|
How To Bake Multi-grain Bread
by
Dennis Weaver
A quick perusal of your baker’s
shelves will tell you how popular multi-grain
is. But it’s not hard to bake—you can make your own. You can use any recipe and add the cracked grain mixture though traditionally, a whole wheat recipe is used. The following instructions and recipe will tell you how.
With most cereal mixes, 1/3 cup to 6 tablespoons of cereal per loaf is about the right ratio. If you want soft cereal bits in your bread, soak the cereal for an hour in hot water before starting the bread. It’s not necessary but a nice touch. If you are baking in your machine on a three hour cycle, the long cycle will tend to soften the grains without pre-soaking.
Because both the bran in the whole wheat and flour and the sharp edges of cereal tend to cut the gluten strands as they develop, a couple tablespoons of added gluten is a good idea. Always use a quality, high-protein content flour. Your will never be better than the flour that you use.
Hi-Country Seven Grain
Recipe
This recipe uses a seven grain cereal mix. You can certainly use other cracked grain mixes or cracked wheat. Because different grain mixes and different grain sizes absorb water differently, be prepared to adjust the water to flour ratio in the recipe. (With our flours and cereal, in our kitchen, this is exactly the right water to flour ratio.)
Ingredients
3/4 cup seven grain cereal or other cereal or cracked wheat
1 1/2 cups hot water
6 tablespoons butter
3 cups good quality flour
3 cups whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons wheat gluten
1 teaspoon dough conditioner
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup baker’s high heat dry milk
1 7 gram packet of instant yeast
1 cup warm water at 105 to 110 degrees
Directions
1. Mix the cereal
with the 1 1/2 cups hot water. Set aside for two
hours to absorb the water and soften.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave and set it
aside to cool. With shortening or butter, grease
a large bowl for the dough and
2 large loaf pans (9 x 5-inch). If you are going
to make hearth loaves, grease a baking sheet and
sprinkle it with cornmeal.
3. Measure the flours into a large bowl by whisking
the flour so that it’s not packed and then spooning
it into the measuring cup followed by leveling
the top with a straightedge. Add the gluten and
conditioner and stir to combine. Stir in the sugar,
salt, and dry milk.
4. Put about 1/3 of the flour mixture in the bowl
of your stand type mixer equipped with a dough
hook. Add the yeast. Add the 1 cup water at the
indicated temperature. With the dough hook, run
the machine for thirty seconds to mix the water
with the flour to create a slurry. Add cereal
and water mixture and the rest of the flour mixture.
(The cereal and water mixture should be 105 to
110 degrees. If it has cooled beyond that, reheat
it in the microwave.) Add the melted butter.
5. Mix at medium speed for about four minutes
or until the gluten has formed and the dough is
elastic. The dough should be soft but not too
sticky. To reach the right consistency, you may
need to dribble a little extra water (maybe one
tablespoon) or flour as the dough is kneading.
Place the dough in the prepared bowl and cover
it to keep the dough from drying while it rises.
Let it rise until it doubles.
6. Gently deflate the dough and form two loaves
either as free-standing loaves on a baking sheet
or sandwich loaves for your
pans. Cover the loaves and let them rise again
until the dough is soft and puffy, about doubled
in size.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the
for about 35 minutes. The time will vary depending
on your loaves, the pans, and your oven. The
should make a hollow sound when thumped on the
bottom. The internal temperature of the loaves
should be 190 degrees.
Remove the loaves form the pans and let them cool
on a wire rack. Cool completely, or nearly so,
before slicing.
Copyright 2003-2007,
The Prepared Pantry (http://www.prepraredpantry.com
). Published by permission in the Article
Directory: http://www.articlecube.com
Dennis
Weaver is a baker, a recipe designer, and a writer.
He has written many baking guides and How
to Bake, a comprehensive baking and reference
e-book--available free at The
Prepared Pantry which sells baking and cooking
supplies and has a free online baking library.
|
We strive to provide only quality
articles, so if there is a specific topic related
to bread that you would like us to
cover, please contact
us at any time.
And again, thank you to those
contributing daily to our WorldOfBaking.com website.
|