December 31, 2009 - 11:27pm
How much water do I add to ground flax and wheat bran in bread?
I am adding some ground flax and wheat bran to a bread I love to make- for flavour and nutrition.
How much water should I add to compensate for 60 g of ground flax and 40 g of wheat bran? I started with 1/4 c but the bread seemed a little drier and denser.
Thanks!
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I would add the water to them before adding to the dough. Take your 100g of flax and bran and add enough water to make a thick paste and let stand 30 minutes. If it get thicker and drier add more water until it resembles your dough and then add to the dough and blend in.
My guess would be anywhere from 60g to 200g of added water. So you could add a little bit more 1/4c being 59g. Flax seeds soak up lots of moisture.
Mini
Hi
Soak your flax/bran mix in boiling water @120% weight of flax/bran combination, and add salt @2%. I don't do cups, sorry. Bring back to the boil to gelatinise the starch in your flax. Stir well, cover and leave ambient overnight. Add this to your final dough.
This allows you to maximise the amount of water you can get in, thereby doing all possible to keep the crumb moist. It also helps to release vital enzymes which will help with dough rheology as well. You may need to make adjustments to the liquid element in your final dough, I haven't seen your full recipe spec.
Hamelman is very good on "soakers" if you have his book.
Best wishes
Andy
Thank-you both for your answers. I'll try your suggestions and let you know how it works out. Maybe I'll post the recipe if I get it perfect.
Hi again,
by 120% do you mean
60 g. bran
72 g. water?, then 1.2 g salt?
I tried this and the water did not even moisten all of the bran flakes. So I kept going to make it 150 g water which made everything moist. Is my math suspect?
Thanks,
Celeste.
Looks right to me Celeste.
Don't forget to link this to your final recipe and adjust the final water as needed.
If you need help with that, send back with a copy of your formula and I can help out.
Thanks
Andy
This is how it worked out - great colour, rise, texture, moisture, and about 60 people dug into the 3 kg. bread I made,
Soaker:
60 g. bran
150 g. hot water, soaked overnight
2% salt
Country Bread
420 g. 100% rye starter - 100% hydration
840 g. water
1260 g. flour (roughly 25% whole wheat, 3% wheat germ, 2% gluten, 70% unbleached all purpose)
2% salt
Stretch and fold 4 x during Bulk Rise - 6 hours
rest 30 min.
shape - overnight retard
Bake @ 450, turned down to 400....
Until done.
Served at the community centre in the woods - Vallican Whole Community Centre - Locavore's Feast (100 mile community potluck meal) - 100 mile meal. Lots of home canned peaches, saskatoon berries, goat milk butter, home made cheese, deer, root vegetables, all kinds of good stuff.