We were in Portland, OR last week. While I was in meetings, my wife bounced between Powell's (the biggest book store in the US of A) and the Pearl Bakery. I got to taste a number of their breads in sandwiches my wife brought back to the hotel, but I didn't taste their "multigrain roll," which my wife had one day and really liked.

Susan often asks me to make rolls for her lunch sandwiches, so with her description of the Pearl's roll in mind I went looking for a multigrain roll to make. I've made several of Hamelman's multigrain breads and liked them all. I think any of the ones I've made would make good rolls, but I wanted to try something new. Reading through "Bread," I found the "Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker." (Pg. 126) It is a 50% bread flour/50% whole wheat dough with a soaker of cracked wheat, coarse corn meal, millet and oats. I had all the ingredients but for the millet. I substituted flax seeds.

This is one heavy dough. I added quite a bit of water, which Hamelman says is often needed, to get the consistency I thought was "right." I formed the 4+ lbs of dough into 2 bâtards and a half dozen 3 oz rolls.

Whole-Wheat Bread with Multigrain Soaker bâtard crumb

I baked the rolls at 450ºF for 15 minutes. The bâtards baked at 450ºF with steam for 12 minutes, then at 440ºF for another 15 minutes followed by 7 minutes in the turned off oven with the door ajar.

The crust was crunchy. The crumb was tender but chewy. The flavor is assertively honey whole wheat, mellowed somewhat by the soaker ingredients. It's outstanding with a thin spread of sweet butter.

My wife liked it but says it's nothing like the Pearl Bakery's multigrain rolls. Hee hee. An excuse to bake more rolls.

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

Prior to the one-loaf mystery result of my last post, the openest crumb I've gotten from the BBA pain de champagne recipe was a few weeks ago when I modified the recipe to use a dose of the KA levain du jour (dried levain starter), the mild version. I basically made the sponge from this starter as per the instructions that come with it, but made sure the amounts of eveything in the end would total to the same as BBA recipe using the pate fermentee as usual. A second alteration I made was to put most of the rest of the flour (including the whole wheat) into a soaker. The end result was this:

Because I'd changed two different things at once, I wasn't sure if it was the levain or the soaker or both that produced the opener crumb. So I did another batch a few days later with no levain, but with the soaker. The result was the typical crumb I get from this recipe (which has improved a bit over time, as I've pushed the hydration a little, improved my kneading technique, and switched from my somewhat alkaline tap water to bottled water). Interesting thing about this batch though. It had the slight tart tang to it, just as if I had used the levain! I assume that by chance either my pate fementee or my soaker picked up some good beasties...perhaps there were some floating around left over from the levain. Maybe I should start making a point of not cleaning my kneading board!

Somewhere on this site when I first started looking there was a photo of the most wonderful multi-grain bread.  I can't find it and I didn't think to save it at the time.

Can soakers be used in any recipe?  What is the procedure and what exactly do I buy in order to do it?

My every week bread is a standard one consisting of

3-1/2 c bread flour

1/2 c wheat flour

1-1/2 tsp salt

2 cups water

Mix together, sit for 18 hours, fold a little (I'm still working on that part) shape, let rise and bake in cast iron dutch oven, first with lid on and then lid off.  It's a great bread, but I'd like to add some whole grains to it.  I"m just not sure of the technique.

I do have 2 starters to choose from.  One 100% hydration and one about 70% if I need to go that route.

thanks for any and all help

-Susie

Hi everyone

I've had great success with the approach described in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread book, where the whole wheat flour is mixed into a soaker overnight with no yeast, then combined with the levain the next day.  But I also love the convenience of the no-kneed approach, as I can do all the work the previous day and bake the bread in the morning. I wanted to try to combine the two techniques.

My question to you all is this - have any of you tried making a soaker and levain in the morning, then mixing them together in the evening, leaving to rise overnight then baking the next day?  This would seem to combine the best elements of the soaker strategy, liberating more maltose from the wheat before adding to the dough, and the convenience of the no-kneed.

I am wondering if you would still get the taste advantage of using a soaker if you subsequently leave it to rise overnight, as maybe the levain cultures, when mixed with the soaker, will just use up the sugars from the soaker and you will end up with regular no-knead bread.  Alternatively, maybe leaving the wholemeal dough overnight will achieve the same effect as the soaker, making the creation of a soaker ahead of time unneccesary.

Any input or experience welcomed!

I have been tinkering with PR's Basic Sourdough Bread recipe for a while and have come up with the following recipe, which I really enjoy baking and eating:

 Five-Grain Seeded Sourdough Bread

 (based on Peter Reinhart's Basic Sourdough Bread, The Bread Baker's Apprentice)

Firm Starter

4 oz. sourdough starter

4.5 oz bread flour

1/4 cup lukewarm water

Soaker

2 to 4 oz Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain Cereal

2.2 oz unsalted sunflower seeds (optional)

2.5 oz unsalted pumpkin seeds (optional)

0.2 oz salt (omit if seeds are salted)

3/4 cup boiling water (approx.)

Dough

20.25 ounces bread flour

0.5 ounce salt

Starter

Soaker

1 ½ to 1 ¾ cups lukewarm water

 Directions

          Day 1

1. To make firm starter, remove sourdough starter from refrigerator and allow to warm up for about 1 hour. Combine starter ingredients and knead just long enough to evenly distribute flour and sourdough starter. Spray zipper seal bag lightly with oil. Place firm starter in bag and seal. Allow to double at room temperature, approximately 4 hours. Refrigerate overnight.
2. Place cereal, seeds (if using), and salt in small bowl. Add boiling water to cover. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temperature overnight.

Day 2

3. Remove starter from refrigerator 1 hour before making dough. Combine flour and salt in large mixing bowl. Add soaker and mix well. Remove starter from zipper bag, cut or tear into pieces, and add to flour mixture. Using large spoon or your hands, mix in enough water to bring dough together in a ball.
4. Allow dough to autolyse for 30-40 minutes. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead for 13-16 minutes, until dough passes the windowpane test. Dough should be firm but tacky, like French bread dough. Lightly oil a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, roll to coat with oil, and cover bowl with plastic wrap.
5. Ferment dough at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours or until it nearly doubles. Gently divide dough into two pieces and shape as desired. Mist dough with spray oil, cover loosely with plastic wrap or floured towel, and place in refrigerator.

Day 3

6. Remove loaves from refrigerator 3 to 4 hours before you plan to bake them. Make sure not to overproof. When the imprint of a finger poked gently into dough springs back slowly, the dough is ready to bake.
7. Preheat oven to 500 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour with baking stone and steam pan in place. Slash loaves and transfer carefully to baking stone. Immediately pour 3/4 cup hot water into steam pan. Close oven and lower temperature to 450 degrees F. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate loaves to ensure even baking. Continue to bake for 10 to 20 minutes, until the loaves register 200 to 205 degrees F in the center.
8. Cool for 45 minutes before slicing.

 Note: If you want to make the bread in 2 days instead of 3, after dividing, shaping, and misting the dough in step 5, cover the loaves and allow to proof at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours, then bake as directed.

Hi,

I commented in the recent thread that I'm experimenting with the Whole grain Struan recipe in PR's Whole Grain breads book.  

I have now made the recipe twice:

1. using a soaker that I cooked "to order" for the bread:  Bob's Red Mill 5-grain cereal and barley, plus some uncooked rolled oats.  Used buttermilk in the soaker
2. using the same soaker he details in the next recipe for the transitional struan, but with pre-cooked white basmati rice instead of brown rice.  Also used buttermilk.

In both cases, I'm using a wild yeast starter, from the same book.  The starter seems lively enough and the dough is rising in the times suggested in the book.

In both cases, the loaf baked for the same amount of time (20 min, turn, 25 min more).  I keep a pan in the bottom of the oven and pour 1/2 cup or so of boiling water just after loading the loaf on the stone.  I'm baking on parchment.

In experiment #1, the dough was SO loose I ended up adding a bit more flour, but really working with a very wet dough through the process.  It made a nice windowpane after ~7 minutes of kneading.  I had to use the french fold method, because it was impossible to knead in the standard way.  The result was an awesome tasting bread with a few nice holes in the crumb, moist but very flat (I shaped a batard and baked on a pre-heated stone).  I believe the barley was a very nice taste addition.

Experiment #2 was looking much better - the soaker had the consistency of the picture in the book.  The dough, without any extra flour was firm and kneaded well in a similar amount of time.  I was slightly worried about it being too dry - what a change!   The loaf was pretty high (for a batard) in the couche but immediately upon hitting the stone, it spread out and became even flatter than the original loaf.  Sigh.  The crumb was closer/denser and the bread (though good) was not as nice tasting as the one made with the loose dough.  It seemed a little dry, even 4-5 hours after taking it from the oven.  

I have baked very successfully from Dan Leader's "Bread ALone" for quite some time and have never encountered this problem, despite having much less yeast in the recipe (I'm always surprised by the 2.5 teasp. added in the final dough of PR's whole grains - in addition to the starter).  The boules are generally firm and rise well. 

While I know that we'll have some awesome toast in the morning (especially coupled with my freshly made Saturn peach jam)....

BUT I really love the whole grains and taste of the breads from this book so would like to learn what parameters may be causing this incredible spread, even when the dough itself seems to be firmer.  

 Any ideas?   

 Thanks in advance for your thoughts....

MommaT 

Hey everyone,

I recently tried making the whole wheat hearth bread from Peter Reinhart's whole grain breads book. It calls for the use of a soaker (not a heated mash) and a pre-ferment. The result was a beautiful round with great coloring and (a rare event) scoring I was proud of. Alas, I was visiting my parents and didn't have my camera so i can't share pictures, which is sad because i really appreciate your feedback. Anyways...