CELEBRATE BREAD BAKING MONTH!

 Have you ever heard of the story of the “shoemaker’s daughter?” As a baking instructor with two teaching positions at two different campuses, making time to actually bake something in my own kitchen is one of my New Year’s Resolutions for 2103!  I have decided that for my own creative health I will actually schedule some of this time for myself. Also, I plan to share these handmade baked goods with neighbors, colleagues, and readers. So to begin, I thought to celebrate one of January’s Food and Beverage related holidays, National Wheat Bread Month, by creating a healthy Pullman loaf!

Intrigued with successful Pullman shaped loaves that we had baked in the Baker Fundamentals class during the regular semesters- Pullman loaves are a rectangular loaf with straight sides and flat top which unlike a typical bread loaf is completely symmetrical- I decided to discover if a 10-grain bread could be “trained” into a Pullman loaf! For what it is worth for some of you-I had to turn to baker’s percentages for my analysis and compare the usual Pullman loaf dough containing refined flour with my 10 grain version. This, I had to figure out myself, as there were no such guidelines in the textbook from which I gleaned the inspiration for the multigrain bread.

I experimented, reduced and deduced certain phenomena such as whole grains require more water than refined flours used in a usual Pullman loaf. The final dough contains 95% water! The original multigrain contained over 106% water! Now this is baker’s percentage jargon.

The result is a loaf that you can even bake in the afternoon and have it ready for the evening meal. You can achieve a slower rise by softening the yeast in 4 ounces of 110 degree water and add 4 ounces of 65 degree water that is added just before mixing all of the ingredients together with the dough hook.

Hope that you enjoy trying the results of my testing and my start at keeping my New Year’s Resolutions! I vow to do more creative baking this year at home share the results! Shoemaker’s daughter syndrome- bye-bye!

I hope that you try my formula and share your results with me. IF you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at susan@bakingandcakeart.com.

Bake America Stronger!

Chef Susan

Chef Susan’s Multigrain Pullman Loaf

Yield: one loaf approximately 2 pounds 12 ounces

Method:  Direct Dough (enhanced with longer fermentation time plus one fold)

Oven: 405 degrees Fahrenheit

Equipment: USA Pullman Pan with top 13 x4 x 4 inches, dough thermometer,5- quart stand mixer, bowl and dough hook, saucepan,medium stainless steel mixing bowl, standard measuring spoons, small spatula, scale, bowl scraper, oven rack positioned at second from bottom level position, hot pads, cooling rack.

Ingredients:

10 ounces boiling water

5.5 ounces 10-Grain Hot Cereal (Bob’s Red Mill)

8 ounces water-110 degrees

7/8 ounce Active Dry Yeast-(Red Star)

1.25 ounces Honey (I use Buckwheat)

1.5 teaspoons kosher salt

13.5 ounces Bread Flour (I used King Arthur Unbleached)

5.5 ounces whole Wheat Flour (Gold Medal)

1.0 ounces canola Oil

.75 ounce cornmeal

 

Procedure:

1.  Measure the 10 grain cereal into the 5 quart mixer.


2.  Add boiling water and cool to room temperature

      

3.  Place yeast into a small stainless bowl and add 110 degree water.  Let yeast soften until all is smooth when mixed with fingers.

     

4.  Add honey, salt, bread and whole wheat flours, cornmeal and oil to cooled 10 grain cereal.

5.  Pour softened yeast and water mixture over the previous ingredients in the bowl.

6.  Place dough hook onto mixer and turn on mixer for approximately 9 minutes at medium-high speed (I use speed 5 on Kitchen Aid), stopping the machine from time to time during the first 3 minutes to help the sticky dough off of the bowl sides and into the center mass of dough.

    

7.  Continue the full nine minutes until the sticky dough reaches a stretchy consistency and a window pane is evident when the dough is stretched.

8.  Cover the dough with a linen towel and let rise for 1and 1/2 hour.

9.  Uncover the dough and press the dough down while turning with a bowl scraper.

10.  Cover the bowl again and ferment another 45 minutes.

11.  Sprinkle some bread flour onto a slab (table top surface) and remove dough from bowl and press air out.

12.  Divide dough into two equal portions.

13.  Roll each half into a rope approximately two inches longer than Pullman pan.

14.  Twist the two halves together and place into the Pullman pan.

 

15.  Tap the dough down with fingers to level ropes.

16.  Attach Pullman pan cover to pan leaving 1-1/2 inch open to gauge height of proofing dough.

 

17.  When dough rises just below the top of the pan (30minutes approximately), close the lid and allow the lid to click into place.

18.  Let stand and additional 7 minutes.

19.  Place pan into a preheated 405 degree oven.

20.  Bake 40 minutes.

21.  Remove lid.  (If browner color is desired, bake approximately 5-7 more minutes uncovered.)

22.  Remove bread from pan onto cooling rack to prevent steam condensation.

23.Cool before serving (if you can wait).

 

 

24.  Bread will last several days in a plastic bag and will freeze beautifully for three weeks.  Delicious thickly sliced and toasted!

Any questions: please contact Chef Susan at : susan@bakingandcakeart.com

 

 

 

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