Issue 114 bread recipies

[rdominelli]

Hi all
On page 63 of 114 there are a few recipes which all for Dry Cereal Mix. I am sure I will feel like an idiot when I hear the answer to this but can someone let me know what this actually is?

Thanks again for a great magazine

Rich in NY

[Shamrock1121]

I don't subscribe to any magazines, so I'll give you my intrepretation without a magazine and you see if it makes any sense.

A "dry cereal mix" can be a multi-grain mixture that looks like chopped grain that is used for stick-to-your-ribs cooked cereal. You can find it in mixture like 5-grain, 7-grain, 11-grain. Any combination will usually work well.

For instance - Bob's Red Mill 7-Grain Hot Cereal Mixture contains wheat, rye, triticale, oats, oat bran, barley, rice and flaxseed.

I make my own mixtures at home with a flaker mill on the coarse setting. Sometimes these mixtures can contain flakes as well as coarsely chopped grain.

I add 1/3 c. to 1/2 c. of the mixture to a bread recipe. It gives the bread a little "tooth" from the wholegrain chunks. We like the bits in the bread.

Some recipes will have you soak the mixture in hot water to soften it, cool the mixture, before adding it to the dough. Make sure you don't skip the cooling (probably no warmer than 120°F). The hot mixture would kill your yeast.

I generally add the dry cereal (no soak). You just need to wait until the end of the kneading process to add it - AFTER the gluten has been developed in the dough. Because these mixtures contain coarsely chopped cereal, the sharp edges can cut the gluten strands that were developed in the dough after kneading. If you add them early, you'll cut the gluten strands and you'll end up with a short loaf.

Hope that's what the magazine means.

-Karen

[rdominelli]

Thank you very much. Will give it a shot.