When adding flax seed to bread, is it better to grind it into a meal (using an electric coffee mill) OR soak it in water?

Which method makes the flax seed nutrients more bioavailable? Which method better reduces the tendency of flax to interfere with gluten development?

I've spent countless hours searching the web with no definitive answer. Here's the gist of what I've found...

> Recipes from professional bakers commonly recommend soaking flax. (However, this may be a result of their background - it is hardly cost effecient for a bakery to be grinding their own flax meal on a daily basis, it's much easier and less labor intensive to use a soaker.)

> Bloggers who are home bakers sometimes soak, sometimes grind. There's no concensus.

> Nutrition mavens tend to recommend grinding over soaking but never give any valid, verifiable, scientific reference(s) for their preference. If I can't find independent research that supports their claims, why should I trust them?

If you can enlighten me - especially if you can give me references to solid articles in peer-reviewed journals that I can access on the web - I'd love to hear from you. Thanks in advance.

It's funny how things come together some times. Katie, one of Andy's students in college developed this recipe that Karin (a German baker transplanted to Maine) baked and posted last week. It was a beautiful loaf. About the same time a new poster from Iceland ( Schrödinger's O...) presented a beautiful bread with a natural expansion instead of slashing. I decided to try my own nut brown ale since it is very flavor rich and semi dark and, available. I also added a small amount of toasted wheat germ to add a little dimension to the chew and flavor.

I first must say to Katie I think your bread is wonderful. It has a full depth of flavor and a great aftertaste. Your hydration and baking times were right on for me. Thank you so much for sharing your creative energy. also a word of thanks must go to Andy, for bringing this talent forward for us to see and enjoy her work. And Karin for her inspiration and conformation the recipe can be baked out of scale. It's always nice to see her work. Then comes -kristjan, who showed us a beautiful boule he has been baking for some time and shared with us only that day. I was so inspired that I tried a shaping and natural expansion I had been wanting to try instead of scoring to see if I could bring some art to the surface of this loaf. So, here is my take on Katie's Stout with Flax Seeds.

Hi everybody,

Sorry haven't been around posting much.  I have been baking, but on a much smaller and less often scale these days, and blogging much less...  I'm pretty much swamped at work these days...  Yesterday evening though, I did find some time to bake a little something...

Enjoy!

Tim

Hello everyone -

I took Lahey's No-Knead recipe for Pane Integral, and experimented with it a little bit. I used 2 cups of whole wheat and 1 cup bread flour and 1/4 cup of flax seed. The water, salt, and yeast amounts are the same.

Everything looked pretty much identical to the 100% bread flour recipe, but when I baked it in the Dutch oven the center of the loaf is sunken. The taste is and the crust is crunchy, but I'm not sure why the center of the bread didn't rise (or maybe it fell?).  Any ideas?

I have pics but I don't know how to upload them. There are some nice holes to the crumb, but don't know yet how to upload them, unfortunately.

I would like to add coarsely ground flax seed meal to a sourdough bread dough. I have read that too much flax seed meal can adversely affect gluten development (due to enzymes in the flax seed).

What would be a recommended amount in baker's percent? How high could I go?

If it would help, here is the tentative formula I'm working with (I've not actually made the bread yet so have no hands-on experience). The formula has 40% refreshed sourdough starter (100% hydration using commercial bread flour) and 15% whole grain flour. Bread flour is a commercial, unbleached white flour at about 12% protein.

Thanks in advance - SF

Just a word of warning: don't soak flax seeds!

I was making my standard 33% wholewheat pagnotta with a pasta madre leaven and had run out of sesame seeds. I normally add about 100 gm of mixed pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds to the dough. So I used linseed instead, but without even thinking poured hot water over all the seeds to soak them. I know linseed goes all mucilaginous in liquids. But somehow I forgot.

The problem came when I tried to fold the seeds into the dough. The slime prevented the dough from coming together around the seeds, and the seeds kept breaking through the surface. So I gave up and just amalgamated as best as I could, then allowed the loaf to rise in a cloth-lined basket. It stuck more than usual to the cloth. But it baked up beautifully and tasted pretty good, with lodes of seeds running through the crumb. I wouldn't do it again, but I'm glad I didn't just throw it out.

Jeremy

I found this loaf as I was browsing through Bob's Red Mill Recipes and I thought it sounded like an amazing base for a tuna salad sandwich...

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=950

This loaf was a high riser and the three different seeds are as visually pleasing as they are delicious looking...

I highly recommend this loaf to any seed lovers...

Yes, sounds gross, disgusting, unless you like whole grains. But, actually I've fed my WG pancakes to white pancake eaters who won't touch whole grains and they've loved it! Today I decided I didn't want to throw away my yummy baby starter so I incorporated it into my usually non-SD pancakes. (haven't made pancakes since before I was baking with SD)

Here it is:

This is a very flexible recipe. Have fun with it. Use handfuls, kitchen spoons, don't level, measure or fluff. Substitute, add or vary ingredients everytime you make it! This is a recipe to stretch your wings and for those that have to have a recipe, this is a recipe to get away from needing a recipe with.

1 cup rye starter, proofed (is that the right term?)

1 egg

1 tbsp coconut oil, melted (non-dairy household) or butter

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup soy milk or regular milk or buttermilk (I use soy)

3 cups total (I used 1 cup whole wheat white, 1 cup AP, 1/2 cup wheat bran and 1/2 cup oat bran)

2 tbsps flax lightly ground (1 or two buzzs in my coffee grinder was enough) prefer golden flax seed

2-4 tbsps honey to taste

Favored variations-1 banana, 1 cup blueberries

And, cook on the griddle.
Enjoy with real maple syrup or homemade jam! Or, make into belgian waffles.

OK, I know you're out there.  Maybe those Birks are getting dusty or they're hidden in the closet along with your beaded vest and shrunken tie-dye, but you're really hankerin' for some good ol' fashioned hippie bread.  Just like the kind you used to eat while working on your macrame choker and groovin' to Cat Stevens before he became public enemy number one.  Here you go.
A friend of mine was looking for something all-too-healthy, and I came up with this recipe.  It is primarily whole wheat with buckwheat flour, flax seeds, toasted almonds, and other goodies.  It's not exactly airy like ciabatta, but it sure has a lot of flavor.  Plus, if you need to, you can put some loaves over your wheels in the bed of your truck in the wintertime to get some extra traction.  I've tried a few different shapes, and the boule seems to help the loaf out the most because you can give it some height in the shaping for a boost of confidence in the proofing stage.  Try it out and hope you like it!  This is a link to the recipe in PDF format.

-Mark

http://TheBackHomeBakery.com

PS, I'm about 2 weeks from finishing a couple of instructional DVDs. If you're interested, I can email you when they're ready, or you can stay tuned here since I'll be posting about it on TFL when they're done.