No Knead Seven-Grain Bread with Spelt

I’m a little behind (again) on my bread baking for the HBinFive Baking Group.  I was supposed to make 10-Grain Bread for the May 1st Bread Braid, but I didn’t quite get to it in May so I made it for the June Bread Braid instead. 

I changed the recipe to suit the grains I had on hand. I didn’t have the 10-grain cereal mix the recipe called for, but I did have a mixture of seven grains in a bucket that I bought a couple of years ago.  I know, I have way too many grains.  That’s why I didn’t go out and buy the 10-grain cereal mix. Instead, I ground the 7 grains into flour and used the flour instead of cereal. I also used white spelt flour and whole wheat pastry flour instead of the white whole wheat bread flour and all-purpose flour.

I call my version, Seven-Grain Spelt Bread.  It’s a healthy no knead bread…easy to make and tastes good too.

 

Seven-Grain Spelt Bread

Adapted from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

Makes: 2 Medium Loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 7-grain flour (I milled my flour from a mix of 7-grains, but you can use a 5-grain or 10-grain cereal mix if you prefer)
• 2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (I used the pastry-setting on my grain mill)
• 3 cups white spelt flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 to 2 tablespoons seed mixture for sprinkling on the top of crust (I used black & tan sesame seeds, poppy seeds, anise seeds, and sunflower seeds)

 

Directions:

1. Stir or whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten in a large bowl.

   

2. Add the water and mix with a spoon or Danish dough whisk until the ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

    

3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a non-airtight lid, and allow the dough to rest at room temperature for approximately 2 hours.  During this time, the dough should rise and collapse (flatten on top).

    

4. Refrigerate the dough for 24 hours. You can use the dough after the initial rise, but it has better flavor and handles better if you refrigerate overnight.  You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

    

5. The next day, or on baking day, cut off 1-pound pieces of dough and shape into balls by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.  You may need to dust the dough and your hands with a little flour so the dough doesn’t stick to your fingers.  Let the balls rest on the counter for a few minutes then resume shaping.

    

6. Elongate the balls into ovals, then place the ovals into greased loaf pans. 

   

7. Allow the loaves to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap for about 90 minutes. I let the loaves rest until the had reached the top of the loaf pans. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

    

8. Just before baking, spray (or brush) the loaves with water and sprinkle the tops with the seed mixture.  Slash the loaves with 1/4-inch-deep parallel cuts, using a serrated knife.  You can omit the scoring part if you like.

    

9. Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes, until richly browned and firm.

    

    

10. Allow to cool on a wire rack before slicing or eating.

    

 

Enjoy!  This bread tastes really good with peanut butter and cheese – not at the same time of course. It also tastes good plain. The combination of the seeds gives it a crunchy and unique flavor.

 

Thanks for joining me in the bread baking blog. 

Happy Baking!
Cathy

 

About the HBinFive Baking Group

 

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.

Emmer Bread: Healthy Bread in Five Minutes

The grain of the month for April is Emmer.  Emmer is an ancient grain that is plumper and longer than modern wheat grains. The grain is lower in gluten than regular wheat but higher in protein and fiber.

It just so happens that one of the breads for the April HBinFive Bread Braid is Emmer Bread. The Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Emmer Bread is made with a 50/50 blend of whole grain Emmer flour and all-purpose flour. Emmer has a bold-flavor and usually makes a heavy and dense bread compared to wheat bread. The HBinFive version contains a little bit of beer and white vinegar to enhance the flavor. It also has sesame seeds sprinkled throughout the dough and on top of the loaf.

Emmer was the primary wheat grown in Asia, Africa and Europe throughout the first 5,000 years of recorded agriculture, more than 17,000 years ago. Source: http://www.bluebirdgrainfarms.com/what-we-grow.html

Emmer is being rediscovered as a gourmet grain due to its rich flavor and high nutrition. I got some organic emmer from the Heritage Wheat Conservancy. 

This emmer is grown in the US from an ancient Ethiopian variety brought to Israel by Ethiopian Jews.

I milled the emmer grains into flour using my WonderMill grain mill. The flour has a beautiful beige color with pinkish under tones.

See how it contrasts with the all-purpose flour?

This dough ferments in the refrigerator overnight so the cold dough was pretty easy to work with and it shaped nicely into freeform loaves.

Since the dough ferments overnight, the loaves didn't rise very much during the proofing, but they had nice oven spring during baking.

The flavor of this bread was great!  It's very mild tasting with a chewy texture and a nutty flavor due to the sesame seeds. My boyfriend said he could taste a hint of the beer. 

I was pleased with my first attempt at baking with Emmer flour. 

Thanks for joining me in the bread baking blog.  Stay tuned for some more Emmer Breads.

Happy Baking!

Cathy


About the HBinFive Baking Group




The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out BigBlackDog.

Healthy Bread in Five Minutes Review

Several weeks ago, I received the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes cookbook (from the publisher) to review.  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes is the new book (released in October 2009) by Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. and Zoe Francois.  I have their first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes, so I was excited at the chance to review their new book.

I decided the best way to review the book was to make some of the breads. As it turned out, the day after I received the book, I found out about the HBinFive bread-baking group that Michelle at BigBlackDogs had formed.  So of course, I joined.  The baking group officially starts baking through the breads in the book in January but we've been baking bonus breads (provided by the authors) for the past two months.  I've actually made a few breads from the book using the dough from the bonus breads.

For the most part, I've tried to follow the formulas as they are presented in the book.  However, having said that, one of the things I really like about this book is that the formulas are really flexible.  You can use mostly whole-wheat flour or substitute some or all white whole-wheat or use a greater percentage of all-purpose to whole-wheat depending on your preference or your family's tastes.  Granted, the bread won't be as healthy if you use more white flour, but the formulas will still work and taste great!

Another thing I really like about this method is how easy it is to fit making healthy breads into your daily schedule.  I love to bake bread but sometimes the thought of spending the whole night (or day) in the kitchen is exhausting.  With this method, you just mix up the dough, let it ferment a couple of hours, then refrigerate it and use a portion of the dough each time you want to bake bread.  Since I have a full time job and maintain my bread-baking site on the side, I usually do this part on the weekends.  The dough will last in the refrigerator anywhere from 5 to 10 days or so depending on the formula and most formulas make at least four breads.  So, once you mix up the dough, all you have to do is take the amount of dough you need out of the refrigerator, shape it, let it rise, then bake it.  How easy is that?  I even froze half a batch of the whole wheat challah dough for about a week, took it out and let it thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then made 3-Strand Challah with it.  You can see the results below:

I could go on and on about how much I like this method and the book, but I think the breads speak for themselves.  Without further adieu, here are the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes' breads I've made so far:

Pumpkin Pie Brioche

I made the dough for the Pumpkin Pie Brioche twice.   The first time, the dough was way too soft and the texture of the bread turned out to be very dry.  So, I decided to give it another try. The second batch turned out much better.  I loved the flavor and texture of the brioche. Read more about my attempts and successes with this bread.

Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath

The Braided Holiday Pumpkin Wreath is not in the book, but I made it using the Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough.  Once I had the dough made, all I had to do was take the amount I needed out of the refrigerator (about 1-pound), shape it into a 3-strand braid and then make the braid into a wreath.  It makes for a very easy and beautiful Fall bread. Read more about how to make this bread.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Crescent Rolls

I must admit that Cinnamon Pumpkin Crescent Rolls is one of my favorite recipes from the book so far.  It's made using the Pumpkin Pie Brioche dough and some other yummy ingredients.  Although it doesn't seem like it's healthy, it is much healthier than your normal cinnamon rolls because it's made with about 40% whole-wheat flour rather than all white flour.  I really had fun with the recipe although it was a little tricky working with the wet dough.  Read more about these delicious rolls.

Whole Wheat Challah with Cranberries and Orange Zest

I made a 5-strand Challah using the Whole Wheat Challah with Cranberries and Orange Zest.  It was actually pretty easy to braid.  I used mostly whole-wheat flour so it doesn't have quite the rise as traditional challah.  However, the flavor is wonderful and it's healthy!  It makes great toast!  View my tutorial on shaping a 5-strand challah.

Fruit-Filled Pinwheels

This is another one of my favorite breads from the book (so far).  I had never made pinwheels before so I was a little hesitant.  However, I got the opportunity to use my homemade jam so that was cool. I wasn't sure how the pinwheels would do with the whole-wheat challah dough with cranberries but I decided to give it a try.  Working with the wet dough was a little tricky, but I like the finished result. Don't you? It's much healthier than a store-bought pastry for sure. Learn how to make these pinwheels.

 Braided 3-Strand Whole Wheat Challah

This is the bread I made using the Whole Wheat Challah dough I had frozen for about a week.  I made it into a 3-strand challah.  It was very easy to shape and tasted wonderful.  It actually tasted better than the dough I refrigerated because I had let that dough stay in the refrigerator a little longer than the recommended 5 days.  Freezing the dough seemed to preserve it. It was really fresh when I thawed it and used it for this bread.

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I really like this book and the fact that the authors are so down-to-earth and accessible to their readers.  They interact on Twitter and Facebook and answer questions on their blog.  I definitely recommend Healthy Bread in Five Minutes to homebakers that want to learn how to make bread or ones like me that like to learn different and easier methods for making bread.

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Look for more Healthy Bread in Five Minutes breads from the HBinFive baking group beginning in January.

Happy Baking!

Cathy