Really Great Multi-Grain

Submitted by ehanner on July 10, 2008 - 3:29pm

I'm always excited when my coffee tastes as good as it smells. The same applies to bread. For some reason the aroma and flavor of things don't always line up to be what I expect. Recently I tried Mark Sinclair's Multi Grain Bread from the recipe he has posted on his "The Back Home Bakery" website. I have tried a few other combinations of grains and methods that were pretty good but this was on the next level for me. It has a great heady aroma and it tastes wonderful. You can see the dough is not to dense and makes a great sandwich or toast. The toaster brings out the rustic nature of the grains and it tastes as good as it smells!

Mark has some first rate instructional videos on his site also that I have found very helpful for shaping and kneading. I appreciate that he is sharing his talent with us home bakers.

Here is the Bakery web site where you will find the recipe. http://www.thebackhomebakery.com/
Enjoy!

Multigrain

Multigrain Crumb

Filed under:

multigrain bread

Submitted by Rosalie on July 10, 2008 - 4:57pm.

Oh, that looks so good!

Cut me a slice, please, Eric.

Rosalie

Submitted by weavershouse on July 10, 2008 - 6:17pm.

Eric, they look delicious

Really really deliciouse looking. I copied all Mark's recipes because someone here said he's going to take them offline soon now that he's starting up the bakery.

This is a FOR SURE to try. Thanks for showing us them. weavershouse

Submitted by Rosalie on July 11, 2008 - 3:44pm.

Me too

I followed Eric's link to the web site and found a message from Mark about the recipes coming down any day now. So I downloaded the lot of them in PDF form and now have them all on my computer.

Rosalie

Submitted by foolishpoolish on July 10, 2008 - 6:39pm.

Yum!

Wow that looks absolutely delicious!

Submitted by dmsnyder on July 10, 2008 - 9:19pm.

Great looking bread, Eric!

Those breads look delicious!

I love Hamelman's Multi-Grain Levain. It might be the best tasting bread I've ever made. And, as you found with Mark's, it makes wonderful toast. If you want to try a sourdough version, do check out Hamelman's formula. BTW, the recipe in "Bread" right after that one is for a multi-seeded levain. It's also pretty great.

I posted entries on my TFL blog on both these breads some time back.

David

Submitted by mcs on July 10, 2008 - 9:21pm.

looks great, Eric

They look very nice and a little more golden than I get sometimes. Just curious what your temperature/cooking time and steaming procedure were.

-Mark

http://thebackhomebakery.com

Submitted by Mini Oven on July 11, 2008 - 12:35pm.

Hey! great slash too!

May I have some too please? That's what I call colorful tasty bread. You and David color my world!

Mini O

Submitted by ehanner on July 11, 2008 - 12:57pm.

Mark's Multi Grain

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. If I recall, I baked these at 425F which is 10 degrees higher than called for and I let them sit in the oven for 8 minutes with the oven off to crisp up the crust. Normal steam for me is to toss 3/4 C hot water in a baking pan with a split brick in it and cover the vent in my ELECTRIC OVEN. Never do this with a gas oven. I remove the vent block after 10 minutes.

It took me a while to be a convert to the dsnyder crust drying technique but now that I have seen the crispy crust with my own eyes even after a day of bench time, I'm on board now and a convert.

These are a little dark for the average commercial customer I suppose. To bad really the caramelizing of the flour and sugars really improves the over all flavor IMHO.

Thanks again Mark for sharing this wonderful recipe.

Eric

Submitted by Susan on July 11, 2008 - 2:29pm.

Mmmmmm...

I can just TASTE it! Beautiful rise, Eric.

Susan from San Diego

Submitted by Rosalie on July 11, 2008 - 3:52pm.

You inspired me, Eric

I was wondering what to do for my next bread project when I saw this post. I'm pretty much following the recipe, other than substituting Bob's Red Mill 8-Grain hot cereal mix in the soaker (all the same grains except wheat, with other stuff too). I don't expect it to come out nearly as nice as yours because I'm not nearly as devoted to the craft as you.

And I wondered why I kept wanting to add caraway seeds. Then I looked again at your picture and saw that you did - or one of the related seeds. So I "folded" in some caraway seeds. I do the shaping and final fermentation in about an hour.

Rosalie

Submitted by ehanner on July 11, 2008 - 4:01pm.

Caraway - new ground

Rosalie,
You are treading on new ground with the caraway in the multi grain. I didn't use any in my batch. Let us know how it tastes, I'm really curious on that.

Eric

Submitted by Rosalie on July 11, 2008 - 4:24pm.

It must be from the soaker

Those sure looked like caraway seeds. Well, we'll see, won't we?

Rosalie

Submitted by ehanner on July 11, 2008 - 4:31pm.

Adventure

Hey from what I hear the first person to pour root beer over ice cream took a lot of grief over it the first time and look what happened with that!

Eric

Submitted by Rosalie on July 12, 2008 - 11:00am.

Multigrain Good!

It turned out pretty good. As I said, I mostly followed the recipe, other than the soaker substitution and the later addition of caraway seeds. Following the recipe included using ap flour, which I am loathe to do, but I figured I still have some ap and some bread flour to use up. Either that or throw it out.

It turned out pretty good. The caraway seeds practically disappeared, though. I guess I didn't put in that much, but this morning I saw one caraway seed and tasted another. I'd wondered if they'd disintegrated, but that seems unlikely.

Mark's Multigrain

Rosalie

Submitted by ehanner on July 12, 2008 - 11:44am.

Rosalie That looks great!

Looks good to me Rosalie! I like that it's not a dry loaf. I'm glad you tried this and it looks like you nailed it!

Eric

Submitted by holds99 on July 14, 2008 - 1:28am.

Picture Perfect

Eric,

They're beautiful...inside and out. You really did a super job; color, scoring and crumb.

In my last King Arthur order I ordered a few bags of their whole multigrain. My wife has been pressing me to make a couple of multigrain loaves but I've been stalling because I wasn't sure which recipe to use---now I know. Thanks for the nudge and the link to Mark's recipe.

Howard

Submitted by ehanner on July 14, 2008 - 6:39am.

Thanks Howard

Thanks Howard,

This recipe is a big hit here. I recently made a batch with Buckwheat Honey that was out of this world good. There isn't enough honey in it to call it sweet tasting but it really makes a difference. There are a lot of great small honey producers in the US that sell the best honey you can get. Unfortunately most of the stuff on the shelves at the super market comes from big conglomerates that repackage product from China. So try to find a local producer and try unusual honey flavors.

Eric

Submitted by holds99 on July 14, 2008 - 7:07pm.

I really like good honey

Eric,

We get really good quality local orange blossom honey, here in Florida. It isn't cheap but it's truly wonderful honey. Also, when Charlene and I go up to Tennessee and the Carolinas we always stock up on 4 or 5 quarts of sour wood honey. Don't know the source of the honey but it is delicious. I use honey in my baking and also like it on toast as a switch from marmalade and preserves. I agree, the stuff on the supermarket shelves is pretty thin and of questionable origin. This China connection is scarry.

I'll let you know how I make out with the whole grain and THANKS for your recommendation on the PureKomachi 5" tomato knife. It works great. I use it everytime I score a loaf. Neat little knife with a neat little holder. Amazon had a package deal with free shipping so I also bought the bread knife. It also works great. I'm a sucker for cooking and baking gadgets, utensils, pans, etc.

Anyway, good to hear from you.

Howard - St. Augustine, FL

Submitted by wheat allergy on September 4, 2008 - 3:23pm.

NEED recipe

Well it looks like the recipe on that website was taken down. I recently found out that I'm allergic to wheat and trying to find wheat free but not gluten free recipes that don't have too many additives. I just purchased the 8 grain cereal from Red Mill and can't find a recipe to use with it. Can someone share this recipe PLEASE -- both the original and/or the substituted with the cereal?

Thanks!

Submitted by holds99 on September 4, 2008 - 3:57pm.