Bread Baking Babes - Our First Anniversary - 5 Grain Bread

This month is a very special month in the land of the Babes - our first anniversary!

Tanna is our hostess of the month and she has chosen Pane ai Cinque Cereali con Nod (Five~Grain Bread with Walnuts) from The Italian Baker by Carol Field.

This is a really interesting bread. Unlike previous breads we've tackled, there's no starter, no wet dough, no 3 day processes. The method is quite simple - mix the dough, 2 rises, bake and devour. What makes this one interesting is the 5 flours and the walnuts. This recipe calls for all purpose flour, whole wheat, rye, oat, and rice flours. I had the first 3 on hand, and ground up some rolled oats in my food processor to make the oat flour. And I bought brown rice flour at the natural food store. I really waffled on the walnuts - I was going to add them, I was going to omit them, on and on. In the end I was going to use them, but ended up having to leave them out as I forgot to buy them. But I must tell you, the bread didn't suffer for the lack of walnuts. It is fab-u-los!

Makes 2 9 X 5-inch loaves

1 1/4cups (300 grams) walnut pieces
3 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast or 1 1/2 small cakes (27 grams) fresh
yeast
¼ cup warm water
3 cups water, room temperature
3 3/4 cups (500 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 ¼ cups (125 grams) oat flour or finely ground rolled oats
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) rye flour
1 cup less 1 tablespoon (125 grams) whole-wheat flour
¾ cup (125 grams) brown rice flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (20 grams) salt

Toast the walnuts for 10 minutes in a 400° F oven; then chop in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or with a sharp knife to the size of a fat rice kernel. Do not grind them finely.

BY HAND:
Stir the yeast into the warm water in a large mixing bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Mix the walnuts, flours, and salt and stir 2 cups at a time into the dissolved yeast, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough should come together easily. Knead on a floured surface, sprinkling with additional all-purpose flour as needed, until firm, elastic, and no longer sticky, 8 to 10 minutes.

BY MIXER:
Stir the yeast into the warm water in a mixer bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in 3 cups water. Stir in the flours, walnuts, and salt with the paddle. Mix until the dough comes together. Change to the dough hook and knead for 3 to 4 minutes at medium speed until firm and elastic but still slightly sticky. Finish kneading briefly by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.

BY PROCESSOR:
Make sure your food processor can handle the volume of this dough. Even when done in 2 batches, there will be 4 cups flour to be processed. Stir the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl; let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Place the flours and salt in a food processor fitted with the dough blade and process with several pulses to sift. With the machine running, pour the dissolved yeast and 3 cups cold water through the feed tube as quickly as the flours can absorb it; process until the dough gathers into a ball. Process 40 seconds longer to knead. Knead in the walnuts by hand on a surface floured with all-purpose flour.


First Rise. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Shaping and Second Rise. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. The dough should be moist, firm, and noticeably elastic, if slightly sticky. Cut the dough in half and shape each half into an oval loaf to fit a loaf pan. Place the loaves in the oiled pans (preferably glass), cover with a heavy towel, and let rise until truly doubled and fully above the tops of the pans, 1 to 1 ¼ hours.
Baking. Heat oven to 400° F. Slash a pattern in the top of the loaves. One baker in Milan cuts the shape of a stalk of grain on the top; elsewhere bakers make 3 parallel slashes. Bake 40 to 45 minutes; bake the last 5 to 10 minutes out of the pans on a baking stone or baking sheet to brown the bottoms and sides. Cool completely on a rack.

I ended up using just less than 1 cup of the ground up oats - ladies you should be proud of me, I didn't just toss in all the flour and end up with a too dry dough. See, I am learning! The dough rose like mad, and after the first rise I cut it in half, shaped into 2 loaves and let it rise again. Before baking I scored a "wheat pattern" (don't make fun) into one, and an R into the other.

R for Righteous bread? You decide.


Thanks Tanna for this hearty and delicious bread! Happy Anniversary to us, here's to many more years of baking together.