I'm looking for a European-style dense, chewy loaf, rather than the levain type.

The Noe Valley Bakery in San Francisco makes one and calls it "7x7" bread" (seven grains and seven seeds)

I'm looking for the recipe for St.Johns Bread. Affectionally refered to as Johney Bread. Its from St Johns University in St.Cloud,Minnesota. Ive tried various sources with no luck.

Thanks!

Peaberry

Does anyone have suggestions or recipe for 100% milled red hard whole grain pasta?  I have not experimented much with my milled flour - just breads and pancakes.  But will be starting to make my own pasta...

Just a word of warning: don't soak flax seeds!

I was making my standard 33% wholewheat pagnotta with a pasta madre leaven and had run out of sesame seeds. I normally add about 100 gm of mixed pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds to the dough. So I used linseed instead, but without even thinking poured hot water over all the seeds to soak them. I know linseed goes all mucilaginous in liquids. But somehow I forgot.

The problem came when I tried to fold the seeds into the dough. The slime prevented the dough from coming together around the seeds, and the seeds kept breaking through the surface. So I gave up and just amalgamated as best as I could, then allowed the loaf to rise in a cloth-lined basket. It stuck more than usual to the cloth. But it baked up beautifully and tasted pretty good, with lodes of seeds running through the crumb. I wouldn't do it again, but I'm glad I didn't just throw it out.

Jeremy

I made Five-Grain Bread from the book "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes: by Jeffrey Hamelman.
It calls for a mature Liquid-Levin build to use in this case the next day. I've never had any confidence in my starter but I think it tasted and looked good. I did add a wee bit of instant yeast to the levin build to make sure it would have rising power. The bread tastes great.  I do know it did not come out as it was supposed too.  When I took it out of the basket onto the peel, it spread a lot and did not rise much in the oven.  My scoring is laughable, you can tell its a different color but the beautiful ears and other looks have alluded me in every loaf I've made.  I think I cut correctly, have a lame, tomato knife, cut to 1/4 inch and at the right angle but to no avail.

I will just keep reading all I can here, read my books trying to learn the correct way to do things.  The very bright side in all this is most of what I make tastes pretty good to me and the family.

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums, but have been lurking around for a while.  I've been baking exclusively 100% whole grain bread for a couple of years now, and I'm very happy with my sandwich loaf, but I'm always tweaking my rustic boule (which I make with a sourdough starter).  I use Peter Reinhardt's forumula as a start for a boule/hearth bread from his Whole Grain Breads book.  This recipe calls for a pre-ferment + a soaker overnight, and when the final dough comes together, I do not add any fats (no oil or sugar), and I do not add any commercial yeast (I let the natural leavening starter do its thing).

I am happy with the rise, the crumb, and the flavor of my whole wheat sourdough bread, but I always wish the crust were harder.  The entire bread feels beautifully light on the inside (not the heavy/chewy door-stopper type of weight that a lot attribute to WW), but I think that the crust should be harder and maybe even thicker.  When searching hard or soft crust on this forum, it looks like the trend is how to get a softer cruster instead of harder... well, I need tips on harder crust.

I experiment baking two ways: 1) on parchment paper directly on a fibrament baking stone pre-heated for 1 hour to 550 deg F (temp reduced to 450 deg F after 2 minutes) with a steam pan and a spritz of water sprayed directly onto the boule; and 2) inside of a pre-heated cast-iron dutch (with parchment paper again for ease of transport) oven pre-heated to 550 degrees (lowered to 450 degrees after first 2 minutes), boule spritzed with water, and covered with a lid for about 75% of the baking time.  The results are somewhat similar, with the crust browning more on the stone (and maybe slightly tougher just on the bottom).

Recently I am scoring the loaf, and I'm happier with the oven spring, but look for your tips on a tougher and harder crust out of the oven.  I know that after a day or so in a plastic bag, the crust will soften, but I'm hopeful for the day 1 crust!

Thanks,
-Nico

Ruisleipa is a staple of the Finnish table. Anyone who has lived there can testify to this. It's history is long and rich but it has not made it to America in any great way.  I have searched for a similar bread and have never found one. So I buckled down and made my own at last!  I have been to afraid to because I had never made a starter before and I don't have my recipe. ( I learned from my host family grandmother when I was an exchange student. She gave me her recipe but it is at my mother's house and I don't know when I'll get to visit again and retrieve it) But I have found the recipes of Beatrice Ojakangas to be reliable in the past so I used her recipe (with a slight change) to make these lovely loaves!

These loaves are in the Eastern style with a hole in the center so they can be hung from the rafters to dry for use later.

They are the right height and consistancy. The only things I would change is I would like a slightly darker crust and I would like the crust to be softer.  I'm not sure why it was a bit tough.  Otherwise they were good.  I actually prefer the darker ruisleipa but I have a feeling there is an ingredient I don't know about because they are different in flavor and texture to this. The bread should be 100% rye flour (which I tried and I now have some lovely bread shaped hockey pucks...) but this was a mix of 4 parts rye and 2 parts all pourpose flour. Plus of course the rye starter, 2 cups of potato water, some salt, and 1 packet of yeast (2 tsp).

Hi folks. I have been on a quest to find a 100% whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread and I've had some troubles, I'm not sure if that is even a possibility. I have made whole wheat bread for a long time but recently began switching to 100% whole-wheat (except for a bread flour starter) for the health benefits, but I get pretty much no oven spring and so always end up with wide, short loaves. I have wanted to convert to a whole-wheat starter as well but given my current troubles, I'm not sure if that will happen.

The recipe I currently use is:

Levain:

18 oz starter

5 oz whole wheat flour

Dough:

23 oz Levain

26 oz whole-wheat flour

16 fl/oz water

1.5 oz dry milk powder

0.75 oz salt

The bread is good and I enjoy it but I'm looking for a taller, lighter loaf but not sure if that's possible with that recipe. Using whole wheat flour I know that it tends to be dense as opposed to light. On my last loaf I tried using autolyze which I think did improve the crumb-it was less crumbly, but didn't help rise at all. I haven't tried vital wheat gluten yet since it's pricey but I think that is going to be my next step. One concern I have is that my starter may be weak. It doesn't bubble a lot when I feed it, but when I bake I get plenty of rise during fermentation and proofing, so I'm not sure about that. Am I going to have to compromise, going back to a 50% whole wheat perhaps, or would vital wheat gluten or other alterations make significant changes?

On a side note, are there any recommendations for softer crust as well? It might just be the nature of it being sourdough since I have to bake at a high temp-I generally bake at 400F for about 35 minutes. I spray the loaves with water during proofing and then right before baking. I tried a milk wash once before but that didn't change anything, but I may give it a try again.

Thanks for all your help!

I found this loaf as I was browsing through Bob's Red Mill Recipes and I thought it sounded like an amazing base for a tuna salad sandwich...

Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=950

This loaf was a high riser and the three different seeds are as visually pleasing as they are delicious looking...

I highly recommend this loaf to any seed lovers...

Is my hydration too much or too little?  I'm getting inconsistent results with my regular loaf.

Crack on one side, even though top is diagonal scored 5 or 6 times.

2c Silverton grape starter ~ 75% hyd.

3/4c ww

1/2c rye

2c bread flour

5 tbsp wheat berries boiled for 20 mins in 1c water plus 1/4c quinoa boiled in an additional 1/4c water for 15 additional mins.

1 tbsp gluten

2 1/2 tbsp sprayed malt sugar extract

1c hot water

mix 5 mins with Bosch on 3

Autolyse 30 mins

add 2 1/2 tsp yeast

2 1/2 sea salt

Mix 5 mins on 3.

Rise 20 in steamed oven at ~ 80ºF

Baked from "cold" at 400º for 45 to 50 mins.

These are from today