Need help with a Five Grain Sourdough Bread

7-Grain Sourdough

We can confidently expect another regular contributor (such as the talented KyleW!) to assist you admirably.

My response may hold a smidgeon of disappoint for you, as I haven’t ventured to formulate specifically the requested recipe. Nevertheless, I will offer these suggestions:

1) Add a 5-, 7-, or more multigrain mix (many bakers are pleased to choose one of the blends from Bob’s Red Mill) to an existing sourdough rye dough.
2) Seek out a copy of Nancy Silverton’s Breads from La Brea Bakery; refer to pp. 208-211 on which the author provides first-class instructions for making Multigrain Bread using a rye starter.
3) I may have ample time later this week to send you a copy of a 7-grain bread recipe which I had developed about 15 years ago. Okay, it isn’t a sourdough bread, but I can assure you that it makes consistently flavorful, pleasantly textured loaves. Albeit, you may be looking for a sturdier-crusted product?

Lawrence

You are too kind Zukerig :)

Recipe formulation takes a lot of trial and error, but there is no reason to start entirely from scratch here. You can use any sourdough recipe as the basis for your new bread.

Let's start with the ingredient list.


Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Iron, Thiamin, Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)

Most flour available in stores today is enriched. Other than the malted barley flour, aka malt or barley malt, non of the other enrichments are necessary.

Water

Soaked Grains (Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Oats, Sunflower Seeds, Millet, Flax Seed, Sea Salt, Cracked Wheat, Lactic Acid, Cultured Wheat Starch)

You can use any 5 grains you like. The corn syrup, lactic acid, and cultured wheat starch are not needed.

Sourdough Blend (Wheat Flour, Malt, Fumaric Acid, Acetic Acid, Lactic Acid)

There are a number of commercially available sourdough flavor enahancers available, like Lora Brody's Dough Enhancer for Sourdough Bread. THese products are designed to approximate the flavor of sourdough breads in regularly yeasted breads. I'm assuming you don't have a sourdough starter.

Yeast

I use instant yeast in my yeasted breads. The alternative is active dry. Either is fine.

Salt

I use sea salt in my breads.

Soybean Oil

I suspect this is being used as a dough enrichment. Fats, like soy bean oil, milk, butter or eggs are added to help tenderize the crumb, extend shelf life and add flavor. You can use either canola or vegetable oil in place of the soy bean oil. Any neutrally flavored oil will work. Olive oil, walnut oil or other strongly flaavored oil will dramatically change the flavor of the bread.

Enzymes

Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps they are added to further soften the whole grains following the soak?

Egg Wash (Water, Eggs) added for color and shine

Pretty straight forward. An egg plus a little water to thin it, painted on just prior to baking.


Cornmeal added to prevent sticking

This assumes you are baking free form loaves. If you are baking pan breads you don't need the cornmeal. Either the bottom of the loaves are coated with cornmeal or the cornmeal is placed on a peel and then the loaves are placed on the peel. The cornmeal acts like ball bearings and makes the bread easier to load into the oven.

Now the recipe...This is a variation of Peter Reinhart's Multigrain Bread Extrordinaire.

Ingredients are listed in measure, ounces, grams, bakers% format. I could get the formating from Excel to post.

IngredientMeasure OZ GBakers %
Bread Flour3 cups, 13.5, 382.72,100.00%
Water 1 1/2 cups, 12,340.19, 88.89%
Yeast (Instant)2 tsp, 0.2,5.67, 2.40%
Salt (Sea)1 1/2 tsp, 10.77, 2.80%
5 Grain Mix8 TBS, 4,113.40, 29.63%
Honey 1 TBS, 1, 28.35, 7.41%
Canola Oil2 TBS, 0.88,25.00, 6.52%
TOTAL 31.96,906.05,


8-12 hours before making the dough combine any grains totaling about 4 ounces and add 2 ounces of the water. The grain should be completely covered. Let the mix soak at room temperature for 8-12 hours. The grain will soften but be very present in the final bread. If you want the grain to be less present, grind it in a food processor, spice mill or mortar & pestle before adding the water.

Combine the flour, salt and yeast and whisk to combine. Add the remaining water, oil, honey and soaked seed (including any residual water). Stir with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and kneed for about 10 minutes, until the dough passes the window pane test.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and allow it to ferment until doubled in volume, 90 minutes give or take.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and divide in two. Round the dough into 2 rough balls, cover with plastic and let rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Shape the dough as desired and let proof until doubled, about 90 minutes give or take.

Bake the breads for 20 minutes, rotate them 180º and continue baking for about another 15 minutes for freeform or 20+ minutes for pan breads. The loaves should register at least 185º on an instant read thermometer when done.

This is the basic recipe. If you find a sourdough enhancer add 2 TBS to start. It will come with suggested amnounts. For more flavor try swapping 25% of the bread flour with whole wheat flour.

You can also try using a preferment to add more flavor. Take 1 cup of the flour from the recipe, mix it with 1/4 tsp of the yeast and add about 1/3 cup of the water (enough to make a dough) mix and knead it and let it ferment at room temp for about 8 hours. Then cut it into small pieces and add it to the bread when you add the wet ingredients.

Hope this helps. If you have questions ask away.

Emzymes act as biological catalysts. Enzymes are a study unto themselves. The name of the enzyme normally ends in "ase" which will identify its affiliation. For example, Protease works on proteins. Enzymes naturally occuring in flour, specifically the Amylases, will attack starch molecules (flour is 70% starch) at different points, resulting in maltose (a sugar) which benefits fermentation. Everyone who bakes has enzymes working for them.

The "Malted Barley Flour" under Enriched Flour can be a method to introduce supplemental enzymes over and above the naturally occuring. It would be a low to medium type diastatic malt flour. Some of you may know "malt syrups," which are high in maltose. Nondiastatic (low enzyme) malt syrups promote vigorous yeast action, oven spring and good crust color among other benefits.

Enzymes do not have to be on the label. The "Enzymes" labeled on the bread separately would either be for mixing, machineability or shelf-life. Protease reduces mixing time. Other enzymes can act as emulsifiers and dough improvers. Certain types of amylases entend shelf-life.

Buying enzymes separately can be very expensive. They are normally used in the realm of automated, commercial bakeries where they somehow save time, make doughs work better through a process or extend the product's time on the shelf. They are generally purchased within a dry blend of other carriers such as flour, etc. because using them straight would be utterly impossible without a scale that would measure down to 0.0001 gram (one ounce is 28.35 grams).

I shall not hesitate to note that I am much impressed by the exemplary quality of KyleW & Cookieguy's foregoing posts. Your input on this topic is lucid, well-informed, beneficial.

Vera, you may like to obtain a copy of Peter Reinhart's Crust & Crumb : Master Formulas for Serious Bakers. (Don't be put off by any connotation in the book's subtitle, as Reinhart is a very good, non-egotistical writer. Every segment of the book is thoroughly, but clearly and casually, expressed.) Refer to his "German Five-Kern Bread" (pp. 110-112), "Sourdough Multigrain," (pp. 95-97), as well as his introductory comments on sourdough starters.