Multi-grains and seeds bread

It's the new year and wouldn't you know it's time to bake bread again? The wonderful news is that Steve and I just purchased our tickets to Paris for April!! Yippee yo-kiyay my friends. And to top it off I've signed up for a 4 day bread class at Le Cordon Bleu, my alma mater. Yessirree.

This bread is chock full of seeds, grains, cranberries and walnuts and is thanks to a recipe on King Arthur Flour's website. As I continue to focus on adding more whole grains into my baking, I often turn to KAF for suggestions and products. Thus I am now the proud owner of a couple of their different grain blends. 

One is a whole grain flour blend containing all sorts of goodies.

Here's a closer look at the ingredients. What's not to like, eh?

The other is their Harvest Grain Blend full of good stuff.

The recipe makes two typical loaves, baked in standard loaf pans. It has a fair amount of molasses in it, giving it a dark, hearty appearance.

I made some adjustments in the recipe to tailor it to the ingredients I had on hand. It's a straight forward direct dough method of mixing, rising, etc.

Once everything is mixed together, the dough can be kneaded either by hand or in a stand mixer with the dough hook for 7-10 minutes to achieve a springy yet sticky dough. This step is always the most challenging for me - knowing just when a wet/sticky dough is at the right stage. Gotta just keep on doing it over and over and over!

The dough goes into a lightly oiled bowl, covered, and allowed to rise for a couple of hours "until noticeably expanded". Recognizing THAT stage is another step that comes with lots of practice!

Before the first rise

I hope you can appreciate the expansion of the dough - it may be subtle, but not as much of the bowl is visible now.

After the first rise

Deflate the dough, divide and shape into two logs. Place them in lightly oiled loaf pans.

Cover the pans and let rise 1-2 hours until the center of the loaves is about an inch above the rim of the pans. I'd say these babies have poofed up nicely.

Toward the end of the second rise, heat your oven to 350ºF. Bake 40-50 minutes, tenting with foil about half way through to prevent over browning (it's that molasses, don't ya know!). The internal temperature should be 200ºF.

Take the loaves out of the oven and turn them out of the pans onto a cooling rack.

Waiting for freshly baked bread to cool is sooooo hard! But wait I did. I enjoyed my first slice just plain . . . .

 but the second received a well deserved thin layer of butter. Yum.

And a nice slice of cheddar cheese ain't bad either.

This is definitely worth a repeat. I gave a loaf to friend Margaret for her birthday and we both agreed that the molasses was a bit over the top. Buuuuuttt . . .  otherwise it's a hearty, crunchy, full of goodness loaf. Next time I'll replace a portion of the molasses with honey and see where it takes me. The adventure is always good.

Here's my version of the recipe.

1. Whisk together 454 g tepid water, 1 large egg and 170 g molasses in a large bowl (your stand mixer bowl if kneading that way).
2. Add 16 g Kosher salt, 13 g instant yeast, 113 g softened butter, 142 g Harvest Grains Blend and 340 g Whole Grain Flour Blend. Stir to combine.
3. Stir in 113 g finely chopped walnuts and 128 g dried cranberries. Add 454 g bread flour and mix until it comes together.
4. Knead for 7-10 minutes until springy but still quite sticky.
5. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let rise about 2 hours until noticeably expanded.
6. Deflate the dough, divide in two and shape each half into a log. Place each log in a lightly oiled pan.
7. Cover and let rise 1-2 hours until the center of the dough has risen about 1" above the pan rim.
8. Heat oven to 350ºF. Bake for 40-50 minutes, tenting with foil about half way through. The internal temperature should be 200ºF.
9. Remove the loaves from the oven, turn out of the pans onto a cooling rack.
10. Let cool , slice and enjoy!

 

New York style bagels

After teaching several bagel classes recently I was gung-ho to make my own New York style bagels at home.  Chewy, molasses-y and yummy.

The process is pretty straight forward.  Make the dough, let it rise, divide the dough, shape the bagels, let 'em rest a bit, boil 'em, egg wash and top 'em, then bake them in the oven for the finale.

All in an afternoon's work.

Following the Sur La Table recipe for 8 bagels, combine 500 g bread flour and 1 tablespoon salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook.  Mix briefly to combine.

In a separate bowl place 1.5 cups warm water and sprinkle in 2 teaspoons active dry yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar.  Let stand for 5 minutes until the yeast starts to foam.  Add in 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup and stir to dissolve (see note).

NOTE: since I didn't have barley malt syrup on hand I substituted 4 teaspoons molasses at 2/3 the quantity.  

With the mixer on low add the yeast mixture to the flour/salt and mix to combine.  Then knead the dough on medium speed for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough is a bit sticky.

Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and allow it to rise in a warm spot for about an hour (until doubled).

after the rise

Now comes the fun part!  Shaping - yes! 

Before you start, get the oven heating to 425ºF convection (450 conventional).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, deflate lightly and divide with a bench scraper into 8 pieces.

Shape each piece into a smooth, tight ball.  This step is the most fun, especially once you get the feel of the dough as it rounds up and develop the muscle memory in your hand to make it happen.  You gotta be there to understand it.

OK, so maybe THIS step is really the most fun - forming the bagel.

First stick your thumb through the center.

Once the hole is formed, place your index and middle fingers through it and rotate to stretch out the hole to about 2 inches.

This is just one of the ways to shape a bagel. The other involves rolling each piece into a snake, bringing the ends together in an overlapping fashion, then putting your fingers through the center, palm down, with the overlap on the work surface and rolling to seal.

Once the bagels are shaped, place them on a lightly floured surface, cover with a damp cloth and let them rest about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring about 4 quarts of water to a boil, adding about 3 tablespoons barley malt syrup (or in my case, about 2 tablespoons molasses).

Drop the shaped and rested bagels into the boiling water and boil for a minute on each side.

Lift them out with a slotted spoon and place on a grid to drip a bit, then brush with egg wash and sprinkle with topping(s) of choice.  I chose sesame seeds for some and left the rest plain at Steve's request.  

Have a sheet pan ready lined with parchment and sprinkled with cornmeal.

Now pop 'em into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until nicely browned.  

ATTENTION! Don't open the oven for the first 10 minutes. The initial steam produced by the wet bagels as they go into the hot oven contributes to the crusty exterior.  Plus I'm told that if you open the oven too soon, your bagels may deflate a bit.  Oh no!

But DO rotate your pan after the first 10 minutes to get a nice even bake. It's a rule I follow regularly, no matter what I'm baking.

Looking good.

Let these babies cool, then slice right in and enjoy.  I decided for a simple cheddar cheese on mine.

The chew, crumb and molasses essence of this was soooo good.  Yes indeed.