A Toast to Toast - Multigrain Sandwich Bread
Now and then I need toasted bread. The supermarket varieties are, of course, off limits. A loaf that yields without putting up any resistance to my probing finger is not worthy of a Schwarzwald ham or Fontina topping. I want my toast delicately softening when I spread it with butter - not disintegrating into mash!
One of my favorite breads for toasting is the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire from Peter Reinhart's "Bread Baker's Apprentice". But it does need some adjustments! As usual the original is much too sweet for my taste - I use either 19 g honey or brown sugar, as the mood strikes me, not the suggested 28 g honey plus 42 g (!) sugar. Also, I found that 6 g instant yeast works just fine, it doesn't need 9 g.
Another curious thing - the original recipe calls for too much liquid: 113 g buttermilk plus 230 g water. Even though I substitute 100 g of the bread flour with whole wheat the dough is still far too wet for this kind of bread. Today I added only 170 g water, the dough was very tacky, soft, but firmed up nicely.
I also changed the technique a bit, including buttermilk and more flour in the soaker, and either pre-fermenting most of the bread flour in a biga, or doing stretches and folds. And, as usual, I bulk retard the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
The result is a very tasty, unsquishy bread that really deserves the goodies I put on top - even when it's untoasted.
Comments
Very pretty loaf, Karin.
Anything with buttermilk has to be good!
Iam with Lindy! Very tasty looking miltigrain toast! YUMMMMM.
Thanks for sharing this, Karin.
Very nice revamping! I am sure it taste excellent!
Sesame crust also does the trick too...it looks so much prettier with it.
I like this Multigrain extraordinaire from BBA as well. It's really lovely toasted. Glad I'm not alone to think that the dough is very wet.
I'm thinking to convert this recipe into sourdough for next weekend bake.
Sue
http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/
I do like baking or making desserts with buttermilk - one of our family's traditional Pommeranian desserts is made of buttermilk and has the fancy name: "Blushing Maiden" (Errötende Jungfrau).
When I first tried making this bread, and the dough was so wet that I had to add lots of flour to make it workable, I was wondering whether I had made a mistake, like weighing a wrong amount or forgetting one of the ingredients (it has happened before!). But a second trial gave the same result, so I think it's really an error in the recipe.
It would be interesting to make a sourdough version of this bread. I haven't tried it, yet, but I used sourdough in several of the WGB recipes. (Bye the way, nice blog you have, Sue!)
Karin
I too have to have a good non-squishy bread to hold up under the toppings. Great write up. One of the reasons that most of my bread books sit unused on the shelves is that there are so many errors in the formulas. About the only book I have that has none is Bernard Clayton. Editing has become a thing of the past I am afraid. Have you looked to see if the " errarta" are out for the book ? Some of the authors have followed up with them. c
I just googled - I couldn't find any. I have to say, though, that most of Peter Reinhart's recipes are fortunately pretty foolproof, and I wouldn't dismiss a recipe from a good book until I see that I cannot find a way to make them work out.
Did you ever try the "Sesame Walnut Bread" from Bernard Clayton, Trailrunner? That is the only one I have made so far (from his old book, with some modifications).
Karin
Another wonderful looking bake!
Larry
that I don't get a big ego, Larry!
Today it's so dreary and drippy, that I had to bake an applecake to counteract the gloom outside. It's a recipe I never did before, I haven't tried it, yet, but it smells wonderful.
Karin
I haven't made this loaf for quite sometimes. But I now remember that the dough was really really wet and sticky. So, when I made it again second time, I adjusted my recipe to below. Same as you Karin, I reduced amoont of liquid and honey, i.e. buttermilk, water and honey. As far as I remember, the bread came out as nice as the first time with all the liquid suggested by PR's recipe.
Thanks for the complement on the blog:)
Sue
http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/
Breads, cakes, muffins, etc that are made with buttermilk do very, very well at high altitude. I am sure someone can explain why this is so. I often include some buttermilk or sourdough in certain breads. It doesn't change the taste, but it makes a better crumb and a dough that doesn't rise to fast, giving the bread time to develop more flavor.
Pam