubed those slices.  I then put the pieces under the broiler to make croutons.   Let me tell you, those crutons were something amazing dipped into baked potato soup.  If only the whole loaf had turned out.

I tossed the doughy middle in pieces out the back door for the squirrels.  The squirrels went mad for it.  It was hilarious to watch them fight over the precious pieces.  Who knew squirrels liked doughy brown bread so much!

via

I have no idea why the bread recipe was so moist, nor why it took so long to cook.  It probably had to do with the fact that it calls for about 2 cups of "wet" ingredients and only 2 1/2 c of flour.  Perhaps my 2 cup addition of rye flour made the loaf too dense to cook all the way through.  It's really too bad because what did get cooked was scrumptious.  I guess I'll just stick to my usual crockpot bread recipe from now on.