I get a kick out of trying new types of flours and grains in my bread baking. I frequently shop on-line at King Arthur Flour and like to try new and different products when I can. I’ve read many recipes on The Fresh Loaf using soakers and have tried a few recipes from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Bread book with mixed results. I decided the other day to try my own formula using a multi grain soaker from my baking supply bin and also used some of my existing refreshed sourdough starter mixed with some rye, whole wheat and first clear flours. The results were surprisingly good considering I had no idea what to expect. The final bread had a great nutty sour flavor with a nice thick crust and moist crumb.
Ingredients
Soaker
2 oz. Rolled Oats
2 oz. Malted Rye Berries
2 oz. Barley Flakes
1 oz. English Malted Wheat Flakes
1 1/2 Cups Boiling Water
Final Dough
15 oz. White Starter recently refreshed
3.5 oz. Whole Wheat Flour
3.5 oz. Medium Rye Flour
4 oz. First Clear Flour (you can substitute bread flour or High Gluten Flour)
2.5 Tsp. Salt
6 oz. Water, 90 degrees F.
Directions
Mix all ingredients for soaker in a bowl and add boiling water. Let it sit for 2-3 hours covered until the grains are soft.
After 2-3 hours add the soaked grains along with the remaining liquid in your mixing bowl and add the flours, salt and remaining water and mix for 2 minutes. The dough should come together in a shaggy mess and should be relatively moist at this point. Let it rest for 5 minutes and mix for 4 minutes more on medium low-speed.
Remove dough from mixing bowl to work surface and do a stretch and fold. You may need to wet or oil your hands and the work surface since the dough will still be very sticky at this point. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest uncovered for 10 minutes. Let the dough rest uncovered for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes do another stretch and fold and cover the dough with a moist lint free towel or plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Do another stretch and fold two more times letting the dough rest 10 minutes each time. After the last stretch and fold put the dough into an oiled bowl and cover it tightly.
Let the dough sit in your bowl for 2 hours at room temperature. It should only rise slightly at this point. After the 2 hours are up put in your refrigerator for at least 12 hours or up to 3 days.
When ready to bake the bread take your bowl out of the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for around 2 hours. After 2 hours shape the dough as desired being careful not to handle the dough too roughly so you don’t de-gas it.
Place it in your bowl, banneton or shape into baguettes.
Let it sit at room temperature for 2 hours covered with oiled plastic wrap or a moist cloth.
Pre-heat oven with baking stone (I use one on bottom and one on top shelf of my oven), to 500 degrees F.
Slash loaves as desired and place empty pan in bottom shelf of oven.
Pour 1 cup of very hot water into pan and place loaves into oven.
Lower oven to 450 Degrees and bake for 25 – 35 minutes until bread is golden brown and internal temperature reaches 200 degrees.
Shut the oven off and leave the bread inside with the door slightly open for 10 minutes. This will help dry the loaves out and keep the crust crunchy.
Let cool on cooling rack and enjoy!
This post has been submitted to the Yeast Spotting Site here: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/category/yeastspotting
mookielovesbread 
Hi Ian,
I Just pulled two loaves of your Multi-Grain Sourdough out of the oven and my oh my do they smell and look good. I must say, this was the wettest dough I’ve ever worked with. By the looks of your slash marks, I think my dough was wetter than yours? Mine didn’t separtate so well, but perhaps that’s because I did put them in loaf pans?? I didn’t think they’d hold up as free standing loaves. But I’m looking forward to slicing into them. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks again for your recipes!
— Russ
Russ, thanks for the feedback. the next time if you want to make them as free standing loaves use a cloth covered basket (banneton) and flour it so the dough won’t stick. You can do a few extra stretch and folds and rests to develop the gluten a little more thorougly. i look forward to hearing how they come out of the oven!
It’s also possible that the flour you used didn’t absorb as much liquid so if you think the dough was too wet, just cut back on the water a little. Sometimes i will only add half the water to the starter, add the flours and then add the water as needed.
Hi Ian,
The bread turned out excellent. Perhaps the reason for the hydration issue is I didn’t have all your grains in my cupboard, but essentially did the same as you, used what I had, which was: rolled oats, quinoa, rye oats and millet. I also didn’t soak the rolled oats which might have been the culprit. But the crumb and flavor was excellent. The recipe is a keeper for sure and I’m already planning new grains to try. The quinoa on the crust was a bit crunchy when fresh out of the oven, but this morning as toast it was fine.
Tell me about getting the risen dough out of the banneton without deflating it. I’ve never used one. Oh, and I also printed out your corn flour bread recipe and plan on trying it. Here in San Diego we have masa, which is a fine corn flour used in making tamales. Do you think that would work?
— Russ
Hi Russ,
I’m glad to hear your attempt came out good. As far as using a banneton, you can use the ones made out of wicker/cane which you can find on-line at Amazon for a reasonable price or you can find some baskets that also have a cloth cover. For the wicker version you need to add some flour to the basket and rub it in. I usually just use all purpose flour, but I have been told that 50% rice flour with AP is the way to go. I usually also make sure the dough is floured around the sides and on the bottom so it won’t stick.
In regards to the corn flour, I used a version from KAF which is supposed to be better than using teh masa. I would certainly give the masa a try and I’m sure it will come out just fine. Let me know how it ends up. Just make sure you don’t use cornmeal as I think that will be too gritty.
Regards,
ian
I just posted some pictures of my effort at your Multi-Grain Sourdough on my Facebook food page: https://www.facebook.com/seducedbyfood?ref=tn_tnmn
— Russ
I just posted some pictures of my effort at your Multi-Grain Sourdough on my Facebook food page: http://www.facebook.com/seducedbyfood?ref=tn_tnmn
— Russ
Russ, your bread looks like it turned out awesome. Your crumb is nice and open and moist. I am so happy you enjoyed my recipe and were able to adapt it with your own ingredients. Thanks again for the feedback and visiting my blog.
Ian