So, now I think that we all remember that ‘fad’ as the Atkins Diet and Sugarbusters and if you are still adhering to any of the aforementioned diets, nearly all of your equitable senses will be majorly offended by what follows. Now if you have thankfully made your way past these ahem, ‘diets’, then I think that you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the way that all of these grains come together to form a mighty tasty bread.
I do recall lauding a bit the virtues of bread on here and this post personifies (that’s right personifies) and for that matter justifies that stance. You see, here you’ll find 6 quite different grains (whole wheat flour, cornmeal, rolled oats, brown rice, wheat bran, flaxseeds) all under a single crust. One of the virtues of bread that hopefully I’ve espoused before is its almost magical properties. Bread making is truly a transformative process. You begin with grains and end up with something extravagantly different from grains. As a linguist I think it’s interesting to try and precisely nail down exactly when that transformation has been reached. Surely the ingredients alone can’t be called bread and neither can the combined ingredients be called bread. Maybe it’s after the first rise that we come close to reaching that oh so vaunted nomenclature – bread…Then again maybe not. If I had to nail it down I’d say that it’s only after we pull the bread/dough/ingredient mixture etc. from the oven that we can rightfully proclaim it as bread. But that’s certainly not a definitive judgment and such a definition naturally begs questions like: Well what might we call it when we crack the oven to sneak a peek? Is it bread then? Not according to my definition, but then again it certainly seems that it should be. Once we’ve taken that look into the oven we wouldn’t say “the ‘dough’ isn’t done yet”, right? Certainly not “the ingredients haven’t finished coming together yet”, right? Surely then my definition is found wanting. Maybe we should locate the transformation earlier in the process, perhaps immediately after we put the bread (dough, mixture, batter) in the oven it’s bread. If you’ve any ideas on just when it is that this wonderful mix of grains becomes what we would rightfully call bread put em’ down below.
Well enough with linguistic conjecture and back to the recipe. You have, by this point already been forewarned that this dough/bread/mix of ingredients is not for the faint of carbohydrates, but if you can handle this and you most certainly can, you will be rewarded for your trust in carbohydrates.
This is a type of struan bread see (here for more on it) which to put it simply means that there are a lot of grains in the dough, grains plucked from the whole harvest if you will (that’s fine if you won’t too).
Notes:
1. This bread has a lot of whole grains and as such is made through the aid of a soaker. A soaker is often used when making whole wheat breads as it is useful in essentially dulling the sharp strands of fiber that develop during the bread making process and would otherwise cut the gluten as the bread is rising. This is why most of the whole wheat breads are denser than their white counterparts. The soaker is to be made the day before and left out at room temperature.
2. There is also a biga here which is a method of slow fermentation that really adds to the flavor. A biga is sort of like a super simple dough. This is done in imitation of sour dough breads and does help with the flavor. The other benefit of this is that you don’t need to use a lot of yeast to get a solid rise. This delayed fermentation provides just about all of the kick that the final dough will need.
Soaker Ingredients:
7 tbs whole wheat flour or unbleached bread flour
7 tbs cornmeal, coarse grind
½ cup rolled oats
5 tbs brown rice cooked
1 tbs oat bran or 2 tbs wheat bran
2 ¼ tsp flaxseeds ground. You’ll want to grind these as otherwise your system can’t process them, and they will give out a very distinct odor if not ground as well
½ tsp salt
¾ cup milk, buttermilk or to make it vegan use any variation of soy milk
1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl for a minute or so until the dough forms a thick porridge
2. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and leave out at room temperature for 12-24 hours
Biga Ingredients
1 ¾ cups unbleached bread flour
¼ tsp instant yeast
½ cup plus 2 tbs filtered water.
1. Mix all of the biga ingredients together in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes to be sure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flour is fully hydrated. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes, then knead it again with wet hands for 1 minute.
2. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 3 days.
3. About 2 hours before mixing the final dough, remove the biga from the fridge to take off the chill. It will have risen slightly, but not much and this is perfectly fine and eminently usable.
Final Dough Ingredients
Soaker (use all)
Biga (use all)
3 1.2 tbs whole wheat flour
5/8 teaspoon salt
2 ¼ tsp instant yeast
2 14 tsp honey, sugar or agave nectar
1 tbs unsalted butter (or to keep it vegan 1 tbs vegetable oil)
1. Using a metal pastry scraper (or anything else that cuts) cut the soaker and the biga into 12 smaller pieces each. Sprinkle some flour over the pieces so that they don’t stick back to each other and are nicely incorporated.
2. Combine the soaker and biga pieces in a bowl with all of the other ingredients (except the extra flour) and stir vigorously with a mixing spoon or knead with wet hands for about 2 minutes, until all of the ingredients are evenly integrated and distributed into the dough. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky. If it isn’t adjust with flour and water as necessary.
2.5 If you are using a standing mixer, put the pre-dough pieces and all of the other ingredients (again excepting the extra flour) into the bowl and mix with the paddle attachment for 1 minute on slow to bring them all together. Once they are together switch to the dough hook and mix on medium0low speed, occasionally scraping down the bowl for 3 minutes or so, untl the pre-doughs become cohesive and assimilated into one another.
3. Dust a work surface with flour, then toss the dough in the flour to coat. Knead by hand for 3-4 minutes, incorporating only as much extra flour as needed, until the dough feels soft and tacky, but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes while you prepare a clean oiled bowl.
4. Resume kneading for 1 minute to strengthen the gluten and make any final flour or water adjustments. Form the dough into the prepared bowl, rolling it to coat with the oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for an hour or so until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size.
5. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and form it into a loaf shape. See below to see how to shape the dough. Place the dough into a greased loaf pan (4 by 8 ½) and dust the top with flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let wrise until it doubles in size and crests an inch above the lip of the pan.
6. Preheat the oven to 425 and when the dough is ready to bake place it in the oven and lower the temperature to 350 and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the loaf 180 degrees and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes, until the loaf is a rich brown on all sides.
7. Transfer the dough to a cooling rack and let it cool for 1 hour.
8. Use as desired! I have a bit of a predilection for peanut butter and dark chocolate so just to emphasize how good this is for that… But really this bread holds up to just about anythying you can throw its way. It would be just as good under some pulled pork or maybe this and it is a a perfectly good sub for that too. Just to emphasize how crazy awesome the pb and chocolate combo was how bout one more shot. Enjoy!
lepainmonger 