Heritage Multigrain Bread
A sandwich bread recipe with einkorn and other heritage flours that is fluffy and delicious.
I think that normal sandwich loaves get kind of a bad rap. Everyone thinks of great bread as being lofty sourdough boules and crusty baguettes, but I'll bet the average person goes through a lot more sliced sandwich bread than anything labeled 'artisan'. And isn't that kind of a shame?
I know that when I started baking bread I wanted to make the kind of bread you would see on the covers of cookbooks, not the kind of bread that I could find on grocery store shelves. But lately I’ve been rethinking that a bit.
Shouldn’t the bread that you eat most often, whether toasted for breakfast, piled high with deli meats and cheeses for lunch, or smothered in PB +J for a snack, shouldn't that be great bread too? Well, I think so. It might not be as photogenic as a country loaf with an elegantly scorched ear, but it can still be really good bread.
For this loaf I set out to make a soft, fluffy, multigrain sandwich bread using all heritage flour. I wanted something that was delicious, but also packed a solid nutritional punch. I think this pretty much delivered. There is a healthy amount of Einkorn, Khorasan, rye, and whole wheat Marquis, with a white flour made from Turkey Red wheat providing loft and structure. I really loved how the all different flavors complemented each other here. Multigrain and whole mill breads have a reputation of being dense and dry, but enriching this with some sunflower oil yielded a softer crumb than most grocery store white bread. I’ll definitely be taking another swing at this, and there is a laundry list of things I want to try with this (adjust the grain proportions, maybe add seeds, ), but this one was a success as-is, and this is a bread that I am happy to see A and our son eat.
Heritage Multigrain Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 100g white flour
- 100g water
- Pinch of yeast
- Poolish
- 100g white flour
- 140g + 25g water
- 50g whole wheat flour
- 50g einkorn
- 50g Khorasan
- 50g dark rye
- 50g sunflower oil
- 40g maple syrup
- 40g honey
- 2 Tbsp rolled oats
- 8g salt
- 1/2 tsp yeast
Instructions
- Mix poolish into a thick batter in a medium to large bowl (4 to 5 quarts in size)
- Cover and rest at room temp for 12-14 hours
- Add remaining ingredients, reserving 25g of water and mix into a shaggy dough
- Knead smooth (5-10 minutes), adding remaining water as needed. Dough should be a bit sticky but still malleable
- Cover and rest for 3-4 hours at room temp, until dough is approximately doubled in volume
- Shape into log and place in a 8.5x4.5 inch loaf pan lined with parchment
- Brush with water and sprinkle oats over the top
- Proof for about 90 minutes, until dough is puffy and slowly springs back when pressed
- While dough is proofing, preheat oven to 350F
- Bake for 50 minutes, until interior temperature is above 190F
- Remove from oven and place pan on cooling rack. After a few minutes, remove loaf from pan and continue to cool on rack
Notes:
This is pretty vegan as-is, but the honey can be substituted out if necessary. I would suggest a 1:1 swap with molasses or agave syrup, or 30g of a vegan sugar + 10g water
I use room temperature water for everything. It’s just easier than trying to heat water to the exactly 95F or trying to hit a precise dough temperature.
All the resting times will be sensitive to how warm it is, use your eyes and instincts to judge accordingly
Remember that this is supposed to be fun, not stressful. Make mistakes, get messy, take chances.
Remember that this is supposed to be fun, not stressful. Make mistakes, get messy, take chances.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as we did!
Until next time,
