Multigrain Seed Bread

The challenge with this bread was to use chia seeds.  While I was at it I decided to add some more types of seeds and a mix of flours.

Chia seeds:

A search for chia seeds in bread most commonly gives results for quick (sweet) breads.  But there are several blog posts that talk about adding chia seeds to yeast bread,  most of them white breads.

Unlike flaxseeds,  chia seeds don't have to be ground/cracked to make them easily digestible.  They can be soaked in water to form a gel before adding them to the dough or they can be added directly keeping in mind that more water will be needed as the seeds absorb a lot of water.  I wanted to hide the seeds in the bread,  so I ground them up a little.  In order to keep the water uncertainty to a minimum I pre-soaked them.

Regular chia seeds, 1 Tbsp cracked seeds, and 1 Tbsp cracked seeds mixed in 4 Tbsp water

Ingredients:

40 g / 2 Tbsp chia seed gel (Mix 11 g / 1 Tbsp chia seeds in 4 Tbsp water. Let soak.  Then use 2 Tbsp / 40 g of this mixture. This would be equivalent to 1 tsp dry chia seeds)

10 g / 1 Tbsp cracked flax seeds

50 g , scant ½ cup toasted sunflower seeds, ground

300 g whole wheat flour 

50 g bread flour (scant ½ cup)

50 g quick cooking oats (½ cup)

15 g soybean flour (¼ cup)

2 Tbsp dry milk powder (non-fat) 16 g

1 cup water

1 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp agave nectar

(water for kneading 1-2 Tbsp)

I used dry milk powder because it needed to be used up soon.  It should be fine to use 1 cup low-fat milk instead of 1 cup water or simply skip the dry milk powder.

Ingredients

Dry ingredients and wet ingredients.  I dropped my initial plan to use applesauce

3:46 pm: Kneaded well for 8 minutes or so

3:46 pm: Close up, trying to show the little black chia seeds

5:33 pm: Long but very good first rise

5:35 pm: Deflated, rounded and ready for second rise

6:43 pm: Good second rise

6:45 pm: Shaped and ready for proofing

7:32 pm: The dough flattened as it rose, then some more when it was slashed. Overproofed?

A little oven spring

Decent slices, tad crumbly

Notes:

Date: March 13, 2012

Recipe: My own recipe

Flours: Whole wheat flour,  bread flour,  ground oats,  soybean flour

Bread specific ingredients: Chia seeds,  cracked flax seeds,  ground sunflower seeds,  dry milk powder

Sweetener used: Agave nectar

Liquid: Water

Comments: I might have over-proofed the dough which might have caused the yeast to get used up and deflate the dough.  The bread tasted good.  Chia seeds are supposed to keep the bread moist because they hold on to moisture.  The bread lasted a week, but it was hard to tell if the chia seeds made any difference.  Another experiment with more chia seeds is due.