Flaxseed Loaf
This is my first post on The Fresh Loaf, so here we go! This is the Flaxseed Loaf from The Bread Bible.
The only thing I wasn't completely satisfied with was the shape of the finished loaf. The error is all mine since I need to practice shaping bread (I'm getting a little better) and I think I let it rise too high. At the end of the day, it is a pretty sturdy bread that you can slice thin for sandwiches and toast.
I used my kitchen scale to measure the ingredients rather than measuring them with cups.
Flaxseed Loaf from The Bread Bible
13 oz. all-purpose flour
5 oz. whole wheat flour
2.5 oz. pumpernickel flour
2 oz. flaxseed, coarsley ground
1 ¼ tsp. instant yeast
2 Tbsp. honey
14.6 oz. warm water
2 tsp. salt
In a bowl, whisk together the flours, flaxseed, and yeast. Form a well and pour in the honey. Mix on low speed with a dough hook while gradually adding the water. Mix until all the dry ingredients are moist and have come together to form a rough dough (takes about 1 minute). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the salt on the dough and then knead it for 7 minutes on medium speed.
Put the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise for about one hour, or until doubled.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a loaf.
Place the loaf into a greased loaf pan and allow it to rise until it is 1 inch above the rim of the pan (about one hour).
I can't seem to get the dough to the edges of the pan, and its a lot higher in the center...
Perhaps I let it rise too high before putting it in the oven?
Bake the loaf until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Once baked, turn the bread out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing.
Here's a photo of the finished loaf (its a little out of focus). You can see that it flares out on the left side, and the end of the loaf is kind of indented as well.
P.S.-Any advice on shaping would be greatly appreciated :-)!
Read about my adventures in baking (and cooking) at my blog.
Comments
Looks great, Melleah.
Welcome to the site!
Hi Melleah,
I wanted to see if I could find you a video or photo demo of 'letter folding' a dough for pan bread but I couldn't find anything worthwhile so I dug this hand drawn illustration out of my old (really old!) trade school text. It might be old but it's a tried and true technique that many professional bakers use for hand molding pan breads. Hope this helps.
Franko
Franko: Just had an "aha moment"-- I've been rolling the bread up from the short end, as opposed to the long end. I am going to try this technique this weekend. Thank you!
Curious as to what your expectations were, as to the final(baked) shape of the loaf? The loaf looks great from here. Is there something hiding on the unseen backside there?
Another question; is the entire recipe, as listed, used for one loaf? If so, that seems like quite a bit of dough- 40 ounces or more- for one loaf. What size loaf pan is that. I assume it is a 9 x 5 pan? All that dough pretty much obviously, easily completely fills the pan. It really has no where else to go, but up. I guess if the gluten wasn't well developed it could have flopped over the sides.
Whatever, it looks good to me. How does it taste? Show a crumb shot(sliced cross section), if you get a chance? Thanks.
The bread tasted fine and I thought the crumb was good. I added a photo of the cross section to the blog so you can see its flaws.
Yes, I used a 9x5 pan-- it's kind of dense, but you you are able to get pretty thin slices out of the loaf. I find with some sandwich breads you have to slice them fairly thick or the slices will fall apart.
Doesn't look dense to me. There may be something going on near the top, possibly caused by the shaping issue.
I made the recipe, but formed 2 loaves for 8.5 x 4.5" pans. They filled the pans nicely and rose up to about 4-1/8" high when baked. It is a nice recipe. Thanks for posting it.
Here are a couple of shaping videos by Fresh Loaf member and bakery owner Mark Sinclair. He has 13 videos on youtube and/or his web site.
I shape pan loaves about how he shapes his oval loaves for banettons. Maybe just a little more cylindrical and a little more blunt at the ends than some of his.
You are a Good illustrator, Franko. I love illustration, and painting.