Perfecting Whole Grain Breads

Today I think may have been one of my most successful whole grain ventures. As I get more and more used to working with whole grains, I've noticed that my intuitive feel of how much bread should rise, or how much flour to incorporate, or how much gluten to use has really come into play. I like crust. I like it a lot. And so, I wanted to make some sandwich rolls for work that would have a nice chewy inside, but have the requisite crust to hold up to sandwich fillings, and aren't too tall. There's nothing worse than too much bread and not enough filling. These Barley Wheat Sandwich Rolls were perfect. I made them flatter than a typical roll, but they still had a good lift and nice moist crumb. I ate two straight out of the oven slathered with pumpkin butter.


I proofed 1.5 tsp active dry yeast in 1 cup warm water with about 1 tbsp raw honey. Then I mixed in a separate bowl 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup barley flour, 1/2 cup wheat bran, 1/4 cup unbleached bread flour, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tbsp gluten. I stirred in the liquids plus about 1/2 tbsp olive oil. Once it was blended, I let it sit for 15 minutes covered. The reason why you do this is to help the dough relax and become easier to work. The extra gluten also helps in that respect. I kneaded this for about 5 minutes until I got a nice springy dough. Since whole grains, and especially the wheat bran absorb lot of water, I didn't have to really add anymore flour like one would expect at this point in time. Its really important not to use too much flour. I put my dough in a lightly oiled bowl, rolled the dough around so it was coated, then covered it and allowed it to rise for about an hour until doubled.

Once it doubled, I divided my dough into 16 pieces, rolled each piece into a ball, then flattened it to about 1/4 inch thick and laid each piece out on parchment paper. They look really small at this point, but no worries. The dough circle should be about the size of a woman's palm. Make sure there is some room in between each dough circle, then cover and let rise again for another hour. They should rise to at least 1/2 - 3/4 inch tall. I baked mine at 400 degrees for 13 minutes on a baking stone with a heated pan on the rack below. Squirt about 1/2 cup of water in the pan with a sports bottle right before you shut the oven door. This is what allows you to get the nice crust with the moist chewy inside. These almost remind me of very fluffy mini-pitas. Of course, if you like bigger sandwiches, you could easily just do 8 pieces and then double the nutritional information.