I did my little "cheating" step with my bread machine. I add all ingredients in the correct order needed when using a bread machine (at least as far as my bread machine instructions say to do): all liquids first, then all dry, and keep salt faaaar away from the yeast (I dissolve it in the liquids, and add yeast last of all, in a little hole in the flour mound). Then I set it on the dough cycle, forget about it for an hour and a half and go do other stuff. When the cycle ends, I turn the dough out onto a heavily-floured counter where, using a dough scraper, I incorporate just enough flour for the dough to be kneadable. This, because after the dough cycle has completed in the machine the dough comes out sort of "pourable" and sticky, so you couldn't possibly knead it unless you want your fingers to become part of the dough itself. After incorporating 'just enough' flour and kneading then I give it whatever shape I want or set it in the corresponding pan for its 2nd rising, usually for about an hour. Oh, and as for the yeast that I use, I started this bread machine dough shortcut with quick-rise but have tried regular active dry yeast on a lot of recipes and it works fine. (This vegan bread was made with regular active dry). It seems that 1 1/2 hr gives it enough time to rise optimally. It helps to measure the temp of the water to make sure it's around 105 - 110F to "wake up" the yeast without scorching it. I've also tried blooming the yeast first and adding it to the liquid ingredients, then adding the salt at the end in the flour. That works well in this bread machine shortcut, too. I've also made ciabatta bread using this method adding the 'biga' starter first, salt last. Most commonly I use this short-cut method to make my French bread, which I make just about every other weekend.
OK back to the vegan bread. I sprinkled rolled oats and flaxseed on it before the 2nd rise in the pan. I was hoping that as the dough rose these tidbits would sort of 'encrust' themselves in the dough. After baking, however, the flaxseed came right off. Lesson learned: flaxseeds don't stick. Ironic, seeing how according to many a vegan cooking site ground flaxseed mixed with a little water provides one of many alternatives for an egg-like binder in vegan cooking (I haven't tried this yet myself). So ground flaxseed? Apparently gooey after wet. Whole flaxseeds? Not so much.
I let it rise in the loaf pan for 1 hour and came back to a dough that was starting to spill over the edges of the pan hahaha! So at least in my kitchen, 50 min. may be enough next time. Or maybe even less than that. Or get a bigger loaf pan haha! Then when I took it out of the draft-free place where I had it rising - the microwave (not running) - it sort of sank a little in the center. It was so risen.
If you don't like a rich molasses flavor, you might want to tone that ingredient down. Personally I really enjoyed it. Although the recipe does call for what seems like a lot of molasses, it makes the bread a little sweet and very hearty. Mmmmmm.
I was also really happy with its texture. For a whole wheat bread, it's very nice and delicate. I'd watch what I put between 2 slices of it when making a sandwich. If really thick stuff is used, the bread might flatten more and more with every bite. A nice French bread is always better for those situations anyway, don't you think?
Great toasted with some Smart Balance light (vegan) spread. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment