December 28, 2011 - 12:03pm
Incorporating whole grains
I am new to bread making. I tried a variation on a poolish and had amazingly good results. I am looking to incorporate whole grains into my bread, (granola, caraway ect, not as flour). Is there a favorite or best way to do this? Thanks.
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Try soaking them overnight in water and using any water that isn't absorbed as part of the moisture in the final dough, especially for spices like caraway, anise, cumin, etc. You don't want to lose the essence of those spices.
The moisture absorbed by the seeds will definitely impact the moisture of the final dough, though by how much I couldn't tell you. Someone better at math might be able to.
It's worth noting that you don't have to soak all seeds/grains/spices. If you can eat it when it's roasted you don't have to soak it. Both soaked and dry will yield different flavors, too.
Zoom on over to the "Whole Grains" forum. There are TONS of threads on how to do this. Do a search on "Mutligrain" bread or just start browsing. The biggest difference is to make sure you hydrate any dough made with whole grain flour and to develop the gluten of the dough before adding any chunks of grains.
Welcome and happy eating!
Got it. Found the forum and started getting in books by the great ones. I'll be doing more reading than baking for a while. Thanks again.
seems like thats I'll I'm doing now. More reading than baking. I am learning tons. One day I'll have bread servable to friends...lol.