An oldie but a goodie - Memo's Brown Bread

I've been searching for Hodgson Mills Graham Flour since reading about Zolablue's Grandmother's Brown Bread. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2630/memos-brown-bread   

I love that story and how ZB was able to reinvent a lost recipe and recapture the sweet memory of her grandmother who had passed away 25 years before. It really shows how bread is so much more than just food and the story's a reminder that we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

Anyway....I finally found the flour! I had to ask a merchant who carried Hodgson Mills other products to order it for me and voila! You have to look really hard to see the word "Graham"

(Still haven't figured out how to turn photos around)

I made Memo's Brown Bread and weighed everything as I went along, so here is Zolablue's recipe with weights in grams instead of cups. 

Ingredients:

• 1 small potato @140g (size of a medium onion) cooked in boiling water
• 5g instant yeast (@1.5 teaspoons)
• 60g warm water
• 57g shortening (I used room temp, unsalted butter)
• 40g sugar
• 18g salt
• 437-562g AP flour
• 202g Hodgson Mills Graham Flour 

Zolablue's method from here on out with any changes/modifications of mine in parentheses. 

Peel and slice, very thinly, one small potato and boil in 4 cups of water until very well done – usually takes about 15 minutes because of the size of the slices.  Then mash the potato in the water and usually the remaining water with the potato leaves the exact amount of liquid you need for the recipe – (586g) the 2 1/2 cups.  If you need to, add a bit more water if you don’t have enough. 

Sprinkle yeast on (60g)1/4 cup warm water.  Stir to dissolve and set aside. 

  Place sugar, salt, and shortening in mixing bowl and pour hot spud water over this and cool. The potato water should be about the temp of a baby’s bottle, warm to the wrist, otherwise it can kill the yeast. 

 By Hand:  Stir (312g) 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour into bowl containing salt, sugar & potato/potato water to make a thin batter. Add yeast and beat well. Then add (202g) 1 1/2 cups graham flour and mix well.  Stir in remaining all-purpose flour - 1 to 2 cups – until it can be handled on a floured board or counter. Knead in more flour until you have a smooth ball that no longer sticks to counter.

  By Stand Mixer:  Stir 2 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour into bowl containing salt, sugar & potato/potato water to make a thin batter. Add yeast and beat well. Then add 1 1/2 cups graham flour and mix well.

Stir in remaining all-purpose flour - (125 to 250g) 1 to 2 cups - to make a dough that leaves the sides of the bowl.  Knead/mix until smooth and elastic, about 7 - 10 minutes. (I wound up using all of the extra AP flour)

Place in greased bowl; turn dough over to grease top.  (Due to an unforeseen chore, I had to put the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours right after mixing, it still turned out great) Cover and let rise in warm place until it doubles, about 1 1/2 hours. 

  Punch down.  Turn onto board and divide in half; round up each half to make a ball. (Or divide into 4 even balls) Cover and let rest 10 minutes.

  Shape into loaves and place in 2 greased loaf pans.  Cover with cloth or sheet of plastic wrap and let rise until dough reaches top of pan on sides and the top of loaf is well rounded above pan, about 1 1/4 hours. (My final rise was closer to 2 hours - maybe because of the refrigerator rest)

  Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes, rotating half-way through if necessary.  Cover loosely with sheet of foil the last 20 minutes, if necessary, to prevent excessive browning.  Makes 2 loaves.

It's delicious! The graham flour really is the secret ingredient; faintly reminiscent of graham crackers. It's heavenly as toast, makes great french toast. It would be good as small dinner rolls, hot dog or hamburger rolls, maybe as the basis for a cinnamon raisin pan loaf or a seeded multigrain. I'd like to try it using my sourdough to leaven, or yeast water/SD combo.

Thank you Memo and Zolablue, wherever you are - your efforts are still being savored!