Whole Wheat, Rye, and Barley loaf

Whole Wheat, Rye, and Barley loaf

This is a Tartine-style bread, made with 100% whole wheat leaven using the Tartine bread methods.  This isn't a recipe from the book, but it is another experiment of my own, based on the Tartine recipes.

3 flours: WW, Rye, and Barley

I'm using 60% whole wheat, 30% rye, and 10% barley, for the flour.  The kernels are not in the same ratio: I have merely used 1/3 cup each of wheat berries, rye kernels and barley kernels, pressure cooked for 30 minutes, and added it all during the second turn of the bulk fermentation.  It is a 75% hydration.  The 100% whole wheat leaven was made last night, and wasn't used until the following afternoon.

floats, sorta

gooey

adding salt

 

All three of these grains are very old and have a long tradition of nourishing humans.

BARLEY
Pliny called barley the "oldest of food"; it seems to be ubiquitous in human cultures. From China, India, Egypt, and everywhere that western European culture took it, it seems to grow in most soils and climates.  We have used it as a staple cereal food, as well as malting it and turning it into beer and whiskey; but we also drink it in teas and use it as a coffee substitute.  It is said to be the easiest grain to digest: the whole grain has the most fibre of all the grains -- and the fibre is found not merely in the outer bran, but throughout the kernel.  The bran does, however, increase the fibre, calcium, iron and protein.

The outer bran of barley is slightly laxative.  Perhaps for this reason, most barley that can be found in common grocery stores is pearled: often put in soups and casseroles, this form of barley has both the bran (and the germ) removed.  The whole grain is hard to find locally.   

Barley does have gluten, but only a small amount.  It has a mild, sweet, nutty flavour.

Wheat berries, Rye kernels, and Pearled Barley -- 1/3 cup each

RYE
According to the report of the archaeological dig at Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates, rye may be the earliest grain ever to be domesticated, about 11000 years ago.  It grows in poor soil and exhibits more winter-hardiness than any other grain.  Rye is, however, susceptible to the ergot fungus, which has hurt whole populations at times in human history.

It has an extremely hard kernel, and it has a slightly bitter flavour.  In its raw, sprouted or soaked state, it contains more fluorine than other grains, and so is beneficial to tooth enamel.  The whole grain is said to aid arteriosclerosis, and even remove plaques.  It has a high carbohydrate content and is rich in nitrogen.

It is beneficial to the liver; when baked in sourdoughs -- the best way to develop the gluten it contains -- a sour flavour is added to the bitter notes, any ergot alkaloids present are neutralized, and the liver is further strengthened.

Pressure-cooked grains: WW, Rye and Barley

WHEAT
The King of Grains.  Once wheat's properties were discovered, and the way wheat's high gluten content was found to make such interesting bread, this grain quickly rose to the number one position in the human diet, and it has insinuated itself in many human cultures around the globe (although it may now be given its run for the top spot with corn, which is fed not only to humans but also to the animals that humans eat).

Wheat sometimes causes allergic reactions.  Modern wheat has been bred to withstand smut, and most wheat that is in our diet is in the form of old, highly processed wheat flours that may be rancid and have legislated ingredients added to make up for the loss of nutrients that have been removed by the processing.  Is it the gluten that people are allergic to?  Not everyone who believes he or she has a gluten sensitivity has a sensitivity to gluten, but instead may be sensitive to other molecules that are now associated with wheat.  I have seen a published report that show that some people with full blown celiac disease can tolerate certain wheat breads made with sourdough.

Wheat's taste is sweet and salty, and mildly astringent.  It is beneficial to heart, mind and kidneys.

I am not too familiar with using barley in bread, this is new to me.  I assumed that a 60% whole wheat bread would be more wheat-like.  But the rye and the barley, together only 40%, made this dough quite sticky, like rye by itself.  The gluten was slow to develop, and could only be teased into strength by gentle folds over the 3 hour bulk fermentation.

The barley seemed to plump up more drastically than the rye or wheat kernels, when cooked.  Its texture is more noodle-like than rye or wheat.  The rye especially gives this crumb an interesting crunchiness.

I decided fairly early on that this bread would be made in a pan, and not free-form.  I figured that it would, like rye breads, require a long proofing without disturbance, to rise properly.  The loaves sat two hours in the pans before baking.

Results
I waited until the next day to slice into one of these loaves.  The barley has retained a lot of moisture from cooking it, and lends the loaf a bit of chewiness, an almost rubberlike mouth feel.  But the rye and wheat berries give it an interesting crunchiness.

Mixed together in this way, it is difficult to pick out the various flavours.  The rye both predominates, yet is very mild tasting.  Without the backdrop of the sourdough leaven (which, because I'd left til later in the day to use, I believe was more sour), and the texture of the whole grains, this bread would be pretty bland.  But it isn't bland -- just hard to categorize.  The tastes hit the taste buds at different times.  So when you initially put it into your mouth, there is very little taste at first, perhaps just the unfamiliar blandness of a barley bread with a rubbery texture; then the familiar saltiness of wheat strikes the palate, but that's only a brief note before the slight bitterness of rye takes over.  When you chew the harder textured kernels -- and you find yourself wanting to chew them slowly -- their flavour is released too, a second time, and as you continue to chew, the enzymes in the saliva already begin to work to release the flavours of the complex sugars in the bread.  Finally, the sourness of the sourdough comes through, as an slight aftertaste when you swallow it.

So the flavours are complex and subtle and interesting, not bland at all.

6 a.m. light on my bread, outside on the picnic table, after a night of gentle rain -- with a cantaloupe

The pearled barley is visually the predominate grain in the crumb

I like this bread, and it is a nice change-up for me, since I've been eating a lot of bread that contains other ingredients lately -- e.g. pomegranates, or flax and sunflower seeds.  I found myself longing for rye, and this fits the bill.

Notes to Myself

• I wonder what a 100% barley bread would taste like?  Probably bland.
• Would the crumb have developed differently if I had used a rye sourdough leaven? I think so.
• I've ordered my dutch combo cooker and it should arrive in about 10 days, if all goes well.

Multigrain Bread with Pomegranate Seeds and grapejuiced-soaked Whole Wheat berries

Multigrain Bread with Pomegranate Seeds and grapejuiced-soaked Whole Wheat berries

My wife's friend Janet gave me some Robin Hood Multigrain Bread flour.  She and her husband tried some bread made with this flour, and decided they didn't like it.  Since she knows I like to bake, I had this large bag of flour given to me.

Picture from the Robin Hood Web Site:
Will they make me take it down?

This is a flour I've used before.  I once bought a small bag of it, long long ago, and ended up taking it camping with me, because I was in the woods with lots of other people who I thought would help me eat bread made over a campfire, even if the bread turned out to be made from processed flour.  We used up the flour, and while the bread tasted okay, it is not a flour that I figured I'd ever buy for myself again, as I prefer whole grains. 

My biggest problem with this bread is in its 'enriched flour'.

This multigrain flour contains mostly all purpose or bread flour (with the additives that they call enrichment, and some other things to aid its shelf life), along with an unknown quantity of whole wheat flour, some rye flour, some cracked wheat, cracked rye, and some whole flax seeds.  I prefer to add the grains I want, in the quantities I want, and not have some corporation sell me a pile of stuff I don't want.  (See the section 'Notes to Myself' below to learn what I found when I examined the ingredients of this flour.)


This experimental Tartine-like loaf:
To this bread, I have added some whole wheat kernels that I've cooked in a pressure cooker, and soaked overnight in grape juice, along with the seeds from one pomegranate. 

The quantities and method are from the Tartine Bread book.  I simply added the extra ingredients during the first fold in the bulk fermentation stage.

Leaven made overnight with the Robin Hood Multigrain Bread Flour

Mis en place

Float test

Initial mixing by hand

Added 1 TBSP of sourdough to the overnight soaking of these grapejuice soaked wheat berries

These are hard wheat berries, but they softened up nicely, retaining some 'chewiness'

salt added

Pomegranate Seeds and Grapejuice-soaked wheat berries added to the sourdough mix at first turn

The seeds are turned into the dough

Several hours of turns later, some seeds are still on the surface

Proofing

baked

sliced

crumb

Results
The Pomegranate Seeds give the bread a very interesting scent, colour and texture, and the wheat berries soaked in grape seeds complement the taste of them quite nicely. 

If it weren't for the flour, this bread would have been tremendous.  I think that I'll try adding these two ingredients to a whole wheat and whole rye bread someday.

Notes to Myself

• Throw away this bag of Robin Hood Multigrain Bread Flour. It appears to be dangerous. Don't even take it camping to get rid of it.
  
  Here are the ingredients of the Robin Hood Multigrain Loaf's "enriched flour":
  
  • Amylase (this enzyme breaks down the complex sugars into simple sugars, so bread made with this flour is going to taste a bit sweeter. Industrially, it is manufactured from Swine pancreas, or mould mushroom, neither of which sounds very nice, especially to vegetarians)
  • Xylanase (this enzyme breaks down hemicellulose, a major part of plant cell walls. As a dough conditioner, it improves the dough's workability and water absorption. It is usually made by fermentation caused by microorganisms that have been genetically modified -- either fungi or bacteria.)
  • Ascorbic Acid (a reduced form of Vitamin C, an antioxidant that is used to condition dough. Most of the world's Ascorbic Acid comes from China, where it is synthesized from glucose, and the microorganism Acetobacter suboxydans (a gram negative bacteria found in vinegar), acetone, and bleach.)
  • Niacin * (Vitamin B3 is naturally in bran -- which is removed from white flour. Governments have mandated that it be returned to flour that has had bran removed from it, or vitamin deficiencies may occur -- causing pellagra, signs of which are diarrhea, dermatitis and dementia.)
  • Reduced Iron * (This is elemental iron, and it is absorbed inefficiently by the body compared to iron sulfate or iron fumarate. Iron can be dangerous in high quantities, and it can be reactive, oxidative, and destroy vitamins. Taking Vitamin E might help with excess iron)
  • Thiamine Mononitrate * (A synthetic form of Vitamin B1. It is not water soluble like other B vitamins, so it may accumulate in fat cells and ultimately cause liver disease.)
  • Riboflavin * (Vitamin B2. This is made industrially by fungi and bacteria -- the bacteria has been genetically modified. The amounts of Riboflavin taken out of the whole wheat flour when the bran and germ are removed are immense, and aren't even close to being replaced by the 'enrichment'.)
  • L-Cysteine Hydrochloride (This is an improving agent produced from L-cystine, which is produced commercially from animal and human hair and feathers; most vegetarians won't like this, since the animal hair comes from slaughtered animals; and humanitarians might not like it because the human hair comes mostly from women in third-world countries.)
  • Azodic Carbonamide ( A synthetic chemical (C2H4O2N4 ) used to bleach flour: sometimes you see it explained as a "maturing agent" for the flour. The substance is banned as a food additive in Australia, the U.K. and Europe, but not in the U.S. and Canada. It is however, widely used worldwide in industry to make plastic and rubber. In 1966, WHO established that it was pretty much safe to use, even though it is quickly transformed into Biurea when mixed, and it stays intact when baked and ingested.  Biurea (C2H6O2N4) is an amide that is supposedly biologically inert and excreted; but some animal studies suggest that it might cause kidney damage.
  • Folic Acid * (The synthetic, non-biologically active form of Folate, or Vitamin B9: it can be turned into biologically useful forms in the liver, but the liver does this inefficiently and slowly. Especially because pregnant women require the vitamin to prevent Neural Tube Defects in their offspring, processed flours in many countries must be fortified with Folic Acid. The data supports the enrichment, but the levels of synthetic vitamin B9 that are now seen in our bodies and our food are not properly tested.)
  
  ---
  * These enrichments are mandated by law in Canada and U.S., and likely elsewhere.  The ones not marked by an asterisk will have maximum levels associated with them that the manufacturer is not allowed to go beyond.
  
  Manufacturers are going to use the cheapest ingredients to maximize corporate profits.  If they had to choose between the bottom line and our health, our health would suffer.  If we have to choose between accepting this and rejecting this product, I say we should reject it. 
  
  So what do I do with this flour I had given to me?  It is not good enough to feed to my organic chickens.  Do I dare to put it on my compost pile, or should I just put it in a landfill?
  
  
• After baking the bread, I more carefully examined the Tartine Bread book technique.  Although I've made several breads using the methodology of this book, I see now that I've been doing some things incorrectly: forgetting the bench rest stage entirely, for example.  And not using any flour on my work surface, during the dividing of the dough, and the pre-shaping.  This last little detail I found a bit confusing when I first read the book, so I've just left it out.  But it might ultimately help my final shaping of the loaves.  I'll have to practice it a bit the next time I make a Tartine-style bread.
• The web site for Robin Hood Multigrain Bread Flour speaks of shelf life: but what does it mean when they suggest that the product's age limit is 9 months, but that the shelf life is 15 months from manufacture?  The web site shows how to read the manufacturing code to determine if the flour is still fresh.  But the manufacturing code is hidden under the lip of the bag, so you really have to buy it and take it home before you can read it (very clever of them).  The flour bag I had given to me reads:
  
  
  
  11 076 548 13:11 3916
  
  
  So it was made in 2011, on day 76 (March 17), "somewhere" in a Robin Hood plant in Canada.  I was actually surprised it was that fresh.

Crazy Day of Baking Tartinish Breads

ich bin so satt,
ich mag kein Blatt.

My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook.  But she objects loudly whenever you visit, and she offers another bite, and you say, "No really, I couldn't, I'm stuffed."

"What!" she exclaims, "Turkeys are stuffed!  Ducks are stuffed!  People are not stuffed."  Inevitably, this causes a giggle or two from family members who are sitting at the table, and out trots the little German verse from The Brother's Grimm tale, replete with much bleating: "Meh! Meh!"

The correct term, in German, appears to be satt, and it is related to the English word "sated".  And as the fable indicates, no one is ever sated for long.  The English word "replete" works well in this context, although it is never used this way any longer in conversation (you never hear the words "No thank you, I am replete").  I like the word, though, because it reminds me of "repeat".

Yesterday I really baked too much bread for our household.  And last night before I slept, I was saying to myself, "I couldn't eat another bite."

Sure, I may have gorged myself on bread yesterday, but today I reach for more bread, and I know that soon I will have to repeat the enjoyable task of making more.


I did manage to make one loaf out of the seven that I baked that looks decent.  It was my first attempt at making the Tartine Country Loaf, Chad Robertson's master recipe from "Tartine Bread."  I'll save that for the next posting, though, because I want to mention more about the book.  Here I will simply deal with some of the experimental failures.  They were all made at the same time.

A Tartinish Sourdough Spelt Loaf baked on the barbecue

I decided I would make several loaves in the Tartine style, although I wasn't about to follow Robertson's recipes.  Oh no, I was going to strike off on my own (without really knowing what I was doing yet).  What I really wanted to do was use up some spelt flour that I had purchased by mistake: it was not whole grain, but a "light" spelt.  I had 559g of it, and I mixed with it 200g of whole wheat flour and the rest was all purpose flour (241g).  Obviously, this is not a recipe from Tartine Bread, and the baking method I used was not Tartine.

The dough was really jiggly and fragile and certainly would have been much better if I had baked it in a dutch oven like the Tartine loaf should be.  But I don't have one of those items, the casserole dishes were busy, and my wife needed the kitchen: so to get out of her way, I decided to see if it would work on the barbecue as a free form loaf atop the firebrick I've put on the grill.

I won't go into further details  of how it was made.  Why bother?  I will eat a couple of pieces, but the chickens will get most of it.

The bread burned badly on the bottom.  Even when you cut off the bottom, the scent lingers.  Otherwise, this would have been a pretty good bread, I suppose.

A Tartinish Whole Wheat loaf with Figs and Almonds

This is also not a recipe from Tartine Bread.  I was going to make the olive bread, but I didn't have the ingredients at hand.  I did, however, have 2 cups of almonds and a package of dried figs, and I thought they might go together.  It is an experiment.

 

I did q30min folds for 3 hours in some mixing bowls, side by side with the spelt dough.

This loaf wasn't divided.  I was baking so much bread that I had run out of baskets.  The only basket I had left was too long for a half dough, so I didn't divide the dough when I should have, and simply baked it as a double loaf.

But I put it in the basket wrong-side up.

When I barbecued the bread, it didn't retain its shape.  It also got a little dark on the bottom.  Very hard to regulate the temperature in a barbecue.

The finished loaf is a bit like the Titanic: it wants to crack in the middle.

It does taste all right, but it is missing something.  Some herb -- I don't know which -- would have improved this bread.  Maybe fennel seeds.

 
A couple Tartinish 100% Whole Wheat Breads made in the wrong pots

I tried to repeat the last success I had, with a 100% whole wheat bread made with 100% sourdough.  I am sure that these loaves will taste fine, but because I tried to squeeze them into a too-tiny casserole dish for the final baking, they are quite malformed.

Got to get me one of those cast iron dutch ovens that Robertson suggests.  I hope Lodge Cast Iron gives him a kickback on all the dutch ovens that have been sold because of his book.

Notes to Myself

• Don't ever say you are "stuffed" with bread.  Instead, say you are "sated".  Or "replete".  And expect to eat more soon.
• Bad idea, barbecuing bread, unless maybe you put a baking stone on top of those firebricks...too bad you recently broke your third baking stone.  Probably it broke because you are mistreating them by putting them on the barbecue...
• It is fun to unwind after a hard day at work, by taking a day off to bake bread.  It is such a treat because I don't have to do it every day, like bakers do.  I imagine that one can become satiated on too much baking, too.