Using grains

[quote="iLikePie"]hey all,

I recently bought some barley and wheat grains as well as some linseeds because i saw them in a shop and thought it'd be fun to make some grainy bread... but i don't really know how to use them!

I was thinking that for the linseed i just chuck them in, but for the other two my instinct is that they'd need to be soaked first. I read about people soaking them to make sprouted grain or malt or something, but I don't think thats what i want. Is there a way/does it work well/taste good to somehow make grain-studded bread with them?
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G'day Stu,

Of course you can use them in a 'grain studded' bread dough and you'll have an excellent bread if done the right way.

Let me dig around and find a good formula for grain bread worthy of this board.
However, if your grains are not 'kibbled' or 'cracked' then I'd suggest you boil them in water until they are soft and gelatinized, drain them, and allow cooling - overnight - before you add them to the dough. But don’t forget to weigh the total grain and water weight. As well as this you'll have to add diastatic malt flour at .5 % of the total flour weight at the dough stage. The reason for adding diastatic malt if the grain is boiled is that boiling deactivates the diastase enzymes. These enzymes degrade the starch into maltose which is the main food source for the lactobacilli that predominate in sourdoughs. (In fact, this is one of the reasons why bakers yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is never used in sourdough and their population is very small in healthy sourdough, they don't really have a symbiotic relationship with lactobacillus, they compete for maltose.) If these enzymes are deactivated by boiling but are not replaced by diastatic malt addition in the dough stage three things will result; a reduced acid volume (TA); a higher than desired pH; and a lack of residual maltose in the final loaf.

BTW residual maltose is important for imparting to this bread its characteristic moist crumb.

See below
[img]http://www.sourdough.com.au/gallery/d/8586-2/IMG_3064.JPG[/img]

Good luck. I'm sure others too will have plenty of good suggestions also.

Hi Stu

Here's a Dan Lepard recipe from The Handmade Loaf.

150g strong white flour
100g strong wholemeal flour
100g rye flour
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
210g mixed, well-cooked grains, such as rice, lentils, rye or wheat
50g whole millet
30g oatmeal
100g white leaven
50g honey
25g molasses
150g water @ 20 deg C
2 1/2 tsp fresh yeast, crumbled
50g sunflower oil
oats or fine oatmeal, for finishing the loaf

I turned this into fully sourdough by increasing the white leaven to 150g.

Stu

Pls note that the 210g well-cooked grains is the weight of the COOKED grains and not the dry weight of the grains.

Best

ILP,

a simple formula for adding grains to a basic recipe is to soak about 15% (dry weight) grains for 12 hours or so - at the time that you do your last refreshment of starter.

for example this is a grain loaf that I made a while back

180g starter (at 100% hydration) (36%)
340g water (68%)
50g spelt flour (or wholemeal if you don't have spelt) (10%)
450g unbleached white flour (90%)
75g mixed grains (15%)
10g salt (2%)

I made this a few times using a 'multigrain mix' from a baking supply shop, but have also made it with whole wheat/rye grains.
You can get away without cooking the grains if they have a long soak, but I think that they are better if they are cooked, as Danubian suggests. Simmer them in water for about 45 minutes, then leave to soak overnight. For a really special effect soak them in ale or wine overnight.

unfortunately my 4 year old has taken against seedy bits in his bread, so I haven't made wholegrain bread for a while!

cheers
Dom

[quote="iLikePie"]thank you both for your responses!
danubian, i appreciate your explanation of the preparation process, as well as the explanation (i always like to know why something is the case). My grains are not kibbled, so i think i will have to find some diastatic malt to add in... (while we're on this, since i haven't really heard about malt before, is there an advantage to adding this to normal bread recipes too, or does it then over-convert the starch or something bad like that)?[/quote]

In short, yes, there are advantages, but too much produces bread faults. See [url=http://www.sourdough.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=909][b]this thread[/b][/url] for discussion on diastatic malt.

[quote="iLikePie"]also, while you're being so helpful... you say "don't forget to weigh the total grain and water weight". Do you have to make adjustments to the overall bread percentages because of the grain? i would have thought that although you are adding extra bulk and moisture, it would be fairly self contained and so wouldn't affect it too much. I am hoping to be able to just throw in extra grains to whatever recipes i am making so if there are adjustments, i'd love to know a bit about those.
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If you are going to boil the grain but the above formula calls for .420 mixed grain and .420 water added to soak overnight which in total is .840. Add .840 boiled grain to that dough; this will keep the formula balanced. However, Dom is quite correct in suggesting that you can use a standard formula and toss some boiled or soaked grain in and you'll be fine. It can be as simple as you like, I'm just accustomed to using specific formula methods because I'm from a trade background.
Go well, I'd be interested to see to see your posted results.