Whole Wheat Seed Bread Recipes

Steps:

• Be sure to assemble all ingredients before starting. All ingredients should be room temperature for best results.
• Proof:.
• Fill mixer bowl with hot water and let set for a minute or two to warm. Discard water.
• Combine cereal, molasses or other sweetening, and hot water. Stir to mix.
• Add yeast. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. If yeast is not working after 10 minutes, you may need new yeast, or your water may have been too hot. Start over.
• If yeast has made mixture foamy, go to next step.
• Sponge:.
• Fit the mixer with the standard beater.
• Add egg, milk, gluten, oil, salt and water. Mix on low to combine.
• Add 3 cups whole wheat flour, and mix on low to combine. Batter should be about the consistency of cake batter.
• Turn mixer gradually to high, and beat for 5 minutes (use a timer!). Batter should be very smooth and creamy.
• Scrape down beater and bowl.
• Cover bowl loosely with waxed paper or plastic wrap, then with a kitchen towel wrung out in hot water.
• Set bowl in a warm place with no drafts. (I open my oven door part way, which leaves the light on, and place bowl in oven).
• Allow to completely double in size. This can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Check frequently, it really makes a mess if it overflows.
• Knead:.
• After sponge has risen, put bowl back into mixer stand and fit dough hook. Put mixer on low for a few seconds to deflate sponge.
• Leaving mixer on low, gradually add 1 cup whole wheat flour. Continue mixing until flour is fully incorporated.
• Again, leaving mixer on low, begin adding unbleached flour no more than a quarter cup at a time.
• (Always err on the side of less flour - too much makes a hard, heavy and dry loaf).
• Continue adding flour and mixing until dough cleans the bowl and slaps against the sides as it rotates.
• Increase mixer speed to low-medium and continue kneading for 10 minutes (timer, please!).
• Turn off mixer and turn dough out onto a floured table or board.
• Make an indentation in the lump of dough and add amendments if you are using them. Fold dough up around amendments and turn over.
• Knead by hand until bread feels silky smooth and amendments are well distributed.(you will feel the whole grain cereal and amendments). This takes about 5 minutes. You may be incorporating some additional flour as you knead, but this should be very minimal.
• Second Rise:.
• Using a clean bowl (or wash your mixer bowl and re-use), heat bowl with warm water. Dry. Put about 2 teaspoons of olive oil in bottom of bowl.
• Form dough into a large ball, and put seam side up in bowl, turning until seam is on bottom and oil coats entire ball.
• Cover as before and allow to rise until double. Dough is doubled when a finger placed on the dough makes an indentation that does not bounce back.
• Shape and Bake:.
• Handling dough carefully, turn out onto floured board as before. Using your fingers, very gently deflate the bread.
• Shape as desired. I usually shape into 2 free-hand round loaves. Place on a baking sheet sprayed with vegetable spray.
• Cover again as before, and allow to rise about 15 minutes.
• Remove bread from oven (if using to rise) and preheat to 375°F.
• Using a very sharp knife or clean razor blade, slash the top of the loaves a couple of times to allow steam to escape. Be careful not to deflate loaf.
• Bake in lower third of oven for 20 - 25 minutes. If you have an instant read thermometer, bread will be about 195F when done. Old-fashioned way is to thump with knuckles and listen for a hollow sound.
• Remove to cooling racks. Bread can be eaten about 10 minutes later.
• Allow to completely cool before sliding into a plastic bag or bread saver for storage.
• *AMENDMENTS:.
• Amendments should not total more than ½ cup total.
• Green pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, hulled sunflower seeds.
• Toasted almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans or cashews.
• Sun dried tomatoes with a clove of crushed garlic and 2 tablespoons fresh basil.
• Any fresh or dried herb combination with nuts or seeds.

Steps:

• Start with a sponge. Mix together all ingredients except for the flour in your kitchenaide mixer stand. Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour and let stand for 30 minutes till bubbly in mixer bowl. Then add in the remaining flour till the dough is ready to rise in a greased bowl. The dough should not be sticky and springs back when touched. Let rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or double in size in a greased bowl covered with plastic wrap. Form dough into a loaf and place in your loaf pan. Let rise another 30-45 minutes till double. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Butter the top when done and let cool.

Steps:

• The day before making the bread, make the soaker and the poolish. For the soaker, mix together the coarse whole-wheat flour and the water in a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and leave it at room temperature until the next day. For the poolish, mix together the whole-wheat flour and yeast, then stir in the water to make a thick paste. Stir only until all the flour is hydrated, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to ferment at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours, or until it just begins to bubble. Then put it in the refrigerator overnight.
• The next day remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the dough to take off the chill. In a mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer), stir together the whole-wheat flour, salt, and yeast. Then add the poolish and the soaker, as well as the honey, oil, and egg. Stir with a large metal spoon (or mix on low speed for about 1 minute with the paddle attachment) until the dough forms a ball, adding more water or flour if needed.
• Sprinkle whole-wheat flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook). Add flour if necessary and knead until the dough forms a firm, supple dough. This will take 10 to 15 minutes by hand, slightly less by machine. The dough should be tacky but not sticky. It should pass the windowpane test (page 58) and register 77° to 81°F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
• Ferment at room temperature for approximately 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
• Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces (they should weigh about 18 ounces each). Shape them into sandwich loaves, as shown on page 81. Lightly oil two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans and place the loaves in the pans. Mist the tops with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
• Proof at room temperature for about 90 minutes, or until the dough nearly doubles in size and is cresting above the lip of the pans.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F with the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Just before baking, you may choose to garnish the loaves by misting the tops with water and sprinkling on sesame seeds.
• Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes, then rotate them 180 degrees, if necessary, for even baking. Continue baking for 15 to 30 minutes longer. The finished bread should register between 185° and 190°F at the center and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. The loaves should be golden brown all around and firm on the sides as well as on the top and bottom. If they are soft and squishy on the sides, return them to the pans and continue baking until done.
• When the loaves have finished baking, remove them immediately from the pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour, preferably 2 hours, before slicing or serving.
• BREAD PROFILE
• Enriched, standard dough; indirect method; commercial yeast
• DAYS TO MAKE: 2
• Day 1: 2 to 4 hours soaker and poolish
• Day 2: 1 hour to de-chill poolish; 15 minutes mixing; 3 1/2 hours fermentation, shaping, and proofing; 45 to 60 minutes baking
• Commentary
• Coarse flour weighs slightly less per cup than regular grind flour because it doesn't pack as tightly and contains more air. This explains why the coarse flour is only 4.25 ounces, while the regular whole-wheat flour used in the rest of the formula weighs 4.5 ounces per cup.
• The bread will develop a more open crumb if the flour is high in protein. The strongest flour comes from hard spring wheat, which can often be found at natural food markets that offer a variety of flours (see also Resources, page 291). You may also substitute regular whole-wheat flour from the supermarket.
• The use of oil and/or egg is offered as an option to tenderize the bread. If you use either of them, you will need to add additional flour during the final mixing. Let the dough determine how much flour to add, as you knead it to a firm, slightly tacky consistency. Another way to tenderize the dough is to use milk or buttermilk instead of water when making the poolish.
• BAKER'S PERCENTAGE FORMULA
• Whole-Wheat Bread %
• (Soaker)
• Whole-wheat flour: 100%
• Water: 141%
• Total: 241%
• WHOLE-WHEAT POOLISH
• Whole-wheat flour: 100%
• Instant yeast: .41%
• Water: 88.9%
• Total: 189.3%
• (Dough)
• Soaker: 114%
• Whole-wheat poolish: 142%
• Whole-wheat flour: 100%
• Salt: 3.7%
• Instant yeast: 1.2%
• Honey: 16.7%
• Vegetable oil: 5.6%
• Egg: 18.3%
• Total: 401.5%

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt. In another bowl, mix the seeds with the oats.
• In a saucepan, combine the water and molasses and warm the mixture over low heat until a thermometer reads 120 to 130 degrees F (50 to 55 degrees C) .
• Add the liquid to the flour mixture with the egg white. Mix together until a soft dough forms.
• Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes; then shape into a ball. Lightly oil a large stainless steel bowl. Add the dough and turn to cover the dough with the oil. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 2 hours until doubled in size.
• When the dough has risen, punch the dough down with your fists and add all but 2 Tablespoons of the seed mixture working it into the dough. Reserve the 2 Tablespoons of seed mixture for the topping. Shape the dough into a loaf by rolling it into a 12 x 8 inch rectangle and then roll up by its shortest end. Pinch the ends together and tuck underneath. Place in a non-stick 9x5 inch loaf pan with the seam underneath. Cover the loaf pan with a tea towel and let rise for 1 hour until doubled in bulk.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Brush the top of the loaf with milk and sprinkle on the reserved seed mixture. Bake the bread for 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove the bread from the pan and let cool completely.