Three Whole-Wheat Breads with Yeasted Pre-Ferments

As part of the Feburary Challenge, three whole-wheat breads made with yeasted pre-ferments were included: Whole-Wheat Bread, Whole-Wheat Bread with Hazelnuts and Currants, and Whole-Wheat Bread with a Multigrain Soaker. I made each of these recipes once making both loaves and rolls. For the straight whole-wheat and for the hazelnut and raisin bread, I made fendus; for the multigrain, a made a oval loaf.

The first picture is the straight whole-wheat, a fendu. The second shows the hazelnut and raisin loaf sliced. The third are some of the rolls I made with the multigrain loaf.

I made two substitutions in the loaves. For the hazelnut and raisin loaf, I substituted dried cranberries for the raisins. This is a substitution I often make and have never run into any problems doing this. And this was again true with this whole-wheat loaf. In the multigrain loaf, the recipe calls for a soaker using cornmeal, millet, oats, and cracked wheat. I was out of cracked wheat so I substituted bulger wheat. I realize this is a bit of a stretch, but seem to be in the spirit of things. And it worked out very nicely. The recipe calls for at least a four-hour soak. I soaked the grains overnight, about 12 hours. A little extra water was need (20 grams), perhaps because of the longer soak.

Each of the loaves was straighforward to make. All baked a little quicker than the recipe indicated. All were solid if unexciting recipes. Of the three, I liked the multigrain best, but I tend to prefer mutigrain breads so this wasn't a surprise. The hazelnuts were an interesting addition. I think I toasted them a bit too long (although I used the shorted time for the range specified by Hamelman). This wasn't a major problem, but something to remember for the future.

All were good loaves, but none are loaves that I'm likely to repeat soon.