Multigrain Pan Bread - the new favorite bread
After last week’s super crusty bread, we decided to give our jaw a break with pan bread this week. Don’t get me wrong. I love crusty artisan bread but from time to time, you can’t help craving softer pan bread.
I've got Advance Bread and Pastry book for a while now but haven't made many breads out of it (got a really bad habit of cookbook addiction, but not enough time to use them). Flipping through the book, I cam across Multigrain Pan Bread. Instantly, I was attractd to it for two reasons, multigrain and pan bread. I love multigrain bread for its flavour and texture (and health benefits). The recipe also has interesting technique and flour mixture.
The recipe employs both pre-ferment (with yeast) and stiff sourdough starter to enhance the flavour. The recipe calls for 5 different flours; wheat flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, semolina flour and rice flour. I ended up made it to 6, by including soy flour as well.
The grain mixture is typical, which include sunflower seeds, oats, flaxseeds and sesame seeds (which I replaced them with cooked rice). This bread tasted amazing. It was naturally sweet. It had no sugar, and little amount of honey. I believe the wonderful flavour was resulted from several factors; pre-ferment & SD starter, grains and seeds, the mixture of flour and its flavour profile?. I'm actually not sure how the different types of flour would contribute to the great flavour (I'm planing to bake plain bread with this flour combination and to find out).
I can't help comparing this bread to PR's Multigrain Extraordinaire, which was my favorite multigrain sandwich bread. ABAP's tastes equally nice, if not nicer, but has no sugar, less honey and no butter (got veg oil though). I think I've found my new favourite multigrain bread:)
Full post and more photos are here.
Sue
Comments
Wow! Sue, your posts are always a pleasure to see and to read!
codruta, from Apa.Faina.Sare.
Sue
Looks delicious, Sue!
Indeed, it was one tasty loaves. My partner just couldn't stop eating it.
Sue
Indeed, it was one tasty loaves. My partner just couldn't stop eating it.
Sue
Lovely crumb structure there,Sue. Interesting inclusion of the cooked rice. Could you make out the individual grains in the final loaf? I bet that made for added moisture. Did you toast the soy before using it? Nice bake, Sue.
Best,
Syd
The cooked rice idea was borrowed from Peter Reinhart's multigrain extraordinaire, and I had some rice left over, but ran out sesame seeds (suggested in the recipe). Most of the grains, especially rice & oats were pretty much blended into the crumbs, but you still can get the texture from flaxseeds and sunflower seeds. So, it's good for both world, moisture from soft grains and texture from the hard ones.
No, I didn't toast the soy flour...keep forgetting that. Now, I'm making a mental note to try toasting the soy flour next time as I'm curious what the difference/effects it would give.
Sue
Hey Sid,
Seems like you know a thing or two about soy flour. I've been using it on and of, but I can't find either it's taste or it's benefits. The only thing I discovered so far is that it's not really good for decorating your bread; I found it burns really easy. If you have any pointers, I'd appreciate it!
Well that's a very healthy looking loaf you've made Sue, the crumb being much more open than I'd expect with the blend of non-glutinous flours in the mix. It's rich brown crust just speaks of flavour. A lovely, well made bread indeed!
I know exactly what you mean about AB&P and cook books in general. It's hard to know where to start sometimes, particularly with a volume such as Suas's. Apparently you're afflicted with the same condition as I am in collecting cooking and baking books, but it goes with the territory if one is passionate about food.
Thanks for posting this, I'll have to try it.
Regards,
Franko
I guess the non-glutinous flour percentage is not high, it's about 7% of rice and soy flour combined, and the loaf got away with open crumbs.
Aren't we all having the same issue (or passion, I say) with cookbooks. Now, I'm eyeing French Laundry by Thomas Keller.
Sue
Your bread does look delicious, Sue!
David
When I took the bread off the tin, it was slightly undercooked/a bit soft. So, I put the whole loaf on the baking stone (I always leave the stone in the oven) for another 5 minutes. I think this has helped with the crust colour (and possibly something to do with rice flour & soy flour as well).
Sue
and so fluffy. I've never baked with rice flour, but I have a bag in the pantry I've been wondering what to do with. How does it affect the taste? -Varda
I never baked with rice flour before until now too. I'm not even sure what effect it made. It was hard to tell the differences, probably because of the low percentage (only 3%). It might give moisture, tender crumbs,perhaps. I also made another loaves with these flour combinations, but wihtout grains. Still, I am not quite sure what are the differences (I'm really hopeless, aren't I?:)).
By the way, the bread has 1% of instant dry yeast, which is used in the preferment & final dough.
Sue
Nice loaf Sue!
I'm working on a comparable mixture with some alterations and additions (mainly maltpowder). I also find it very hard to find out what Soy flour does. I've baked both with and without it, but do not arrive at any solid conclusions. Is it a healthy and "cheap filler" more than anything else I wonder? I know it's gluten free but high in proteine, but other than that... totally in the dark. Hope I will find out more following this thread :-)
Greet
Freerk
Hi Freerk
I still don't know much about soy flour and just started baking with them about 4 times. One thing I noticed was that it enhanced the colour of hte crumbs (it gives nice creamy yellowy colour). It also makes the crust slightly darker than usual. I also like to believe that it enhanced the taste as well, but I am not absolutely sure. As you mentioned, one thing for sure is the nutritients it contributes. It is a good way to increase protein in the bread.
Below is the link to information about baking with soy flour, though the main focus of the research was on commercial baking.
http://www.wishh.org/workshops/intl/southafrica/sept06/stauffer-sept06.pdf
Your loaf looks good too, nice crumb and oven spring.
Sue
thanks for the link. Interesting stuff. I understand why soy is commercially interesting. I have been "deconstructing" a dutch loaf that is very popular over here in the Netherlands, and it turns out that it is basically a white bread, made to appear like a wholewheat bread (by adding malt powder) and stuffed with both soy flour and broken soy beans, thrown in with some more traditional seeds like sunflower and sesame. Not UNhealthy, but rather a bit deceiving, I think...
I agree about the color in both crust and crumb. Taste wise.... I find nothing!
Happy baking
Freerk
Beautiful, beautiful Loaf, Sue! What a nice mixture of flours.. the crust and crumb look very encouraging, considering the flour mixture used. Way to Go! Another reason to buy a new book.. ugh!
Highly recommend this bread and ABAP book. This is one the greatest book on my shelf. I even love it more than Hamelman's. The book is very comprehensive and covering all grounds of baking and pastry arts. It also got study-aid material that I also find very useful (not that I'm studying culinary or anything).
Sue