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A Chris and Amber collaboration, based upon Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
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Ingredients
- 1.5 tablespoon yeast
- 3-4 cups warm water
- 3 1/4 cups wheat flour
- 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup wheat berries
- 1/4 cup flax seed
- 1/4 cup Bulgar wheat
- 2 tablespoons salt
Directions
If using active dry yeast, stir into the warm water and allow to bloom (5-10 minutes). In a large mixing bowl, add flours, wheat berries, flax seed, bulgur wheat, and salt (if using instant yeast, also add); stir to combine. Add the yeast mixture (or just water if using instant yeast) to the flour mixture; stir with a wooden spoon to combine. There should be no dry/floury spots, but you don’t want to develop gluten, so don’t over stir or kneed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or lid and let rise at room temperature for at least 2 hours, or until doubled. (For reference, the loaf I made rose for 4.5 hours because I was busy – you can’t mess this bread up.)
After initial rising, tightly cover dough and place in refrigerator until ready to bake (or skip and go onto next step to bake immediately). Dough can stay in the refrigerator for up to two weeks before baking.
When ready to bake, tear off a grapefruit or larger piece of dough and gently fold edges under itself to to form a boule. Place boule on a well-greased baking pan, dust top with flour, and cover loosely with a towel. Let rest for at least 45 minutes. After rest period, preheat oven to 450F. Slash the top of the loaf with a sharp knife, to help the bread get maximum “oven spring” in the first few minutes of baking. Place bread/baking pan on the middle shelf of the preheated oven and a second baking pan full of water on the lower shelf. Bake for 15 minutes before removing the pan of water. Bake bread for another 15-30 minutes, depending upon the size of your loaf. A finished loaf will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.
This recipe makes two medium-sized boules – more than enough bread for a week at our house.
Anne
Thank you! I will make this tomorrow.
Kathy
AnneThanks, I tried this today but I halved the recipe to only make one loaf. My dough ended up being too wet although it rose well initially, in the bowl, it spread out too much while resting for the 45 minutes. I tried putting it on parchment paper in an oval baker to get it to shape better while it did the final rise/rest but even though I carefully transferred the rested dough to a preheated baking stone using the parchment it still spread out too much and resembled a ciabatta more than a loaf when done. Still, it was quite tasty with a nice bubbly crumb as I would expect in an artisan bread, and I will definitely try this again, perhaps with more flour or less water.
I weighed my flour as opposed to measuring it and perhaps that made the difference, since most flour measured tends to compact as a result we tend to use more flour than we would by weight. So it may be my fault and not the recipe. Next time I make this I plan on soaking the wheat berries in some of the water before adding them, maybe even overnight, I found them to be a bit too hard in the finished bread.
Amber
KathyThanks for the feedback, Kathy! It could be the use of measuring cups vs. weighing. I also add in a significant amount of flour while shaping. Lately, I’ve taken to baking this bread in a baguette pan which helps it to hold its shape. It also could have something to do with your flour. I’ve noticed that when I use wheat versus all A-P, I need significantly more water to get the appropriate wetness.