I've done whole wheat... what about multi grain?
Yesterday I made a whole wheat loaf that turned out great. When he tried it, my husbands comment was, "Well, I guess the only thing left for you to figure out is multi-grain." My interest in sourdough started with a multi-grain sourdough we bought at the local grocery store bakery and loved, so that has kind of been the goal of all my sourdough learning.
I only started baking with whole wheat a few months ago (not long before getting my starter), and multi-grain is pretty much completely foreign to me. I have no idea where to start, where to buy ingredients, what ratios to use... anything.
So, I need some tips and advice. What is the best "beginners" multi-grain method/recipe? Easiest flours to incorporate? Anything to help me get started.
Thanks in advance!
If you can get a copy of Peter Reinhart's book, Whole Grain Bread, you will find a Straun recipe that is great.
My local library had a copy of the book and it taught me things that I didn't even know I needed to know about working with whole grains. I did end up buying a copy for myself and baked pretty much all the loaf breads with great results.
Have Fun,
Janet
... on what you mean by "multi grain." Do you mean more than type of grain flour, or multiple whole grains, or what?
I made a multi-grain sourdough by adapting the BBA Basic Sourdough recipe to include some Bob's Red Mill 10-Grain Whole Grain Hot (breakfast) Cereal as part of the main dough by using it as a "soaker." Here is my blog entry about it..
My most recent bread (I posted about it this morning) I used some of the Bob's hot cereal as porridge in the pre-ferment.
It might be good for you to follow Janet's advice about reading Reinhart's book ... there is probably a lot of stuff that you don't know (I know I don't know either ... I just tried throwing the stuff into a batch of dough (more or less)).
Cheers-
Dave
In addition to the questions dosco asked, are you looking to make a loaf that is fully multi-grain or one in which the multi-grain part is basically an addition; e.g. a white or mostly white loaf with maybe 25% multi-grain mix added in?
The second type is fairly easy. As stated, you can simply buy a pre-mixed cereal blend and add some to a relatively straightforward recipe that you already make.
Mixing multi-grains on your own is more complex, at least once you get past combining two or three types of flour. I've only tried 3 so far, so I don't have any tips to offer in this regard.
for one reason - they taste the best in my book. The thing about other than wheat grains is that they tend to have less gluten proteins in them so are more slack and harder to handle than wheat breads. Whole grains tent to not rise as much but are faster to ferment and proof. It is real joy and adventure to try them out and learn the differences in them. All have their own strange yet wonderful differences. Janet'r recommendation of PR's book is seconded here.
If you check my blog, you will find a couple hundred of multi-grain SD breads, some better than others that Lucy has come with over the last 3 years.
Have a wonderful MG adventure and happy baking
The multi-grain breads we make at our bakery are essentially a mixture between whole wheat flour/white flour/rye, and then after the dough is fully mixed we add plenty of the "grains" to the dough as an add-in, like you might add raisins to a dough after the dough is mixed.
The result is a nice wheaty dough with lots of hearty grains mixed into the bread when it bakes.
I think I'll have to get a copy of that Whole Grain Bread book. I'll have to see what flours I can get around here and just try things.