Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Pane con orzo e segale

I made this bread in two variations: using rolled oat flakes, and oat flour. I think I prefer the first.. I'll try to write down the recipes here, although I made them 'by eye' (I tried to measure what I was adding the second time, for the oat flour version, but it's always hard to keep exact track. So please forgive me if the doses are not super precise.. in any case, I don't think it can come out bad, considering I made it twice in this inaccurate way and it was good every time).
These recipes are dedicated to Amit!

Pane integrale con orzo e segale (Oat and rye whole bread)
2 cups lukewarm water
2 tsp yeast + 1 tsp sugar
2 cups oat flour
2 cups rye flour
2 cups whole weat flour
~1 tbsp salt
Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add 1 tsp sugar, mix and let rest for ~5 min. Add the flours to the water/yeast mixture, mixing after every addition. Start working it with your hands when possible. Add salt. Knead the dough for ~7-10 minutes, adding whole weat flour if it's too sticky. This dough will not become as elastic as a regular white bread dough, because none of the flours you've added contain a high lever of gluten (which is what makes the dough elastic). So, don't worry about it.. Let the dough rest for at least one hour (better two), then divide it in two or three shapes (depending on how big you want them) and put them on your baking pan. I wouldn't recommend cutting the dough with deep incisions ob the surface (like you can do with the regular bread), because this dough isn't elastic and the cuts will look bad on it (found out by experience...).
Let the loaves rest for another hour, then bake at 400 F for ~30 minutes. To have a more crunchy crust, leave a pot with water inside the oven while you cook the bread. Once cooked, remove the bread from the baking pan and put it to cool down on a rack.

Variazione con fiocchi di orzo (Variation with rolled oat flakes)
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp yeast + 1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oat and hot water to cover them
2 cups rye flour
~3 cups wheat flour
The dough and the procedure are very similar to the ones above. The difference is that instead of oat flour, you use oat flakes. Place the flakes in a bowl and cover them with how water. Let this mixture rest for ~15 min. Dissolve the yeast in water and add sugar as described above. Add the soaked oat flakes and all the flours and proceed as described above. You may need more or less wheat flour (depending on the brand, they can adsorb more or less water). This dough seemed to be more elastic, maybe because there was more wheat flour. As before, knead, wait, divide into shapes. If you want, in this case, you can make some not too deep incisions on the surface of this dough (it's elastic enough for them). Bake and cool down as described above.

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