Saturday, February 20, 2010

Bread with Malted Wheat Flakes

Malted wheat bread in the oven.
Today's bread includes a new ingredient: Malted Wheat Flakes. They sounded interesting when I found them on the King Arthur Flour website, so of course I had to order them.

The instructions on the bag say that the flakes don't need to be soaked before adding to bread, but I decided to put them in right away; not exactly a soak, but as much chance to meet moisture as possible.

In this recipe, I used whey left over from yogurt making as the liquid ingredient, but water would be just fine. I also used demerara sugar, because that's what I normally use. White sugar would be fine, as well.

And for a change, I measured everything as it went into the mixer.

Most bread recipes call for covering the doughball with oil and plopping it into a clean bowl. However, I usually just use the stand mixer bowl. I drizzle a little oil over the dough, make sure it's not stuck to the bowl anywhere, and cover it. If you'd prefer to use a clean bowl, go for it.

This bread was a lot darker than I expected, considering the small amount of wheat flakes. Not saying that's bad; I like an interesting color in a loaf. The finished loaf also had interesting bumps and lumps and bit in it. I sort of expected the malted wheat to disappear into the loaf the way instant oats would. Instead, there were obvious pieces. Still, that's not a bad thing, it's just an observation.

Malted Wheat Bread

Malted wheat flakes
1 cup lukewarm whey
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 /2 cup malted wheat flakes
2 cups bread flour, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

unmeasured:
olive oil
flour
cornmeal

Add whey, sugar, yeast and wheat flakes to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk to combine and set aside for 10 minutes, or until the top is frothy.

Add one cup of flour, mix well, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and let sit for about 20 minutes. The mixture will get fluffy and rise in the bowl.

Add add the salt and most of the second cup of bread flour. Knead with the dough hook of the stand mixture for about 5 minutes, until the dough begins to get stretchy. Add more flour, if necessary, so that the dough is tacky, but not sticky. Add olive oil and continue kneading until the dough is shiny and elastic. There will still be some bumps because of the wheat flakess, so don't worry about that.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the dough to coat, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rest until the dough has doubled in size, about an hour, depending on the temperature in your kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal.

Flour your work surface, empty the bowl onto the work surface, and form the dough into your preferred shape. I tend to make long loaves that bake into long ovals.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rest until about double in size. Slash the top of the loaf (this time I went for one long center slash) and bake for about 40 minutes until nicely browned. Move bread to a rack to cool completely before cutting.
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