Adding Non-Wheat Flours to Your Bread We have been discussing adding extra grains to your breads in the last few posts so I thought it was due time to also talk about the non-wheat flours and how they react in your breads Another sort of mixed-grain bread simply includes a little of each of several kinds of flours along with the wheat. If you want to try this you can keep your loaf light by following the example of commercial bakeries: add only a tiny amount of each non-wheat flour. A very good kneader or a really great kneading machine like the Bosch Universal Plus, and using a super high-gluten wheat flour could include as much as 2/3 cup total of non-wheat flours as part of a the 6 cups of total flour in the recipe. Even then, remember, you have reduced your margin for error, so be careful to knead and ferment the dough just right. One consideration here is that most other grains are blander-tasting than wheat. When you include them in whole wheat bread, they genearally do little more that make the loaf heavier and less flavourful. Three exceptions: Rye Flour: Added in amounts up to 1/2 cup per loaf in place of an equal quantity of wheat flour, enriches the flavour of the bread and makes a moister, heartier loaf. Expect the dough to be a little bit on the sticky side. If you want the bread to taste like rye, add a spoonful of caraway seeds. I sometimes like to put in the the blender and powder the caraway before adding, so we get the flavour but not the seeds to pick out of your teeth. Breads with a larger proportion of rye flour succeed best with a different mixing technique that requires a great deal more time. I will talk about that in a future post. Buckwheat flour: is strong-flavoured and very heavy. Use it in small quantities--1/4 to 1/3 cup per loaf will make a heafty buckwehat flavour. The loaf will have a warm fragrance an the characteristic blue-gray colour. Sunflower seeds and raisins both complement buckwheat's rather strident flavour beautifully, Triticale flour: (trit´-ih-kay´-lee) is a newcomer among grains. A cross between wheat and rye, it was developed for hardiness and high protein content. Unfortunatley, depending on where the grain is grown, and which of hundreds of strains it came from, it may have considerable gluten content or very little. We try to get a high gluten triticale when we do our big fall grain order however. I have made high, sweet-flavoured loaves with 100 percent triticale flour, as well as some duds. If you want to try, I suggest beginning with half wheat and half triticale, to see how it goes. Be careful not to overknead. I would also suggest doubling the honey in the recipe. If you are milling your own flour, buy plump grains as they will be higher in starch, slim ones are higher in protein as a rule. With the exception of these, three, I find that chunky grains (either sprouts or coarsely cracked, lightly cooked cereals) work better than flours. Perhaps because the dough can support a larger amount of grain than of flour, the grain give more flavour and character to the bread; it's appearance and keeping quality benefit as well. We have quite a few recipes in the bread section of our New Recipes that do contain extra grains and extra flours so you can check it out here. 
|
