have not been experimenting much with bread these days...

... probably because i've been baking the same recipe over and over again!

can't seem to tire of current favourite. with more practice and experience, every loaf is getting more and more consistent! also, realized that we have gone 100% white flour free!


100% no white flour, wholemeal and rye bread

• 3 cups of wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
• 1 cup of rye flour
• 1-2 tbsp of honey
• 1/2 tsp of instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
  
• about 1 cup full of seeds - sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and flaxseed.
• approximately 2 cups of water

have been using the same  recipe above for couple weeks now. only differ in the technique.

1. if you have time... try the biga method. mix 1 cup of rye flour, 1/4 tsp of yeast and 3/4 cup of water. let it sit overnight (12-16 hours). then mix the rest of the ingredients the next day.
2. if you don't have time at all. use the same above but increase to 1 tsp instant yeast. go for single rise.
3. if you have some time but not too much. then mix all the above. let it sit for 3 hours or until doubled in size. then stretch the dough and let it sit for another hour. go for 2 rises.

in all cases, i don't knead at all! there's not much gluten as there's no white flour at all so save your energy. instead let the yeast, water and father time do the work. you'll notice the dough will be kind of wet anyway so you still want to knead this glob of mess?

err, the amount of water is just a rough guide. the dough should feel kind of wet. if it looks a bit dry, add 2 tablespoons of water. in any case, should you decide you need more water, add in increments of 2 tablespoons.

before baking, sprinkle a liberal dose of seeds on top of the dough. some rolled oats look really good too!

as before, bake in a covered tin pan at 180C for 30 minutes, then remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes.

sorry, no pics. by the time i finished this loaf, it was kind of late. but it looks not much different from the other loafs of the approximately same recipe.

no kneading required!

ok, back in the 40s, an american housewife by the name of doris grant came up with this recipe. no kneading required! perfect for working housewives. hey, back in those days, i guess this is women empowerment.

i actually did a combination of the pre-ferment and the grant loaf method. why, i haven't baked for 2 weeks due to all the pesky biz trips, so am suffering from "not-having-enough-of-own-bread" syndrome. also, i started at only 3pm and wanted everything done the day itself. the "pre-ferment" method gives very active yeast and i enjoy working with them (before i kill them off in the oven).

as the norm lately, went with the favourite multi-seed bread, namely flaxseed, sunflower seed, pumpkin seed, don't seem to tire of this at all!

• 4 cups of flour - anything you like! i went for 1 rye, 1 wholemeal + 2 whites
• 1 tsp yeast
• 1 tsp honey (more is fine)
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 cup of sunflower, pumpkin and flaxseeds.
  
• about 1.5 cups of water

at about 2.50pm, i mixed 1/4 tsp of instant yeast into 1 cup of rye flour and 3/4 cup of water. this "pre-ferment" is supposed to sit for at least 12 hours but i wanted to complete everything that day itself, so at 7pm, i mixed the rest of the ingredients together.

it's mixing and not kneading as the whole mixture is a bit too wet to knead, so your aim is to ensure the ingredients are mixed properly. if it looks dry, add more water! i always feel that when in doubt, err on the "wet" side.

then dump everything into a well-oiled 4" x 4" x 8" loaf pan. just scoop them up and dump into the loaf pan. doesn't have to look nice as the dough will grow nicely into the loaf pan. it's nice to use a loaf pan here as this recipe calls for only a single rise and the loaf pan helps maintain its shape. the whole dough mixture filled up to about slightly more than half of the loaf pan.

at about 10pm, time to heat up the oven! actually i should have waited more, till  it's almost touching the top of the loaf pans but i'm too sleepy... before i put into the oven, i sprinkled some rolled oats and almond flakes on top.

using a loaf pan, a hotter temperature of 200C is better but i went for 180C so i had to wait for about 40 minutes. dang... if you use 200C, i'm sure you could call it a day earlier...

and voila! we have bread!

actually i baked 2 loaves at the same time. one was a bit dry. the "wetter" rose better. the top isn't curved, i guess it's due to all the rolled oats and almonds i sprinkled on top.   hee hee...

once the bread is done, remember to remove it from the loaf pan. don't wait till it's cool! use a bread knife and through the sides, gently separate the bread from the loaf pan. then turn over the loaf pan and gently tap it till the bread comes out. when it does, you'll see lots of steam. nice! then cool on a wire rack like above.

ha! guess you have no excuse not to bake bread now.  :)

multi-seed rye with pics

when i bake bread, i don't think along the lines of baguette, ciabatta etc. i just do it without much of an expectation. whatever bread turns out, i'm delighted it turned out well! this way i'm never disappointed. and because of this, every home made bread is a great bread.  :)

okay, this is similar to the multi seed wholemeal baked last week except i used more rye and less bread flour this time.

overnight starter

• 1 cup rye flour
• 3/4 cup water
• less than 1/4 tsp instant yeast

12 hours later, we get this mess. smells nice though.

if you wait till 16 hours, it's fine too, but i haven't tried longer than that.

on baking day...

mix with

• 2 cups wholemeal flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp honey
• 3/4 seed mixture - flaxseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.
• adequate water until the dough feels sticky.

 2 hours later...

i could have waited longer but can't wait to start the next process.

well, take it out, proof and shape for another rise before baking.

another 2 hours after shaping it. the dough has grown a lot more.

you could wait longer but i had enough!

remember, slow rise = great bread. teaches us, the new generation of instant gratification spoiled brads, the value of being patient...

before baking, put more sunflower/pumpkin seeds on top. you could put raw ones here as once baked, they'll be delicious!

simply delicious!

they grow a bit more in the oven.

what do you call this? ciabatta?

i couldn't be bothered. i call it a great bread!

dipped in thick stew, soup or butter, all taste good!








oh yeah, someone asked what does the chinese characters below the title mean? literally translated, it means "an idiot making biscuit". meaning someone who doesn't know what he's doing but making a go at it. sounds like me baking bread! ha ha!

multi-seed wholemeal with more pics

told you i can't have enough of those multi-seed bread...

this time i made 4 loaves, using the same method but with different ingredients.


multi-seed wholemeal

overnight sponge

• 1 cup of wholemeal
• 3/4 cup water
  
• slightly less than 1/4 tsp instant yeast

i mixed this about 9pm saturday nighte.

this is what it looks like 9am sunday morning.

it has risen and collapsed. it has a faint sweet smell.

on baking day, mix with

• 1 cup wholemeal
• 2 cups of white bread flour
• 3/4 cup soaked in warm water mixture of flaxseed, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 3 tbsp honey
• and suitable amount of water until dough "feels sticky"

after kneading for about 20 minutes, here it is in a dusted plastic container.

 2 hours later...

you could see the dough has grown quite a lot!



so take it out, proof it, shape it... you should know the drill by now. otherwise click on the "basic bread recipe" tags on the right.

baked at 180c for 20-25 minutes, or until desired "golden browness". 

voila!

bread baking is so easy!

multi-grain bread, again? more than that...

remember the multi grain, multi seeds bread? the one where i used the organic ancient grain mix from "radiant whole food"?

it is a favourite here so i baked this again. but it's no fun doing the same thing same way again.

hey, even great bands like led zeppelin don't play the same song the same way twice. i guess this is how we learn, by doing the same thing in different ways, then observing and learning from there.

i varied 2 things differently here. 

first of all, after all that terrible problem with my moisture-contaminated yeast (just chucked it away), i'm using a new packet now. this time it's instant yeast, not dry yeast.  instant yeast is easier to use as you could mix into the flour directly. no need to proof it with warm water to get things going.

[to store instant yeast, pour out into a small container than pack, reseal and air tight the rest into the fridge. next time when you bake, take out from the small container.]

the second thing i tried this time, is the pre-ferment method.

usually we leaven with instant yeast and that's about it but the pre-ferment method consists of 2 parts, the night before and baking day.

the night before, mix a small quantity of yeast into some flour and water. let it sit overnight.

the next morning, you'll find the previous night's dough has risen and collapsed. now mix in the rest of the ingredients and flour to  previous night's mixture. and so on...

cookingbread.com here has as nice step-by-step tutorial. it so happens that my favourite flour mixture is quite similar to pumpernickel [i love this word!].

i used the method above, but instead of bran flakes, i used almost a cup of grain mixture (consisting of buckwheat, quinoa,  millet, amaranth, flax seed, sunflower seed and pumpkin seed)

i used 2 tablespoons of honey instead of malt extract.

i didn't use any cocoa powder.

for the baking day mixture, i used 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast rather than 1 teaspoon.

well, the dough works much better! much more active!

if before i had to wait for 2 hours for the dough to double, this time it was only an hour and half! second proofing was only 40 minutes but it was an hour with dry yeast before.

and for the first time ever, the dough grew and grew until it almost touched the cover of my plastic container. something that has never happened before.

nah, it's not some mutant yeast here, but more of "yeast on steroids". left to sit overnight, the yeast has grown and multiplied till there's enough of them. then even though you don't add much yeast the following day, as the yeast is already healthy and active, it works a treat.

taste wise, there's some hint of sourdough. don't know about you but i like it.

and i'll be trying more of this method from now on!

4 seed bread

hee hee hee. such a rich, heavy and nutritous loaf!

you have to give credit to the guy (or gal) who thought of combining seeds/nuts into bread. the added dimensionality, bite and subtle taste transforms the basic bread into one hell of a nutritious meal!

there are so many variations you could do, depending on what's easily available. first time i'm trying this and i'm already thinking of other combinations. this is another "keeper" and i'm sure we'll be baking this from time to time!

• 4 cups of flour (since i like rye so much, i used 2 cups of rye + 2 cups of white)
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1-2 teaspoon honey
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ~1.5 cups water
• 1-1.5 cups of seeds (your choice here)

i had some leftover poppy and flax seeds. so went to the store and, to keep the theme consistent, bought some sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. so there are 4 types of seeds here!

combine them anyway you like. i had the poppy seeds soaked in warm water for 10 minutes first before adding to the other seeds.

there are 2 ways to mix the seeds into the dough. you could mix all up first, then pour in the yeast + water mixture. or you could add the seeds to a rather active dough which has grown considerably for an hour.

i prefer the latter as i like to knead the dough a little first. you know, make sure all the flour/yeast/salt is pretty well mixed up first. also, to let the yeast grow considerably first.

then spread out the dough (but not flatten), pour the seeds mixture and knead like crazy.

boy, this will be one wet messy dough. it won't be like kneading anymore but more like just stretching the dough. [if you are unsure whether your dough is too dry or too wet, err on the side of wet.] the seeds (especially the smaller poppy and flax) will be everywhere, sticking to your fingers as well. boy, they do have a knack of hiding in the space between your fingers.

but don't worry too much about this. let it be a wet messy mixture. after mixing them up for a few minutes, leave it aside and let the yeast work its magic.

an hour later, you'll find the dough has grown more and has "taken in" the seeds. now it'll be really easy to stretch or do whatever you want with the dough. the seeds won't fall out anymore. they behave!

such a heavy dough, it won't rise much, so forget about looking for big holes in your bread. in fact, it rises pretty slowly...

[i cheated here. i had to leave early so i had the oven heated up to 60 c, then switched off, and placed the dough inside. boy, in 20 minutes, it grew a lot!]

placed at the middle rack of the oven and had it baked 180 c (about 350 f) for 25 minutes.

it's a beautiful loaf and tastes fantastic! you could chew and savour every bite and taste.

i better stop here. got to take another bite!