Skip to main content

From A Year in Bread : Honey Wheatberry


I have decided to skip August in my journey through a year in bread and go straight to September. So I zip past the quick breads made with baking powder and what not, and land in the midst of whole grain breads. I picked Beth's Honey Wheatberry bread - I would claim that would have been my choice anyway but the fact is that was the only one I had all the ingredients for.

Beth made this bread to recreate the magic of Oroweat Honey Wheat Berry Bread. But there's a catch : the Oroweat bread was made with cracked wheat not wheatberries. So Bombay Foodie's bread is made with cracked wheat too.

Beth's original recipe is for two large loaves. What follows is 1/3rd of this original, enough for my shorter loaf. Pour 2/3 cup boiling water over 1/4 cup cracked wheat. Let rest for an hour for the wheat to fluff up and soften. To this, add 1/4 cup milk, 1/3 cup whole wheat flour and a tsp of yeast. Mix and set aside for 15-20 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble up. Add a tbsp each of butter and honey, then add enough plain flour to form a dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes, then sprinkle a tsp of salt and knead until the dough is smooth. I always need to add more flour at this stage to keep the dough from sticking.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. I use straight plastic containers so it's easy to see when the doubling happens. Once the rise in done, shape the dough into a loaf, put it in a greased loaf pan and let rise again until doubled.

In the meantime, preheat oven to 175C. Bake bread for 45 minutes or until brown. If you want perfect slices for sandwiches, this needs to cool for at least an hour. If not, just tear chunks of warm bread and you will love it with butter.
Labels:

Comments

bluespriite said…
Most impressed.. baking bread and that too in this infernal heat (assuming you do live in Mumbai) is quite the work of champions. Though makes me want to try it.
June 17, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Bombay Foodie said…
bluespriite - I do live in Mumbai. But I bake all my bread, since I really can't stand the supermarket quality.
June 17, 2009 at 9:15 PM
Pinky said…
Hi Simran

Nice bread , even i hav jst started baking , & learning the tricks.is dalia n broken wheat the same? & do u have a recipe for a simple white loaf which u hav tried & which has come good coz i had tried & it was a disaster.
June 17, 2009 at 11:49 PM
Bombay Foodie said…
Pinky - Dalia and broken wheat are the same.

I've tried a simple white loaf in March as part of my "A Year in Bread" challenge. Here's the link: http://foodiezone.blogspot.com/2009/03/from-year-in-bread-white-sandwich-loaf.html
June 18, 2009 at 12:01 AM
pinky said…
Hi Simran

I did try out the white bread loaf today & it came out icely. my earlier white bread were disasters.This had a nice crust & a very soft texture inside. jst one thing i was not able to cut into nice slices , how u do u slice the bread?
June 18, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Bharti said…
What a lovely loaf. tearing it apart sounds good.
June 19, 2009 at 8:48 AM
Bergamot said…
The bread looks just great.
June 20, 2009 at 8:13 PM
CurryLeaf said…
Wow.I was wondering how you got wheatberries.That was the only reason I avoided it.Cracked wheat bread is great.
June 22, 2009 at 5:37 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kadhi Chawal

I just can't think of what to write today. That's what my absolute favorite meal does to me, I just want to stop talking and dig right in. So I won't ramble and go straight on the recipe for kadhi. First, make the pakoras that would go in the kadhi. Slice an onion lengthwise. Make a batter with 1/2 cup chickpea flour (besan), salt, red chilli powder and water. Dip onions in this batter and deep fry until crisp. Keep aside. Now blend 1 cup yogurt and 1/3 cup besan into a paste. Add 3-4 cups water to make a very thin blend. Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan. Add a tsp each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, ajwain (carom seeds) and methre (fenugreek seeds). Let splutter for a few seconds. Now add a large onion, cut lengthwise into thin slices and cook until browned lightly. Pour in the yogurt/besan mix and add 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for at least half an hour. You have to stir this occasio...
17 comments
Read more

Bibimbap

This is the reason I love taking part in Taste & Create . There is so much new to learn and try when you meet new partners. This month, I am visiting Kitschow in Vancouver for a course in Asian cooking. She also tries a lot of other cuisines, but wok is her favorite way to cook. I first thought I'd find very little vegetarian choice at her place. But as luck would have it, she has recently done a lot of vegetarian cooking and eating for lent and I had a virtual rainbow to pick from. Everything looked so delicious it was tough to pick one. I picked the one with the cutest name : Bibimbap . Bibimbap is a Korean rice, usually topped with beef and vegetables but Kitschow made a vegan version for Lent. The recipe has three parts. First you cook the rice. Then, when it's almost done but is still moist, you arrange vegetables on top so it looks colorful and pretty. For the vegan version, Kitschow just put raw veggies there and let them cook in the steam. But I liked the i...
13 comments
Read more

Dukkah

Talk about myths busted. I went to Dubai planning to buy zat'ar, the fragrant herb and spice mix. And Dukkah, the interesting blend of nuts and spices. Not sumac, because I still have a pack left in my fridge. So zat'ar was easy - every Carrefour supermarket had that one. But no one had dukkah and I was like, how can they not have dukkah? It's a middle eastern thing, right! But well, they don't sell dukkah in Dubai, so I came back and armed with recipes from 10-odd blogs (all roughly the same), I set to make my own. The key to making dukkah is : line up all your ingredients, toast each of them separately in a heavy non-stick pan till they are fragrant and lightly roasted, then put everything in a blender and grind coarsely. This is your dukkah. Now dip your bread in olive oil, then dip it in dukkah and indulge. A final word of warning: this can be highly addictive. And finally, my list of ingredients: 1/4 cup almonds 2 tbsp coriander seeds 1 1/2 tbsp sesame...
14 comments
Read more