Soaker and biga
I also had some buttermilk that needed to be used. From different side notes in the book it appears that if using buttermilk or yogurt, a biga is the pre-frement to use instead of a wild yeast starter. (I think my mother starter is going to have to languish because it seems to be restricting me in the types of breads I have been baking). So I made a standard biga (whole wheat, tiny amount of commercial yeast and water). I used the same logic for the soaker as my previous attempt: use the given amount of wheat and salt, and use a combination of cooked / uncooked grains and liquid to make a total of 400 grams of soaker. I did use a little vital wheat gluten to help with the structure and rise. This is what the soaker ended up looking like:
56 g / 2 oz whole wheat flour
4 g salt
2 g / ½ tsp vital wheat gluten
84 g / 3 oz cooked brown rice
76 g of cooked quinoa
126 g buttermilk (that is all I had and fortunately that was sufficient)
46 g rolled oats
4 g ground flaxseeds
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| Biga on the left and soaker on the right. |
Final dough
The soaker was pretty damp (notice the water drops on the right in the picture above). I had to add quite a bit of whole wheat flour when kneading the dough. I didn't measure it, but it was about an ounce. Even then, the dough stuck to my hand till the very end. I believe this is normal with multigrain doughs. I also didn't get a convincing window pane test. I kneaded a little more than usual hoping to help develop the gluten.
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| Kneaded dough ready for first rise. The rice grains stayed intact. |
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| 70 mins later, about 1½ time in volume and passing the poke test. Ready for shaping |
Shaping and proofing
I didn't round and rest the dough like I have been doing in the past. The dough felt 'wet' after the first rise and was not easy to shape. It didn't hold its shape very well. Perhaps I should have added more flour in the final dough.
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| Shaped and ready for proofing. |
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| About 60 mins later, decent rise, I thought. |
Slashing
I slashed the dough. I think I should stop slashing doughs for several reasons: I don't have a good tool for it, I usually do a half-hearted job and it usually causes a collapse that may or may not get fixed in the oven.
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| Not much oven spring. Also, I seem to always shape my loaves a little lopsided. |
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| Bread sliced well. The brown rice is clearly visible but the quinoa is lost (not a problem). I almost always get dense areas at the bottom of the loaf, I need to work on that. |
Results
The bread sliced well, tasted decent. We had it with vegetarian chili today and it worked well. I also had a bit with orange marmalade, that was nice. Tomorrow will be the sandwich test.
Notes
Date: Jan 30, 2011
Recipe: Multigrain Struan from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads
Flours: Whole wheat flour
Bread specific ingredients: Brown rice (cooked), quinoa (cooked), rolled oats, flaxseeds, vital wheat gluten
Sweetener used: Honey (1 T, one third the recommended amount)
Liquid: Buttermilk
First rise time: 70 minutes
Proofing time: 60 minutes
Comments: See soaker composition in the description above. The first rise went pretty well but the dough was still a tad to wet making it hard to shape. Tried three of the things I had wanted to:
Used a regular biga
Used buttermilk instead of milk
Used a combination of cooked (quinoa, brown rice) and uncooked grains (rolled oats).
The results are different of course, and a tad better than last time. But changing three variables at once means I can't pin point the reason for better results. However I think I am just going to go with different combinations and have fun along the way. Documenting them here means that if I do make a super winner, I would have the notes to possibly recreate it again.
I also made rye crackers from PR's 'Artisan Breads Every Day'. They have turned out wonderful. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures during the process. I am sure to make them again, I'll definitely write about them then.
-RPH
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