Bread Bread Who Wants some Bread???

Ok, I have been asked my my sister in law if I had any bread recipes that were hearty, whole grain types. And the answers is OH YEAH!!!  love using grains. In fact next month I am teaching a grains class at my church.  I am really looking forward to that. I love the added bite and texture grains add to bread.

 First you need some special equipment (that is if you are going from scratch) to mill your wheat. Freshly milled wheat flour is amazing and produces a great bread. I like using white wheat but feel free to use the red. Upon researching for this post I discovered there is quite a lot of fuss about the kinds of wheat people us in bread making and which mill is best down to the alkaline of the water for goodness sake! All I know is I grind the wheat and make bread out of it! Sheesh!

 I do buy some grains already milled. Flax seed is not recommended to be milled by my mill so I buy it pre milled (How many times can I say mill in a sentence!!) I also have a grain roller, the secret of my success, that helps me to up the amount of grains I use. It is awesome. setting one cracks the grain setting two rolls it (think rolled oats) and the third setting makes a course flour. The main tip in making a muti grain bread is to have a good base. what I mean is a good basic bread dough you can go crazy adding grains too. I add a few tablespoons of flax to my bread dough. I like mixing flours too. But I make sure to add extra vital wheat gluten to the dough so I get a good rise. It is a little tricky getting a good rise from multi grain bread. I don't use dough conditioners so I have to get the gluten going on my own. The way I do that is my whipping my bread dough. I take the yeast and water an let it hang out in the mixer bowl for 5 minutes. While they are doing there thing, I heat up the milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a pan to 115 degrees. I add the milk mixture to the yeast water. I add two cups of freshly milled wheat flour to the bowl along with my vital wheat gluten. Using the paddle I mix it for about a minute our until all of the flour is wet then crank it the high and let it whip for 5 to 8 minutes. I know it seems like a long time but it gets the gluten going. You can tell it's ready when the dough is very stringy-ish. Replace the paddle with the dough hook. This is the base I was talking about  At this point I feel free to start adding other grains to the dough. I like to add another 1 cup of flour (can be any gluten flour- barley, wheat, rye) and I add flaked/ rolled wheat or oats or spelt. I also like to add seeds. poppie seeds, pumpkin seeds, or sesame seeds. I run the mixer with the dough hook until the dough forms a ball around the hook and the sides of the bowl are clean. I rise the dough until double about 2 hours or more. the yeast needs time to do it's magic with such a heavy dough. When It's done rising I punch it down and roll it out flat as I can then roll it up like a cinnamon roll. I tuck the ends under an put in a loaf pan and let it rise until double, about an hour or so. Bake it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or it reaches in internal Temp of 190 degrees.


Recipe-

3 cups flour  (fresh milled whole wheat, red or white)
1/2 cup water 115 degrees 
2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, or oil, or coconut oil, or shortening; whatever kind of fat you want (just not lard)
2 tsp salt
2 tablespoons sugar, or honey or agave or molasses
1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten
1 cup additional grains (rolled oats, spelt flakes, millet, rolled barley etc.)
1/4 cup seeds (optional)

In mixer add yeast and water. Let sit 5 minutes. In a small pan add milk, butter, salt, and sugar. Heat to 115 degrees. Add milk mixture to yeast water. add 2 cups flour and wheat gluten;  mix to combine. with paddle attachment, whip for 5 to 8 minutes. Switch out paddle for dough hook. Add at least 1 cup of flour and additional grains. let mixer go for a few minutes. turn off and add seeds. when the mixer is going again the dough will start to pull away from the sides of the bowl. if it is not, add extra flour, about 1/4 cup at a time. Once the sides of the bowl are clean and the dough it in a ball around the hook. remove the dough and place in a well greased bowl. cover and let rise in a warm, draft free place for about 2 hours or until doubled.
Punch down dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Roll out flat and then roll up kind of like a cinnamon roll. tuck the edges under and put dough in a well greased bread pan. cover and let rise until double, about an hour. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes.


Sorry no picture of this but I hope to get one soon.