Hamelman's Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker
BBD#20 – Multigrain Breads hosted by Tangerine’s Kitchen
Update: the roundup has been posted!
My new favourite multigrain!
I’m not kidding – this is really good bread. The recipe may look complicated but each component can be assembled on a relatively flexible schedule, and you can play around with different combinations of grains in the soaker. I was impressed by how well the loaves kept and tasted – the hearty slices are especially good toasted. The nutty flavour of the whole wheat blends nicely with the other grains, making this recipe a definite keeper.
Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker
from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes
Makes three medium loaves [I chose to shape the dough as two large loaves in 9" x 5" pans]
*Note: I’ve converted the weight measurements, scaled for the home baker, below to metric (g) instead of the avoirdupois system (lb/oz), which just confuses me. 
Also note that the volume measurements as given by the book are approximate and adjustments may be necessary.
Pâte Fermentée
- bread flour 317.8 g — 2 1/2 cups
- water 207.1 g — 7/8 cup
- salt 5.7 g — 1 tsp
- instant dry yeast 1/8 tsp
Mix the ingredients together in a bowl, just until smooth. Cover the bowl and let it sit for 12 to 16 hours at ~70F.
Pâte fermentée
Soaker
- cracked wheat 45.4 g — 3/8 cup
- coarse cornmeal 45.4 g — 3/8 cup
- millet 45.4 g — 1/4 cup
- oats (I used old-fashioned, not the quick oats) 45.4 g — 1/2 cup
- water, boiling 227 g — 1 cup
Put all of the grains into a bowl and the pour the boiling water over them. Stir just enough to make sure the grains are incorporated and then cover the bowl. Let this sit for at least 4 hours before making the final dough to ensure the grains have had sufficiently absorbed the water to soften up.
This is actually the soaker (all of those softened grains) in the final dough.
Final Dough
- whole-wheat flour 454 g — 3 5/8 cups
- bread flour 136.2 g — 1 cup
- water 275.2 g — 1 1/4 cups
- salt 17 g — 1 tbsp
- instant dry yeast 3.7 g — 1 1/4 tsp
- honey 45.4 g — 2 tbsp
- pâte fermentée, chopped into pieces 530.1 g (all of above)
- soaker 408.2 g (all of above)
Mix all of the ingredients, including the soaker but not the pâte fermentée in the mixing bowl until incorporated. Gradually add the pieces of pâte fermentée and adjust the hydration (how wet or stiff the dough is) by adding flour or water in small amounts at a time. The dough should come together and be slightly tacky but not sticky.
Bulk fermentation: 2 hours, with a stretch and fold after 1 hour
Dough after the fold
Dividing and shaping: 3 x ~1.5 lb freeform or pan loaves (I divided the dough into two and placed them in loaf pans)
Shaped as sandwich loaves
Final fermentation: 1 – 1 1/2 hours at 75F
Just before the bake
Baking: 450F (with steam at the beginning) for 40-45 minutes, until the crust is a golden brown and the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.
Multigrain - crumb
Awesome book! I need to get myself a copy.
* * *
I’m sending this to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting, Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte, and to Rachel at Tangerine’s Kitchen for Bread Baking Day #20 – Multigrain Breads.
Tags: cornmeal, cracked wheat, Hamelman, millet, multigrain, oats, pate fermentee, soaker, whole wheat
May 28, 2009 at 1:20 am |
Perfect…..love the gorgeous crumb. Thanks for sending it in!
May 28, 2009 at 10:04 am |
Thanks, Rachel! Great theme for this month’s BBD – I really enjoyed participating.
June 2, 2009 at 10:33 am |
I missed this for YeastSpotting last week — maybe something wrong with the submission form? I’ll get it this week though, too good to pass up!
You mean you don’t have your own copy of that book? You of all people should have it, Ms. bread-baker extraordinaire!
June 3, 2009 at 11:46 pm |
Oh! I thought the submission just didn’t make it in time for last week’s YeastSpotting heh heh.
I do love Hamelman’s Bread. It is hands down my favourite bread book in terms of the way it’s organized and how it reads… and I haven’t even baked any of the loaves that require levain!
There are only two things that I don’t like as much about it: one, it only gives final dough percentages and not the total formula as well (as you had discussed in the BP tutorial part 4, which I agree would be useful), and two, it gives everything in lbs/oz. When I get my own copy (which I definitely will) I’m going to mark down the equivalents in grams for all of the formulae. That is, right after I stock up on flour. It’s always a sad sight to see the bottom of the bag, isn’t it?
Ms. Bread-baker extraordinaire? That title belongs to *you*!!
June 4, 2009 at 8:52 am |
No way! A signed copy especially for UVM? That’s so cool. I wonder if uoft has any signed cook/foodbooks. Maybe signed medical textbooks or science books or something. boo. lol
We had to learn avoirdupois. But WHY??? Those symbols look *@&^%$#* and no doctors (<80 y.o) appear to use it for scripts, anyway.
Back to the bread: I like multigrain bread, I like the grit and the texture of the bread – it's not just 'soft' like white bread (which is good for some sandwiches sometimes, I have to admit). Those loaves look perfect – almost too nice to slice, eh?
June 5, 2009 at 10:59 pm |
Em: Yeah! I was really excited to see that autograph. One day I will make a trip to the King Arthur Flour headquarters in Norwich, Vermont (so close, and yet so far!) – maybe by that time I’ll have my own copy of Bread and maybe Hamelman will be there and I will ask him for his autograph!
) but I wholeheartedly prefer whole grains these days.
I never looked at UofT to see if they had any cookbooks, but you never know, right?
Multigrains are heartier and more filling, to me, than white sandwich bread. Granted there’s a time and place for white sandwich bread seeing as I was a loyal Wonder Bread fan as a girl (I remember throwing out whole wheat sandwiches
June 5, 2009 at 4:12 am |
[...] Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker [...]
June 5, 2009 at 8:04 am |
Beautiful loaves. I love their wholesomeness too. I have the book which I refer to often but haven’t baked from it yet. Like you I deplore the fact that the percentages are not given for the final dough and also that the weights in grams are not given. Oh well! It is a terrific idea to recalculate all the formulas, so that they’ll be ready to use whenever you are.
June 5, 2009 at 11:04 pm |
Thanks, MC! I’ve found Bread (the book) gives a good introduction about bread baking in addition to a great collection of recipes; it was a useful read overall even after having gone through other bread baking books.
I hope you bake from the book soon – let me know how the loaves turn out for you!
June 15, 2009 at 12:58 am |
Had my eye on this recipe for BBD, too. Too bad I couldn’t participate this month. Would’ve loved to compare notes.
June 16, 2009 at 4:21 pm |
Jude: it’s a great recipe – you should give it a go sometime. I’m excited to try more of Hamelman’s formulae like the sonnenblumenbrot except I haven’t been able to find rye chops anywhere and will have to order the cracked rye online.