Great whole grain cereal loaf!
After After reading the post about "troubleshooting a multigrain loaf" I thought I'd try my hand at developing a recipe I'd like. It still needs a little tweaking (and I made it a hybrid sourdough) but it turned out absolutely wonderful in terms of texture and grain flavor. The one complaint I have is that I used 100% white whole wheat, which I find rather bland. I'm used to the grassy,sweet flavor of home-ground red spring wheat.I think one of the tweaks will be to use a combination of flours-either red WW, spelt or even some kamut or rye. Hmmm.....rye would be very interesting.
Multigrain Bread
1 tbsp brown rice
1 tbsp pearled barley
1 tbsp wheat berries
1 cup mix of any rolled grains-I used rye,triticale,spelt,kamut,oats,wheat
Bring 1 1/2 c water to a boil and add the whole grains (rice,barely and wheat berries) and simmer for 15 min,covered. Then add the rolled grains,cook for 1-2 minutes and turn off, cover and cool (yields a total of 2 cups cooked whole grain)
I'm sure you could use any of the multigrain cereal blends from Bob's Red Mill or Hodgson Mill.
This really softens the rice,barley and wheat berries so they don't break your teeth in the final loaf.
In a mixing bowl:
4 1/2 c white whole wheat
1/4 c ground flax seed
1/2 c milk/kefir or buttermilk (I used kefir)
1 cup active starter (prob 100% hydration)
1 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp honey
1 egg
About 1/4 c AP flour to bring dough to correct consistency
I mixed in a stand mixer and because of the substantial amount of cooked grains, you have to mix a while to develop the gluten.If you don't, I suspect you will end up with a gooey,dense loaf. I actually mixed a few minutes and let it set for 30 minutes to give the whole wheat a chance to hydrate,then continued mixing about 5 minutes more to develop the gluten.Pay attention to this part.
Because of the cooked grains, this is a very sticky dough-no amount of flour will change that.I found that damp hands and a bench scraper were beneficial, as well as a couple stretch and folds.
When I was happy with the gluten development, I flattened the dough out and distributed the pumpkin seed by hand throughout the dough with some hand kneading.
3/4 c pumpkin seeds (more to cover the tops)
Rise til double-gently shape-proof-bake with steam at 450 for 10 min then 375 for about 40 minutes.
This recipe is still in development but I thought it was a really good first try at a multigrain.I pretty much just dumped,mixed and paused. I'm sure it could be improved with a longer rise,autolyse and perhaps smaller amounts of yeast. I also think either using red,spring wheat or a mix of flours would also improve the blandness of the flavor.
This actually made 2 6"x8" loaves and 5 bread thins (I use for sandwiches)
Enjoy! Glad I finally figured out the picture thing again-it is really a pretty looking and wonderful smelling loaf!