Eight-Grain and Seed Pan Loaf

I love visiting my library and going home with a stack of baking books. Most of the time, I browse and read through them, the way "other people" read through novels. Sometimes a recipe catches my attention and I have to bake it ASAP. One of those recipes is the Eight-Grain and Seed Pan Loaf from the book Bread Making by Lauren Chattman. I made it twice already and the second time I took (more) pictures and wrote down my changes so I could post it on my blog.

Chock full of grains and seeds. Yum!

Some of you may be familiar with a monthly online baking event called Bread Baking Day (#BBD) started by Zorra. This month's BBD (#58) is hosted by Cindy. This month's theme could not have been more perfect: Breads with Seeds and Flakes. I was happy to oblige :o)



The night before you bake the bread, you make a soaker. This consists of a bunch of grains and seeds and water. Nothing complicated. Just stir and cover until the next day.

Oops! Forgot to take a picture of the soaker before adding it to the dough.

The next day, combine the soaker with the remaining ingredients and knead the dough. My notes are included in the recipe at the bottom of this post.

I love the soft and open crumb of this bread. Bon appetit!

Final thoughts/tips:

• This bread is a joy to eat. It's soft, moist and has a wonderful wheaty and nutty aroma. I've enjoyed it with savory toppings such as olive oil and cheese, as well as sweet toppings like honey and chocolate spread.
• My husband liked this bread but thought the wheat aroma was a little too strong. I told him that if he put enough peanut butter on it, he wouldn't be able to smell or taste the wheat :o)
• I like to slice the loaves and freeze them. Whenever I need to make a sandwich, I take out however many slices I need. They thaw out very quickly.
• This bread also makes great toast. Toasting really brings out the flavor of the nutty seeds even more.
• I made so many changes to the recipe that it would be too confusing to list them here. Instead, I'm providing you with my adaptation of the recipe. If you'd like to see the original recipe, please check out the book.

This post is submitted to:

• Yeastspotting
• BYOB (Bake Your Own Bread) @ Roxana's Home Baking (#BakeYourOwnBread)
• Bread Baking Day #58

Eight-Grain and Seed Pan Loaf

(adapted from Bread Making by Lauren Chattman)

Soaker ingredients:

28 gr (3 Tbsp) stone-ground cornmeal

21 gr (3 Tbsp) rye flakes (or rolled oats)

7 gr (2 Tbsp) wheat bran

20 gr (2 Tbsp) pumpkin seeds

24 gr (2 Tbsp) millet

22 gr (2 Tbsp) dark flax seeds

22 gr (2 Tbsp) golden flax seeds

113 gr (1/2 cup) water, room temperature

Combine all ingredients in a Pyrex glass container. Stir to combine and cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Let sit at room temperature for 8 to 24 hours. I usually let it sit for 12 hours or overnight.

Dough ingredients:

284 gr (1-1/4 cup) 1% milk, room temperature

57 gr (1/4 cup) water, room temperature

15 gr (1 Tbsp) vegetable oil

23 gr (1/3 cup) non-fat dry milk powder

190 gr (1-1/2 cup) King Arthur Flour White Whole Wheat Flour

190 gr (1-1/2 cup) bread flour

7 gr vital wheat gluten, optional

6 gr (1 tsp) sea salt

4 gr (1 tsp) instant yeast

Instructions:

Combine all of the dough ingredients plus the overnight soaker in a bread machine. Let the bread machine mix the dough until it forms a rough ball (about 5 minutes). Then turn off the bread machine and let the dough sit for 20 minutes to allow the flour to absorb the liquid. This resting period is calling Autolyse. Turn on the bread machine and put it on the Dough cycle. Mine goes for 90 minutes which includes the first rise.

Move the risen dough to an oiled work surface. I like to use my silicone mat for that. This recipe makes one 9"x5" loaf, however, I like to use my small loaf pans that are 3.5"x7.5" so I make two small loaves, in which case I evenly divide the dough in half. Pat the dough into a rectangle, and shape it into a loaf. Spray your loaf pan(s) with non-stick spray. Put the dough in the loaf pan(s) and cover it with oiled plastic wrap. At this point you can refrigerate the dough for up to 12 hours and bake it when you're ready. Or, let the dough rise until doubled in volume, which can take 30-60 minutes. I refrigerated my dough for about 3.5 hours. I took the pans out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature and finish rising for about an hour.

While the dough is in its second rise, preheat your oven to 425F and put a rack with a baking stone in the center of your oven. Uncover your loaves, and spray the top with water using a spray bottle. Place the loaves in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. After that, reduce the temperature to 375F and continue baking for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of your bread (I baked my small loaves a *total* of 30 min). You want the internal temperature of the bread to be 200F.