100% Grain Multigrain Sandwich Loaf By Hand? You Bet!

After that sad second experiment with the food processor last week - where cleaning time sort of cancelled out the time saved in kneading, and watching Michael Kalanty's course on Craftsy/Bluprint - and after my happy result making ciabatta rolls by hand, I decided to tackle the Serious Eats recipe I had made last week. Apart from the mess, it was a success and the recipe is one that you can start and finish on the same day.

This is what's left of it:

Serious Eats recipe made in food processor

The author, Stella Parks, warns that no other method but the food processor will produce the right results with her recipe, but I was willing to waste a pound of flour and half a cup of grains to test her theory. And I would get further practise in the art of breadmaking à l'ancienne.

I made the same substitutions to the recipe as I did last week - using 12-grain cereal from Bulk Barn instead of the individual grains on her list. Rested grains and flour for 2.5 hours after adding water to them.

That's when I veered away from the recipe. First I mixed the additional liquid, the yeast, sugar and oil together in a large bowl, added them to the wet flour by squishing them between the fingers à la Michael Kalanty. Then I added the salt and the soaked grains and continued squishing and mixing inside the bowl (wetting the fingers now and then) until all was blended, then I turned the dough onto the wet counter and did some slapping and smearing for a while.

I put the dough back in the bowl and let it rest about 20 minutes, then I gave it two turns, every 20 minutes or so, at which point I gave it the windowpane test and... surprise, it passed!

Back in the bowl for the required two hours. Shaped into a loaf and set the timer for 30 minutes and went away. When the timer went off, to my surprise the dough had already over-risen and the oven was still not on... and that's why the dome collapsed - as is obvious in the photo - but otherwise I would say the experiment was a success - wouldn't you?

Serious Eats recipe made entirely by hand

This bread is good and it works well as a sandwich loaf. But I need a deeper flavour, so next I need to tackle a slightly more complex loaf - one made with a poolish that has been fermenting overnight.

Stay tuned!