The Great Bread Experiment

I did a wheat-free local-grain-only multigrain bread experiment this week.

It's based on an online recipe I found for a flexible-grain bread. It's intended for gluten grains, so yay! I got to knead the dough! I haven't kneaded dough in ages; mostly I've just been buying GF store bread, and the rice breads I've made recently are more like batter than dough. My baking process was pretty chaotic, as follows:

The Process

• Tue p.m. - cleaned and soaked 1 cup live oats
• Wed a.m. - rinsed & drained live oats
• Wed p.m. - live oats looking sprouty; blended into flour with 1 cup water & 1/2 tsp. salt. Added 1 cup rye flour and covered.
• Thu p.m. - sponge looking spongy; not entirely pleased with aroma, so I added 1/2 packet bread yeast, activated in 1/2 cup warm water and 1 T rye flour.
• an hour later - remembered I needed to go out for the evening; put yeast-sponge in fridge to slow it down.
• an hour later - evening event cancelled due to flooding; took yeast-sponge back out of fridge & placed in a warmish oven.
• bedtime - realized I hadn't done anything with yeast-sponge yet. put it back in fridge.
• Fri a.m. - took yeast-sponge out of fridge, added 3/4 cup leftover grits, placed in a warmish oven for an hour, then moved it to room temp.
• Fri p.m. - ah! finally! time available to work on the bread. looked up recipe & scaled it down to a half recipe. added remaining ingredients (oil, honey, almond milk, flour.) Discovered I had too much sponge to scale it down to a half recipe. Added remaining ingredients for a full recipe, except the flour, and divided the batch in two. Put half in the fridge. Added enough flour to knead the other half, and set it in a warmish oven to rise.
• Fri bedtime - it's risen enough to hold a depression, but hasn't quite doubled yet. Kneaded it briefly then put it back to rise overnight.
• Sat a.m. - kneaded and shaped a single oblong loaf, covered and set to rise.
• Sat 5 p.m. - baked.

Is this process repeatable? Ha! I don't think so...

Flour mix in one half recipe (approx.):

1/2 cup live oats, sprouted and blended

1 cup rye flour

3/4 cup barley flour

1/2 cup corn flour

3/8 cup leftover grits

Additional rye flour as needed for kneading (not measured; might have been 1/2 cup or so.)

The Result

A finely textured dense bread; mild rye and sourdough flavors. Holds together well; slices readily, though the crust is a little tough to get through at the bottom. Seems to be a hit with the family, though we got into a discussion about what one might do if one wanted a lighter texture. I will probably double the yeast next time; it ought to rise more quickly if nothing else. I should also start an ongoing sourdough sponge; it both tastes and works better if it's had time to mature.