I’d never thought of Frog Commissary Cookbook as a bread book. I don’t know why, as I should have realized that they would have had some different recipes. Well, here’s one that’s worth making. I have avoided most multi-grain breads for a long time. I always thought of them as being dense, heavy and difficult to chew and eat. Sort of like shoe leather. This one is as unlike my preconception as possible. The blurb in the book says that they started out to make “a lighter, moister whole grain in contrast to the heavier varieties commonly found.” Ah Ha! I thought. I was right. But so are they.
The book says not to let the second rise go over 20 minutes, as the yeast and the grains seem to interact to make to produce a powerful rise. This means to have the oven ready to go about halfway through final rise.
Recipe
| Ingredient | US | Metric | |
| Bulgur Wheat | 1/3 cup | 80 ml | |
| Oats | 3/4 cup | 180 ml | Old fashioned oats |
| Brown sugar | 1/4 cup | 60 ml | |
| Shortening | 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | |
| Salt | 2 tsp | 10 ml | |
| Boiling water | 1 cup | 240 ml | |
| Milk | 3/4 cup | 180 ml | |
| Dry yeast | 1/2 ounce | 15 grams | 2 packets |
| Sesame seeds | 1/4 cup | 60 ml | Toasted |
| Poppy seeds | 2 Tbsp | 30 ml | |
| Whole wheat flour | 3 1/2 oz | 100 grams | |
| Bread Flour | 12 oz | 340 grams | |
| egg white | 1 | ||
| Poppy seeds | 1 tsp | 5 ml | |
| Sesame seeds | 1 tsp | 5 ml |
Note: I had to add what amounts to 2 ounces of water to my dough to make it work properly. You may or may not have to add water depending on the moisture content of your bulgur and oats.
Method
1. Combine the bulgur, oats, brown sugar, shortening and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour the boiling water over them, stir once or twice and let cool to room temperature.
2. Heat the milk until a light skin forms. This is the scalding temperature. Let cool until lukewarm.
3. Pour the cooled milk into a bowl and sprinkle the yeast over it. Let it soften for a minute or two, then stir to dissolve the yeast.
4. Add the grain mixture, the sesame and poppy seeds (the larger amounts), whole wheat flour and bread flour.
5. Knead by hand for 10 minutes or using a stand mixer for 3 minutes. The dough will be soft.
6. Put in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise 30-40 minutes, until doubled in bulk.
7. Remove the dough from the bowl and gently knead it for a few seconds to degas it.
8. Roll the dough into an 8 X 10 inch / 20 x 25 cm rectangle, press out any air bubbles and roll up the dough, starting from one of the shorter sides.
9. Put the dough in a greased 9 X 5 X 3 inch / 22 X 12 X 7 cm loaf pan.
10. Heat oven to 350F / 175C.
11. Cover the dough and let it rise for 20 minutes.
12. Brush the dough with the egg white and sprinkle on the poppy and sesame seeds.
13. Bake for 45-55 minutes, to an internal temperature of 190 – 200F / 88 – 93C.
14. Immediately remove from pan and cool on a rack.
My pictures show me making a triple amount of this recipe. Please don’t think you’ll have this much dough making the normal recipe. In particular, pictures 15 through 19 show the gymnastics I had to go through to make this much dough in my mixer. You won’t have anything like this with a single batch of dough.
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