Lately I have been really into the free version of Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads cookbook on Google books. He is a master of bread making and the best possible source for information on making nutritious whole grain breads. His book has all the bread recipes you could possibly want and he explains how to make them taste so damn good. As far as bread goes, you could make some extremely inedible substances. However, Reinhart's method is good because his techniques for fermenting the doughs and combining them come as a result of scientific knowledge of microbiology and bread grain structures. His explanations on TED make it seem more like chemistry and science than cooking, but it is this background which makes the best bread possible, even if you feel like you're in chem lab.
I recently combined this new knowledge of bread baking and my previous knowledge of simple yeast doughs (messing with starters, Biggas, soakers, etc. ) This time I utilized his method and made a delicious seeded bread that has the most amazing texture. I made a soaker with 1 3/4 ww cups flour, 3/4 cup water, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds and 1 Tbsp. salt. Then I made a bigga of 1 3/4 cups ww flour, 3/4 cup water, 2 tsp yeast and 1/2 cups sesame seeds and 2 tbsp molasses. I worked this biga for about 10 minutes and let rise for a few hours. The soaker was made the night before and stashed in the fridge. While the Biga was rising, I took the fermented soaker out of the fridge. I cut the biga into about 16 pieces and worked the two doughs together with about another 2 cups of ww flour and 1/2 wheat germ. After thoroughly combined and kneaded for about 1o minutes, I let it proof/rise for about 90 mins in a round dish. Then it was baked at 450F for 30 mins, then 400 for another 30mins. The oven was sprayed with water 4 times to create steam within the first 30 mins.
DO this and you will have some great bread. Sorry for no pictures.
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