Monday, February 16, 2009

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.

11 comments:

Lien said...

Looks lovely, glad is was as tasty without the nuts! Personalised breads... cool!!

NKP said...

I love the scoring!
I thought the R was for.. R you going to eat all that, 'cause I would like a slice!
Congrats on your very successful loaves. So happy to be baking with you. :)

Engineer Baker said...

I love the wheat pattern on top! And I can't wait - this will be a fun one to bake along with all of you.

Ilva said...

So PRETTY! I must imitate you next time I make that type of loaf!

MyKitchenInHalfCups said...

What a wonderful perfect cool fabulous amazing . . . wow Sara what a fun way to score it!!!
It's been lovely to bake with you. Here to many new breads together.

Cookie baker Lynn said...

Your loaves look lovely! I especially like the grain scoring. Happy Anniversary!

Karen Baking Soda said...

Reynolds of course! Happy anniversary! They look yummy Sara!

breadchick said...

YEA! You got your bread done too!! Mine is in the oven as I type. So, I can't comment right now but I love yours and especially the "R" for Reynolds.

Can't believe we've been doing this for a whole year!!

Annie said...

Great looking loaves! And very creative. I bet it is delicious as toast too!

natalia said...

Ciao ! I love your decorations !!

Indian cooking Recipes said...

thanks i was looking for this recipe for a long time.I have a cooking blog indiancooking recepes on blogger.com and i have just started blogging on it from this month.You can have a look at it too and suggest or comment on my blog.
thanks.
shamshad