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This is my variation of the anadama bread recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart). It uses white whole wheat and 9-grain flour instead of regular bread flour. And it's half a recipe.

It's good, but not as good as my whole wheat and oat bread. But it's always fun to try something new.

The night before make the soaker:

3 oz. cornmeal
4 oz. water

Combine the cornmeal and water, cover and let sit overnight at room temperature.

Dough:

5 oz. white whole wheat flour
0.110 oz. instant yeast
4 oz. warm water (90°F to 100°F)

5 oz. 9-grain flour
0.2 oz. salt
2 oz. molasses
0.5 oz. coconut oil (or substitute shortening or unsalted butter)

Combine the white whole wheat flour, yeast, water and soaker in the electric mixer bowl and combine. Cover with plastic wrap and let ferment for an hour.

Add the remaining ingredients and combine. The dough should be a little sticky. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes in the electric mixer, adding water or flour as necessary so the dough is a little tacky.

Oil a bowl and transfer the dough ball to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 90 minutes.

Shape the dough into loaf shape and place in an oiled 9x5 bread pan. Loosely cover with plastic wrap. Proof for 60 to 90 minutes until the bread rises above the edges of the pan.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F then rotate the pan. Bake another 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown and the interior temperature is 185°F to 190°F.

Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack for at least an hour before slicing.

Update: I made a new version of this recipe that I like much better. I'd suggest the new recipe.

This is a great recipe for whole wheat raisin bread. There's very little added sugar unlike many mass-produced raisin breads.

8 oz. King Arthur white whole wheat flour
0.33 oz. granulated sugar (you may want to add more)
0.16 oz. salt
0.11 oz. instant yeast
0.08 oz. ground cinnamon
0.83 oz. egg (half a large egg, though I used the whole thing)
0.5 oz. shortening
2 oz. whole milk (or buttermilk) at 70°F
3 oz. water at 70°F
4.5 oz. raisins
2 oz. chopped walnuts

The King Arthur white whole wheat flour is a high-gluten spring wheat flour and is 100 % whole grain. It works well in this recipe. The original recipe uses unbleached bread flour, which would also work well, but wouldn't be whole grain.

Stir together the dry ingredients (through cinnamon) in the mixer bowl. Add the ingredients through the water and mix with the paddle attachment until a ball of dough forms. Switch to the dough hook and knead for 6 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and knead in the raisins and walnuts by hand for a few minutes to evenly distribute them in the dough. Let rise for 2 hours until doubled.

Transfer back to a floured surface and form a 5" x 7" rectangle. Roll starting from the short side. It should fill the length of a 4 ½" x 8 ½" loaf pan when done, as it will spread out as you roll it. Transfer to a lightly oiled loaf pan and proof for 90 minutes.

Another option would be to sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on the rectangle before rolling. That would make that swirl effect inside the loaf.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350°F, rotate the loaf pan 180° and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes until the center temperature is 190°F.

Remove from the oven, immediately remove the loaf from the pan and cook on a wire rack for 1 to 2 hours.

This recipe could be made without the nuts with no other modifications. I considered substituting coconut oil for the shortening, which would remove the trans-fats but I was already changing the flour and I didn't want to change too many things at once.

The recipe is basically from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, pp. 147 - 149. It has a much better explanation and tips. And the recipe in the book is double this recipe, which explains the half an egg thing.

I really love my whole wheat and oat bread dough recipe. I've used it to make loaf bread, dinner rolls, hamburger buns and even English muffins! It's 100 % whole grain and amazingly light. It has a little honey in it, but no other added sugar.

I happened to need both English muffins and dinner rolls, so I made a 1.7x batch of dough. One of the great things about having everything weighed instead of using, say, cups of flour, is that it's possible to easily make a 1.7x recipe. Try doing that with a 1 cup measure!

Soaker

4.8 oz. oats, coarsely ground
6.8 oz. water @ 70°F

Use regular (not instant or quick) oats. I ground them for about 30 seconds in the food processor until coarsely ground. Add 4 oz. of water in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the next day.

Poolish

7.7 oz. whole wheat flour
0.035 oz. instant yeast
6.8 oz. water @ 70°F

Mix together the yeast, water, and whole wheat flour until a paste forms and all of the flour is hydrated, but not longer. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours. Then put into the refrigerator overnight.

Dough

6.8 oz. King Arthur white whole wheat flour
3.4 oz. whole wheat flour
0.3 oz. salt
0.2 oz. instant yeast
1.7 oz. honey
0.5 oz. vegetable oil
2 eggs lightly beaten

For English muffins, follow this recipe.

For dinner rolls, follow this recipe.

It's dairy-free but not vegan because of the eggs and honey.

Tight plastic wrap helps keep the English muffins flat during the second proofing.


An abundance of timers doesn't hurt, either.

My first attempt at making ciabatta was a failure and produced a nice white bread which was nothing like ciabatta. Because I'm a gluten for punishment (get the pun?) I decided to not only re-attempt ciabatta but also make a whole grain version. I'm really into whole grain bread these days.

Short version of the story: I produced a nice, very flat, loaf of wheat bread. But still not ciabatta. I should point out that I'm not even sure you can make a loaf of whole wheat ciabatta, but I'll keep trying.

Though a failure at producing ciabatta, this recipe would be great for making a whole wheat muffuletta.

Poolish:

5.6 oz. whole wheat flour
6 oz. water at 70°F
0.015 oz. instant yeast

Combine the ingredients until the flour is hydrated. Loosely cover and let ferment for 3 - 4 hours at room temperature until bubbly. Then refrigerate overnight.

Remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before you want to begin making the bread.

6.7 oz. King Arthur white whole wheat flour (100 % whole grain, winter wheat, unbleached, high gluten)
0.22 oz. salt
0.085 oz. instant yeast
1.5 oz. to 3.0 oz. water at 70°F

Stir together the ingredients in the mixer bowl along with the poolish.

Using the dough hook, a silicon spatula, and hand kneading incorporate all of the flour into the dough.

Then knead for 7 minutes in the electric mixer. The dough should be sticky; if too dry add water. If too sticky, add flour.

On a lightly floured board, form into a 3" x 6" x 1 ½" high rectangle and let rest for 2 minutes.


Grab the short sides of the rectangle and pull so the long dimension gets even longer - twice as long. Then fold it back upon itself in thirds (letter style) so it forms a rectangle again.Sprinkle the top with flour, mist with oil, then cover loosely with plastic. Let rest for 30 minutes.


Repeat the stretch and fold again. Mist with oil again and sprinkle with flour.

Generously sprinkle semolina flour (or cornmeal) on a sheet pan and transfer the dough to the pan. Cover loosely with plastic and let rise for 2 to 3 hours. It should swell dramatically, but may not quite double in size.


Preheat the oven to 500°F. Put a small roasting pan or other suitable steam pan in a rack below the rack where you'll be baking the bread.

Heat a kettle of water. You'll need about a cup of boiling water.

Put the sheet pan of bread in the oven. Pour about a cup of hot water in the steam pan. Be careful, as hot water may splash out.

Close the oven door and bake for 2 minutes at 500°F. Then lower the heat to 450°F and bake for 8 more minutes.

Rotate the sheet pan 180° and bake for 5 to 10 more minutes, or until the temperature of the center of the  bread reaches 205°F.

Let cool for 1 to 2 hours before slicing.



Lessons learned: Now I know why you need a couche. My loaf was really flat. I think supporting the sides during the second rising would have made it taller, though there does exist the danger of degassing the loaf when transferring it from from the couche to the sheet pan.

Also, my seemingly brilliant plan of doing the second proof on the sheet pan didn't quite pan out since the bread stuck to the sheet pan. Though if doing the second rising in a couche it's sort of a moot point, anyway.

The original recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, pp. 136-139, which has significantly more detailed instructions on how to make this bread (well, the traditional white flour version of it), and many others. I recommend it.

I decided to try some of my new King Arthur flour 9-grain flour. It says it contains "barley, rye, oats, amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum, and teff, all milled to a baking-friendly, fine-flour consistency." It also contains high-gluten wheat flour.

This recipe makes one 1-pound loaf of very delicious and surprisingly soft whole wheat and multi-grain bread. I had some as toast for breakfast and it was delicious!

Soaker:

2.1 oz. whole wheat flour

3 oz. water at 70°F

Mix together, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit at room temperature overnight.

Poolish:

3.4 oz. 9-grain flour

0.014 oz. instant yeast

3 oz. water at 70°F

Mix together only until the flour is hydrated, then cover with plastic wrap and let ferment 2 to 4 hours at room temperature. Then refrigerate overnight.

Dough:

2 oz. 9-grain flour

2.5 oz oz. white whole wheat, high gluten flour or bread flour

0.165 oz. salt

0.055 oz. instant yeast

0.75 oz. honey

0.25 oz. vegetable oil (such as canola)

0.825 oz. egg (half of a large egg), lightly beaten

When ready to make the bread, remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before and let warm toward room temperature.

In the electric mixer bowl, add the flour, salt and yeast. Then add the poolish, soaker, honey, oil and egg. Mix with the paddle attachment until combined, adjusting the consistency by adding flour or water if necessary. I added a couple tablespoons of flour as it was too moist and sticky.

The first time I made the recipe I used regular unbleached bread flour, but the second time I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour which worked very well. It's 100 % whole grain and high gluten, so it works well in this recipe.

Switch to the dough hook and knead for 8 or 9 minutes.

I removed the bread from the mixer and kneaded by hand for a few minutes on a floured board since the dough was still a little sticky. Spritz a bowl (can be the mixer bowl, though I used a fresh bowl) with oil. Add the dough ball and spritz the ball with oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours until doubled.

Shape into a loaf, place in a greased loaf pan, cover, and let rise at room temperature for 90 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Bake for 30 minutes, rotate, then bake for 15 to 30 minutes longer until the loaf sounds hollow and are 185°F to 190°F in the center, and golden brown.

Remove from the oven, release the loaf from the pan and let cook on a wire rack for 1 to 2 hours before slicing.

Makes one 1-pound loaf. Easily multiplies to make more loaves. In fact, the original recipe was for two loaves, which explains the "half an egg" thing.

This is a variation of the Whole Wheat Bread recipe from the excellent cookbook, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, by Peter Reinhart.

Zucchini season is coming in Central Vermont. While I usually make a stir fry or a zucchini lasagna, I decided to try making some zucchini bread. It turned out to be quite tasty!

2 eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
4 oz. applesauce (one "snack pack" sized package or about ¼ cup)
6.6 oz. granulated sugar (1 cup)
1 cup zucchini, grated (1 small)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
7.1 oz. all-purpose flour (1 ½ cup)
1 ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1.2 oz. chopped walnuts (¼ cup)

Preheat the oven to 325°F. I used a glass loaf pan; if using a metal one you may want to try 350°F instead.

Lightly beat the eggs. Add the oil, applesauce, and sugar and stir to combine. Add the remaining ingredients.

Grease and flour a 4"x8" loaf pan. Add the batter. Bake for about an hour.

It took an hour and 10 minutes for a toothpick to come out clean and the center temperature to reach about 210°F.

Even though the loaf looks nice in the picture the bottom is a little hollow since a bit of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. But it is still very delicious.

I should also point out that bread is a pretty inefficient way to get rid of excess zucchini. There's one small zucchini in this recipe. I could easily eat that in one meal as a stir fry, but there's no way I could (or should) eat an entire loaf of zucchini bread. Not to mention all of the sugar and flour in the bread. A few slices for breakfast is pretty good, however. And better for you than a doughnut.

This recipe was roughly based on this recipe with some of the modifications in the comments. I also scaled it to make one pan instead of two. If scaling back up, you might want to reduce the eggs because the recipe above should only have 1.5 eggs, but a half of an egg is an awkward quantity so I rounded up.

I had a slice of this zucchini bread and Greek yogurt, homemade granola, and fresh blueberries for breakfast.

Ciabatta is one of my favorite kinds of Italian style bread. It's great dipped in olive oil and served with spaghetti, marinara, and Italian sausage. It's crusty on the outside and filled with big holes on the inside, making it light.

This recipe, however, did not produce ciabatta. It did produce a very delicious white Italian bread that on the outside looked kind of like ciabatta. I'm pretty sure it was my fault for not following the original instructions properly, presumably in the handling the the dough. I think I was overzealous in the stretch part of stretch and fold and compressed out all of the air pockets in the bread. In any case...

This is a recipe for delicious Italian bread that may or may not produce ciabatta.

The day before, make the poolish:

11.25 oz. bread flour
12 oz. water, at room temperature
0.03 oz. instant yeast

Combine the ingredients until the flour is hydrated. It should look like thick pancake batter. Lumps are OK.

Loosely cover and let ferment for 3 - 4 hours at room temperature until bubbly.

Refrigerate overnight.

Remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before you want to begin making the bread.

13.5 oz. unbleached bread flour
0.44 oz. salt
0.17 oz. instant yeast

Stir together the ingredients in the mixer bowl. Add:

22.75 oz. poolish (should be all of what you made, above)
3 oz. water at room temperature (may take as many as 6 oz.)

Mix with the paddle attachment until a good ball of dough forms, then switch the to the dough hook. Knead for 7 minutes.

Divide the dough in half. I got two 1 lb. 3.5 oz. loaves. Form into a rough rectangle. Let rest for 2 minutes.

Grab the short sides of the rectangle and pull so the long side of the rectangle is double its previous length. Then fold the ends into overlapping thirds - letterfold. Sprinkle the top with flour, mist with oil, then cover loosely with plastic. Let rest for 30 minutes.
Flip the dough over, rotate 90°, the repeat the stretch and fold, stretching the opposite way you did before. Sprinkle the top with flour, mist with oil, then cover loosely with plastic. Let ferment and rise for 90 minutes.

Flip the dough over, rotate 90°, the repeat the stretch and fold, again. Place the two loaves next to each other, separated by a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle the top with flour, mist with oil, then cover loosely with plastic. Let ferment and rise for 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Put a small roasting pan or other suitable steam pan in a rack below the rack where you'll be baking the bread.

Heat a kettle of water. You'll need about a cup of boiling water.

Dust a half sheet pan with cornmeal. Carefully lift each loaf and place it on the sheet pan. A peel or very large spatula dusted with cornmeal helps.

Stretch the dough, if necessary, so the loaf is 9 - 12 inches long.

Put the sheet pan of bread in the oven. Pour about a cup of hot water in the steam pan. Be careful, as hot water may splash out.

Close the oven door and bake for 2 minutes at 500°F. Then lower the heat to 450°F and bake for 8 more minutes.

Rotate the sheet pan 180° and bake for 5 to 10 more minutes, or until the temperature of the center of the bread reaches 205°F.
This recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, pp. 136-139, which has significantly more detailed instructions on how to make this bread, and many others. If you follow the directions correctly, I'm pretty confident the result will be ciabatta, as I've had very good luck with the other recipes.

Great with spicy vegetarian chili!
     
1 1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 oz. butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
1 c. buttermilk (or substitute regular milk)

3 tbsp. vegetable oil (such as canola)

Preheat oven and an oven-proof sauté pan to 400°F.

Combine the dry ingredients (first 6) in a large bowl. Add egg, buttermilk, melted butter, stirring until dry ingredients are moistened.

When pan is hot, remove from the oven, add the oil, and coat the pan. Add the batter, return to the oven, and bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

When done, with any luck you can just flip the sauté pan over and the cornbread will happily come out in once piece. Let cool on a wire rack.

I usually cut it into 8 serving pie-shaped pieces, but in retrospect when serving with vegetarian chili, it would make more sense to cut it in 6 pieces since that's the number of servings of chili the recipe makes.

Some care is needed when vacuum sealing unfrozen cornbread. I found that 15 seconds (0.08 MPa) works to avoid making a cornbread pancake. In any case, it freezes well - even just in a ziplock bag.

This recipe is a combination of this recipe and this recipe.

I liked the wheat and oat bread recipe so much in loaf bread and dinner rolls I decided to try making it into two other form factors: English muffins and hamburger buns!

Prepare a recipe of the wheat and oat bread dough up to the first proofing stage.
Divide the dough into 6 3.0 oz. portions for hamburger buns and 6 2.8 oz. portions for English muffins. Form the dough into boules (balls) then flatten them slightly (English muffins, in particular) to encourage the proper shape.

For hamburger buns, put the dough directly on a silpat on a half sheet baking pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.
For English muffins, put a sheet of parchment paper on a half sheet baking pan, spritz with spray oil, sprinkle corn meal on the parchment, place the dough balls on the parchment, a few inches apart, then sprinkle the tops with more cornmeal. Cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof for 90 minutes.

Preheat a griddle to 350°F. Also preheat the oven to 350°F.

Spritz the grill with oil. Transfer the balls of English muffin dough to the griddle, at least an inch apart. Cook for 5 to 8 minutes, flip, and cook the other side for 5 to 8 minutes. You may need to lightly flatten the muffins so they're more English muffin shape as they cook.
Remove the parchment from the sheet pan and put the partially cooked English muffins on the sheet pan and bake for 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the English muffins from the baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack.
Increase the oven temperature to 400°F.

For hamburger buns, brush the tops of the buns with an egg wash, then sprinkle sesame seeds on top.
Bake to 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the buns from the baking sheet, and cool on a wire rack.

This is one of my favorite whole-ish wheat bread recipes. It's a good sandwich, toast, or French toast bread. It's surprisingly soft because of the oats and the preparation using a soaker and poolish, too.

There's a lot of preparation involved, but it's worth it. The recipe is for two 1 lb. loaves since there's so much preparation involved it makes sense to make an extra loaf and freeze it. You need to start preparing a day before baking!

Soaker

4.25 oz. oats, coarsely ground
6.0 oz. water @ 70°F

Use regular (not instant or quick) oats. I ground them for about 30 seconds in the food processor until coarsely ground. Add the water in a small bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature until the next day.

Poolish

6.75 oz. whole wheat flour
0.028 oz. instant yeast
6.0 oz. water @ 70°F

Mix together the yeast, water, and whole wheat flour until a paste forms and all of the flour is hydrated, but not longer. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours. Then put into the refrigerator overnight.

Dough

6.0 oz. unbleached bread flour
3.0 oz. whole wheat flour
0.33 oz. salt
0.11 oz. instant yeast
1.5 oz. honey
0.5 oz. vegetable oil
1 egg lightly beaten

Remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before preparing the dough.

In the mixer bowl combine the flour, salt, and yeast. Add the poolish, soaker, honey, oil, and egg. Mix at low speed with the paddle attachment for 1 minute or until dough forms. Adjust consistency adding more water or flour.

Switch the mixer to the the dough hook and knead for 8 to 10 minutes. Form the dough into a ball.

Lightly oil a bowl and a ball of dough to the bowl and roll to coat the dough lightly with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 2 hours until it doubles in size.


Punch down the dough and divide into 2 1-pound balls of dough. You could just divide the dough in half, though I made two 1-pound loaves and two 1.7 oz. dinner rolls, instead.

Lightly grease two loaf pans and place the dough balls into the pans. Spritz with oil, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and let proof for 90 minutes at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 350°F. When hot, add the loaf pans cook for 30 minutes, rotate the loaf pans and cook 15 to 30 minutes longer, until the center of the loaf reaches 190°F. Dinner rolls cook in about 20 minutes.

Remove from the loaf pans and cool on a rack for 1 to 2 hours before slicing.



This recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, from the Whole Wheat Bread recipe pp. 270-272. The book has considerably more details on the preparation. This is also the same recipe as my whole wheat and oat dinner rolls, but that recipe is scaled to a different quantity.