6 Whole Grain Bread 101--Secrets to Tender Whole Grain Bread

I'm teaching a bread class this morning at the Honeyville Farms store in Chandler Arizona 

Bold Better Bread Workshop

Saturday July 9th at 10:00 AM

I will cover all you need to know about grain, ingredients, tools and baking  used in professional bake shops that you can do at home! You won't want to miss this informative and zany-fun class!

 Come prepared to laugh and learn! Perfect for beginners and experienced bakers alike.

Honeyville Farms Retail Store - CHANDLER, AZ 33 South 56th Street Suite 1| Chandler, AZ 85226 Phone: (480) 785-5210

I want to share a recipe that I really love for whole grain bread. It's made with rolled cereal in the dough and the quantity of cereal is high enough that if you didn't know better and didn't follow my directions...you'd end up with something totally nasty. It's the way I process the cereal and the way I work the dough that makes for an amazing tender loaf of whole grain bread. Because we use the rolled grain with all the fiber, it's a slower impact on your blood sugar. I make it often for that reason. I adore bread. I want to eat it without guilt. I've really come to adore the 6 grain rolled cereal.  It's composed of Red Whole Wheat Flakes, White Whole Wheat Flakes, Barley Flakes, Oatmeal, Rye Flakes, and Sunflower Seed. It's really just full of Mother Nature's best whole grains.   

My original recipe makes 4 loaves.

You will need:

Step one:

In a 3.5 Gallon Food Grade bucket or large bowl

6 cups Honeyville 6 grain rolled cereal (or just rolled oats)

5 cups warm water (not to exceed 110 degrees)

1 cup instant dry milk or soy milk 

1 cup honey

1/2 cup  olive oil

1T  instant yeast (1 tsp for a longer 4 hour raise)

Allow yeast to activate and grain the chance to absorb moisture 30 minutes. Look...this is the method that works. I tried it cooking the cereal first and what ended was not pretty. It was a gum ball. The uncooked cereal soaked in the liquid ended up a fluffy loaf of love. I don't make the rules...I just report them. 

In a separate container combine:

6 cups whole wheat bread flour

2 tsp salt 

1/2 cup Honeyville farms Vital Wheat Gluten 

Mixing the gluten with the flour first will keep the gluten from globbing together. Spell check loved the word "globbing".  Here's something totally random...I just typed "globbing" 7 times...just to see the pretty spell check in action...now that's a quirk I need to get fixed. That's not funny cute quirk...that's like OCD-I-need-a-vacation/intervention-quirk...

The gluten helps give added structure to the whole grain bread that's more difficult to accomplish usually with this much grain used in conjunction with this amount of flour. It's a dead on winner for lower blood sugar bread though...and I'm a big fan.

Stir 3/4 of the flour mixture into the grain water mixture until a thick paste is made.

The dough will appear very moist.  Wait 5-10 minutes and allow the flour to absorb water before adding any more flour (if any). This will make a very moist bread.

Knead consistently in the same direction for 7 minutes by hand (or 300 strokes).

Kneading dough in a bucket is ideal in that you have a straight sided container to tell when the bread has doubled in volume. Also, if you were in a camping situation or emergency situation where you didn't have access to a kitchen counter it would give you a sanitary place to prepare the dough. After kneading for the 300 turns, take a minute to wash your hands. 

Touch the dough with your clean hands. If it doesn't stick to your fingers, it is done. You may not need to even add more flour.

There will be visible amounts of whole grain throughout the dough.

Roll dough into a ball.  Place lid on the bucket and allow to raise until doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours.

Open your solar oven and place it in direct sunlight or preheat your regular oven to 375 degrees.  Oil 4 NorPro 10" Loaf Pan  

Divide dough into 4 balls. Again, in a camping situation, this may be done directly in the bucket if the bucket is turned on it's side.

To form a loaf with good structure and nice shape, take the dough and pat it out flat on a surface that has been lightly coated with water. Yes. Water. When working with whole grain, I use water on my counter tops. Don't fall off your chairs. It works. It adds moisture...and it gives a turbo tender loaf. Is turbo-tender a real word descriptive? I don't know...I've seen whole music montages dedicated to that subject on AFV.

Fold the dough into thirds.

Turn a half turn.

Roll into a tight loaf. Yes...I always do the extra foldie-thing first before I roll my loaves. Yes...I know that's "different" than how most people do it. I'm not *most* people. I'm extra turbo-tender. {See me use that word-age again? ...Scary isn't it?}

Place in the oiled loaf pan.

Lightly cover the top of the bread with oil. You may also top with seeds if desired. I like to use a combination I use for my "everything" bagels.

It is ready to put into your hot solar oven after raising 45 minutes to an hour.  

You can bake it in a regular oven or solar oven at 375 degrees 40 -45 minutes.

One of the best tricks I've found for knowing this bread is done, is by using an instant meat thermometer. When the dough reads 170 degrees or hotter, it is done. Shall we have T-shirts made? Ones that say, "Stick me with a fancy thermometer...I'm done." I think they'd sell (in my kitchen only).

There you go. Make some whole grain bread in your solar oven or ding-a-dang regular oven too...and then send me some pictures for BFFF !  What the heck-fire is BFFF? You should probably go to the link that I keep posting for BFFF and see...Xoxo! Smooches! I  hope to see you at the bread class today!

Your Friend, 

Chef Tess.