Posted: 16 November 2018 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, cooking, food, recipes, whole grains |
These are too thin to be what we in the US think of as biscuits and they’re shaped more like cookies because they’re thin. You could roll the dough thicker but you’ll need to adjust the baking time.
Normally bran adds a lot of bitterness to a recipe. To solve this problem I discovered that rinsing it gets rid of most if not all of its bitterness. The boiling is for softening the bran.
For the rinsing, if you’re not sure if your strainer is fine enough, collect the first drainage into a glass container and examine it for bran. The strainer doesn’t need to be as fine as you might think because the bran swells from the soaking. I use one sold at my grocery store made by Good Cook; they come in 3 sizes and I use the middle one. It has a plastic rim and handle. Don’t do the straining method by using the handle; hold it by the rim or the handle will break. The first drainage from the soaking will be very cloudy and brown. The ones after that are not as brown but still slightly cloudy.
- 80 grams dry bran flakes, soaked, rinsed several times, and briefly boiled
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter or oil
- 3 or 4 parts oat flour, masa, or other non-wheat flour
- 1 part vital wheat gluten
Optional:
- 2 tablespoons malt, barley or rye, or a teaspoon of sugar
- 20 grams molasses
- 2 tablespoons powdered milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Soak the wheat bran in a pot in hot tap water for at least 10 minutes. Pour into a wire mesh strainer and shake out excess water by bringing strainer up to chest level then quickly lowering it and abruptly stopping at sink/waist level. Repeat until very little water comes out, about 10 times. Use care because as it loses the water it can bounce in the strainer. Rinse at least twice in hot tap water by putting it back in the pot and adding hot water and straining again.
Bring rinsed wheat bran to a boil, then drain into strainer, and rinse with cold water. Watch it carefully when bringing it to a boil because there is still starch and protein in it and it creates a foam which will boil over.
Put salt and oil (and optional molasses, malt, powdered milk, and vanilla) in mixer and mix. Add bran and mix well.
Stop mixer and add 3 (or 4) tablespoons of oat flour (or masa, etc.), then 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten. Start mixer again after adding each tablespoon. Keep adding flour and vital wheat gluten as above, 1 tablespoon at a time. When dough cleans the side of the bowl and sticks to the paddle add another 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour and mix well. Dough will be sticky but will lose most of its stickiness after the rest. Err on the side of the dough being sticky.
Put dough into a quart yogurt container (grease or butter it first) with the lid or wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 2 hours, or overnight or a few days in the fridge.
Roll out to 1/4″ and cut into cookies with biscuit cutter or rectangles with a pizza cutter. I used a pizza cutter since then I don’t need to try and make more biscuits with the scraps; all of the pieces go into the oven after cutting.
Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, turn over, bake another 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
Lately I’ve been baking them at 400 for 15 minutes, and I’ve been baking them directly on a pizza stone, after the oven has been preheated for a long time so that the stone is hot. This gives them a nice brown bottom.
You may be wondering why there isn’t a liquid ingredient; that’s provided by the water retained by the wheat bran. So you don’t want to press it with a spoon to extract the maximum amount of water, just do the dropping thing, at least 10 times, until it’s mostly gone and you get some droplets.
I also don’t use baking powder since wheat bran tends to kill any rising ability of the dough. But since I haven’t tried using it I don’t know if they would puff up with it.
I finally weighed the flour before and after. I also proportioned the flour so that it’s 4 parts flour and 1 part gluten, by weight, giving a total of 5 parts. I started with 250 grams of barley flour, dividing that by 5 gave me 50 so I added 50 grams of gluten for a total mixed flour weight of 300 grams. I then spooned it into the wheat bran and stopped doing that when it started sticking to the paddle and cleared the sides of the bowl. I had used 213 grams of the barley flour and gluten mixture, in other words I had 87 grams of it left over. But my above math is a bit wonky since it’s not 1/5 of 300. According to my calculator 50 grams of 300 is 16.65%. According to google a high gluten bread (wheat) flour is 13% so I made something that’s a bit stronger than that, which is probably good considering all of the bran that’s in it. The dough is resting at the moment and we’ll see how it comes out.
With sorghum flour it was 112 grams of flour and gluten mixture left over, but I also upped the butter to 90 grams. As before, 250 grams of flour (sorghum) and 50 grams of vital wheat gluten.
The biscuits made with sorghum flour and gluten were not a success. They have a sort of sandy texture. With the oat flour they have a cohesiveness and smooth texture that the biscuits made with the sorghum flour lack. Although the flavor was good. In the future I’ll combine the sorghum flour with oat or barley flour, 50/50 say, for a total of 250 grams, and then add the 50 grams of gluten. Although I’ve never used it, I suspect that sweet rice flour would also work well in place of the oat or barley flour.
Posted: 11 December 2015 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, cooking, food, food drying, masa harina, recipes |
This recipe is sort of an offshoot of this pumpkin bread pudding recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/pumpkin-bread-pudding-recipe
I was thinking of making it again but I wasn’t sure if I had enough bread; I’ve been experimenting with different grains making gluten free quick breads (made with baking powder, not yeast). Then it occurred to me to just make the Libby’s pumpkin pie filling and instead of using bread cubes use quick oats. Quick oats are also rolled oats; they haven’t been pre-cooked or anything, just oat grains cut up before they’re rolled so that they’re smaller and cook more quickly.
Special equipment: I’m doing the recipe by weight so you’ll need a kitchen scale. I’m also not specifying a loaf or bundt pan of any particular size so you’ll determine if the fruitcake is done by using a digital thermometer; 190 degrees F. You can figure out how much batter you’ll need by using a measuring cup and filling a loaf pan with water. Mine is a little less than 6 cups capacity.
The basic idea is to make the pumpkin pie filling following the recipe on the can of plain pumpkin (with some tweaks which we’ll get to in a sec), add some quick oats, let it rest overnight, add dried fruits and nuts that have been soaking in liqueur, rum, brandy, etc., and then bake.
For the pumpkin pie pie filling two changes are made. One is to replace some of the evaporated milk with an egg. If you use the single pie can of plain pumpkin you’ll take out 50 grams of evaporated milk. Save it or freeze it, or in my case, just drink it. Replace that evaporated milk with an additional egg; a large egg weights very close to 50 grams. The other change is to crank up the spices using the amounts from the King Arthur Flour recipe; double the ginger, add some nutmeg, and add some vanilla. So the updated spice quantities are
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla
Other than changing the eggs from 2 to 3 and decreasing the evaporated milk by 50 grams and the above spice quantities the recipe is the same as what’s on the can. (Double these for the 2 pie can of pumpkin pie.)
After you make the pumpkin pie filling you weigh it, then divide its weight by 4, and add that amount of quick rolled oats. For example, the first one I made I used the large 2 pie can and the weight of the filling was 1,980 grams so for that I’d use 495 grams of quick rolled oats. If you use the 2 pie can I’d recommend dividing it in half unless your mixing bowl is very large; oats are light and 495 grams of oats is a lot. That means 2 containers or bowls with 990 grams of pie filling in them and 248 grams of quick oats for each. For a single pie can of plain pumpkin the numbers were slightly different. A good spatula with a sharp edge is handy for scraping out the bowls and getting every last bit.
After mixing in the oats cover the bowl with plastic wrap or whatever and put it in the fridge for an overnight rest. If you remember to, stir it every so often.
The next day drain an appropriate quantity of the soaked dried fruits and nuts. Grease and paper the loaf pan. After the final greasing sprinkle it with flour. Let the fruits and nuts drain while you’re working on the loaf pan. Then mix the fruits and nuts with the pie filling and spoon it into the loaf pan. Since there isn’t any baking powder in this recipe it won’t rise in the oven. This means that you can fill the loaf pan right up to the top edge. The “appropriate quantity” of soaked dried fruits and nuts is up to you. For example, use half as much dried fruits and nuts as batter. For my loaf pan of about 6 cups I could use 4 cups of batter and 2 cups of dried fruits and nuts. I don’t pack the fruit into the measuring cup so the spaces between it give me some leeway. (To be honest I’ve been lax and not measuring how much dried fruit and nuts I’m adding.) If there isn’t enough batter then it won’t hold together so that’s the main concern; beyond that it’s a matter of preference.
I’ve been baking it at 325 degrees F because it takes longer than a regular cake to bake and at 350 the top is a bit too dark. And at 325 it takes even longer. At least an hour and 45 minutes, the last one took 2 hours. So set your timer and when it goes off take it out and insert the digital thermometer and make sure it’s 190 degrees internally. If not, back it goes for another 15 minutes. For the last 15 minutes you can turn the oven up to 350 to get the top browner if you’d like.
The end result is very dense and heavy, not like your usual fruitcake. But in my opinion it’s much better than the usual fruitcake. And because it’s so dense I would not do the usual fruitcake thing of brushing it with rum or brandy because you’d probably end up with a sticky and gooey mess.
For soaking the dried fruits I’ve been using liqueur. For liqueur choices the sky’s the limit. I’ve been soaking each fruit in a different liqueur. Cassis is one of my favorites; it’s made from currants. My next batch will use walnuts that have been soaking in Frangelico, which is made with hazelnuts. Previously the walnuts weren’t soaked. If you chop the dried fruit to be at most pea sized it takes about 3 days to plump up. But longer is better.
Letting the batter rest overnight is important so that the oats fully soak up as much as they can. You may be able to use regular oats instead of quick oats, I’ve only been using quick oats.
You don’t have to stick with oats. I made some with a 50/50 combination of teff flour and buckwheat flour. It came out very dark and tasted great. For the latest one I used corn tortilla flour (masa). When used in sweet recipes the sugar neutralizes the strong corn tortilla flavor of the masa and it ends up tasting quite nice, and different, but in a good way. When experimenting with alternatives to oats you’ll need to be careful about how much you use; some will need more or less. For example, with the masa I used 192 grams. The batter should drop from a spoon, but not be as runny as pancake batter, and I suspect that a thicker batter is better. When experimenting with different flours you can check the batter’s consistency after it’s rested in the fridge for an hour or so and the flour has soaked up the majority of what it’s going to. But it will be stiffer from being cold so take that into account. This isn’t a precise chemistry experiment and we’re using a thermometer to test for doneness so as long as you don’t go overboard on it being too runny or stiff it should come out fine.
Posted: 11 December 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, chips and crackers, cooking, food, food drying, whole grains |
I haven’t been writing up my results lately because I’ve been doing experimenting and retrenching.
For one thing, for ease of slicing I’ve decided/realized that I need to use more water.
For another, I’ve always been sort of suspicious that this atta flour I’m using has an off flavor. The grocery store has 3 different brands, all 20 pound bags, priced from $8 to $13. Being the pinch penny that I am I bought the $8 bag. Even though I have lots of it left I decided to try getting the middle $11 bag to see how it works. So far I’m thinking that I like this one better, but I’ve changed other variables so I really can’t say for sure. I need to bake two loaves of bread with just flour, salt, and water and compare their flavors, not that I’m likely to do that.
And because I have this new flour my latest experiments have been with only atta flour; no rye flour. I need to simplify; it’s too easy for me to complicate things.
One batch I made (recipe to appear later) with just bran, atta flour, salt, and water came out nicely. Then I did a batch with about 1/4 cup of instant potato flakes. That made it easier to slice but the dried slices were a bit too tough so I should redo that one with about half of the instant potato.
I’m currently trying a batch made with sweet potato. I bought a sweet potato, diced it, put it in a metal bowl and cooked it for 7 minutes in the pressure cooker bain marie, then pureed it, then used half of that which was about half a cup. The 7 minutes may have been too long; I’ll try 5 minutes next time. Those slices are currently drying.
Standard procedure for making the rusks.
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Posted: 30 November 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, chips and crackers, cooking, food, food drying, recipes, whole grains |
I halved the atta flour quantity and increased the bran by the same ammount (I have to fudge the numbers slightly because my scale only does 2 grams at a time; no odd amounts displayed). The dough was very crumbly; I’m not hopeful.
| 84 grams |
wheat bran |
| 30 grams |
atta flour |
| 62 grams |
dark rye flour |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 192 grams |
water |
Still not getting my hopes up; after its 2 hour rest the dough was definitely crumbly.
As an experiment to hold in more of the moisture and possibly help bind it together I sealed the top of the loaf pan with aluminum foil before putting it in the oven to bake. Since I’m not using any leavening the bread never rises so no worries about it pushing up against the aluminum foil.
It’s baked and cooling down. The top of the loaf looked less dried out than the ones that don’t have foil over them.
After chilling overnight in the fridge I sliced them. They sliced nicely. The aluminum foil trick definitely helps keep the final bread moist and makes it easier to slice. I’ll have to remember to do that henceforth.
The slices are in the food dehydrator drying.
I just tried one of the crackers after several hours of drying; they’re not fully dried yet but it looks like they’re not going to be too crumbly, which surprises me considering how crumbly the dough was. Perhaps baking the loaf covered with aluminum foil is the trick. I should try redoing the sorghum flour recipe with it to see if it helps. I should also see how far I can push the wheat bran percentage; I could halve the rye flour quantity to 30 grams and increase the wheat bran by another 30 grams.
After fully drying: well I’m pleasantly surprised; they came out well. They’re not crumbly and the flavor is quite reasonable. Not especially bitter. They’re also not tough so I could also slice them more thickly and give them more substance.
It seems as if the other flours somehow enable the bitterness of the bran to come through more strongly. I’m also suspecting that the atta flour I bought may be the culprit; the grocery store had 3 different brands and being the skinflint that I am, I bought the least expensive (read, cheapest) one.
Standard procedure for making the rusks.
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Posted: 29 November 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, chips and crackers, cooking, food, food drying, recipes, whole grains |
These are looking good so far; I just sliced them and put them in the food dehydrator. I baked this one at the same time I baked the corn flour and millet flour loaves but had to wait until their slices were dry because I don’t have enough trays to do 6 mini loaves sliced.
Here’s the recipe; same as the others with 50% atta flour and 50% sorghum flour:
| 54 grams |
wheat bran |
| 62 grams |
atta flour |
| 62 grams |
sorghum flour |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 170 grams |
water |
After drying: the flavor is definitely unremarkable.
The texture turned out to not be so good; they’re a bit crumbly and won’t hold up for scooping dip.
It would seem that the main advantage for sorghum flour is that it has a low glycemic index.
Standard procedure for making the rusks.
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Posted: 28 November 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, chips and crackers, cooking, food, food drying, recipes, whole grains |
I’ve sort of fallen off the wagon with my cracker making. I think it was because I had taken a wrong turn with cooking the bread in the pressure cooker. It made crackers that were too tough. And any added spices or flavorings mostly got killed off by the pressure cooker. So I decided to go back to baking in the oven.
Just before I switched to the pressure cooker I realized that I don’t want to add any leavening to the recipe; a brick is what’s needed. But I’d been experimenting with a recipe that had lots of added ingredients; potato, oil, and milk. So I decided to start from scratch, bake a recipe with just flour, water, and salt to see how that worked in the oven. Of course I couldn’t just do it with plain flour so I used half atta flour and half dark rye flour. The first batch was as follows:
| 1 cup |
wheat bran |
| 1/2 cup |
atta flour |
| 1/2 cup |
dark rye flour |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 3/4 cup |
water |
After mixing I put it in a small plastic bowl with a lid and let it rest for 2 hours. Then I baked it in a mini loaf pan for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven. I did the usual of letting the bread cool after it was baked, then wrapped it in a paper towel (to absorb any moisture that might otherwise collect on the inside of the plastic bag), then put it in a plastic bag and let it get fully cold in the fridge. Then I sliced it about 4 mm thick and dried it in the food dehydrator set at 105 degrees.
The crackers were fine.
Next I decided to get a bit more rigorous and use weights instead of volume measurements and add some potato.
| 54 grams |
wheat bran |
| 62 grams |
atta flour |
| 62 grams |
dark rye flour |
| 22 grams |
dried potato flakes |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 240 grams |
water |
The potato makes the crackers a bit tougher. But the flavor isn’t any different.
I also did one with egg, no potato; the total fluid was about 240 grams. These were no different than the first plain batch.
Next up was corn flour:
| 54 grams |
wheat bran |
| 62 grams |
atta flour |
| 62 grams |
corn flour |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 225 grams |
water |
And millet flour:
| 54 grams |
wheat bran |
| 62 grams |
atta flour |
| 62 grams |
millet flour |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 180 grams |
water |
Notice that I used less water. It turned out that the corn flour dough had too much water; after it had rested for 2 hours there was some water puddled at the bottom of its container. For determining the water needed I was eyeballing and feeling the dough; I should have been feeling it more than eyeballing it since its visual appearance is deceptive.
These two are sliced and drying in the food dehydrator.
The millet flour loaf was quite crumbly and difficult to slice without the slices falling apart. I tasted some of the crumbs and bits before it was dried and it was noticeably bitter. I think I’ll try another batch with it and the potato, and maybe also an egg if the potato doesn’t help. Or perhaps use a cup of pumpkin puree.
I need to go back to the original wheat and rye recipe and try it with milk. The milk might make it more crumbly.
I’m thinking of doing something off the wall and baking the loaf for 30 or 45 minutes, then cook it in the pressure cooker for just a few minutes, at the lower pressure setting. I’m wondering if that will help make the bread denser (and easier to slice) without making the crackers too hard and not dull the flavors.
After drying: The 50% corn flour crackers are definitely crunchy with lots of snap. But the flavor is completely unremarkable. Looks like corn flour can be useful for adding crunch to the crackers.
The 50% millet flour crackers have a bit of a bitter taste. I’d say that the millet flour is a dud.
Next up is 50% sorghum flour.
Standard procedure for making the rusks.
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Posted: 22 October 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, cooking, food, recipes |
(A dumb post that I’ve removed.)
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Posted: 6 October 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, cooking, food, recipes |
Here is the pumpkin gingerbread recipe from Maida Heatter’s New book of great desserts.
The changes I’ve always made are to use whole wheat flour instead of the all-purpose flour, substitute walnuts for the pecans, and to dust the loaf pan with flour instead of bread crumbs. Instead of a metal cake tester you can use a flat wooden toothpick for testing doneness. I wrote a note on the page saying that the bread’s flavor improves after storing in the fridge for a day, tightly wrapped (in aluminum foil, then in a plastic bag).
| 2 cups |
sifted all-purpose flour |
| 3/4 teaspoon |
salt |
| 1 teaspoon |
baking soda |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
double-acting baking powder |
| 2 teaspoons |
powdered ginger |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
ground nutmeg |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
ground cinnamon |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
ground cloves |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
dry mustard |
| 4 ounces (1 stick) |
butter |
| 1 1/2 cups |
sugar |
| 2 |
eggs, large |
| 1/3 cup |
strong black coffee (or 1 rounded teaspoon instant in 1/3 cup water) |
| 1 cup |
pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling) |
| 2 cups |
pecans, broken into large pieces |
Adjust a rack to the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. You will need a loaf pan that has a 7 cup capacity; that may be 9x5x3 inches (which has an 8 cup capacity), 9x5x2 3/4 inches, or it may be longer and narrower. Butter the pan, dust it all over with fine dry bread crumbs, and tap over a piece of paper to shake out excess crumbs. Set aside.
Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and mustard and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and beat to mix. Add the eggs and beat to mix. On low speed add half of the dry ingredients, scraping the bowl with a spatula. Beat only until barely incorporated. Mix in the coffee. Add the remaining dry ingredients and beat only until incorporated. Add the pumpkin and, scraping the bowl when necessary, beat only until incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer.
Stir in the pecans.
Turn into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Then with the back of a spoon form a trench down the middle, about 1/2 to 1 inch deep. The trench will prevent the middle from rising too high, although it will rise some anyhow, and will form a crack down the length of the cake (it is supposed to), and will be as pretty as a picture.
Bake for 1 hour and 10 to 15 minutes until the top feels slightly firm to the touch and a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
Cool the cake in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cover the pan with a rack, turn over the pan and rack, remove the pan, cover the cake with another rack, and very carefully (do not squash the cake) turn over again (or gently turn it over with your hands), leaving the cake right side up to cool.
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Posted: 6 October 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, cooking, food, recipes, whole grains |
Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are coming up I’m jonesing for some pumpkin spice bread. My favorite is an outstanding recipe, the Pumpkin Gingerbread in Maida Heatter’s New book of great deserts. It’s out of print but you can get it used. My plan is to “merge” it with the Butter Bran Bread from Bernard Clayton’s The complete book of breads. I’m thinking that I’ll start with his recipe, for the most part, not use the 1/3 cup or so of cornmeal his calls for, use 1 cup of pumpkin, and then enough milk to make a reasonable batter. Something like this:
| 1 1/2 cups |
sugar |
| 1/2 cup |
butter |
| 2 |
eggs |
| 2 cups |
wheat bran |
| 1 cup |
flour |
| 3/4 teaspoon |
salt |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
baking soda |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
baking powder |
| 2 teaspoons |
powdered ginger |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
nutmeg |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
cinnamon |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
cloves |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
dry powdered mustard |
| unknown |
milk |
| 1 cup |
pumpkin puree |
| 1 cup |
walnut pieces |
Mixing will be the usual Maida Heatter drill. Sift together the dry ingredients and mix and set aside. Cream the butter, add the sugar and cream some more, add the eggs and mix well. Mix in half of the dry ingredients mixing only until just incorporated, then mix in the milk, then mix in the remaining dry ingredients mixing only until just incorporated. Add the pumpkin and mix only until just incorporated. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the nuts. Spoon into a greased loaf pan and bake in a 375 oven for 45 minutes.
I won’t be able to follow Maida Heatter’s careful mixing instructions since I don’t know how much milk it will need but hopefully “incorrect mixing” won’t matter too much. I’m also thinking of using barley flour instead of wheat flour.
My penciled in notes say that it tastes better after it’s spent a day well wrapped, in the fridge.
I’ll report back when I make it, successfully.
This also got me thinking that I could try using some pumpkin puree in my rusks recipes. A half cup of it, then however much water is needed to make a proper dough.
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Posted: 5 October 2011 | Author: Lumpynose | Filed under: baking, bread, chips and crackers, cooking, food, masa harina, pressure cooker, recipes, whole grains |
Since I haven’t tried barley flour pressure cooked I decided to give that a try.
| 1 cup |
barley flour |
| 1 cup |
wheat bran |
| 1/2 teaspoon |
salt |
| 3 tablespoons |
nonfat dry milk |
| 3 tablespoons |
instant potato |
| 2 tablespoons |
butter |
| 3/4 cup (approximately) |
water |
The water quantity is an approximation. I add the water slowly, 1 tablespoon at a time. When the dough starts sticking together in clumps I let it mix longer before I add each additional tablespoon. Towards the end the dough will clump together and stick to the mixer’s paddle. In the beginning the mixer is on low; once the dough starts clumping together I put the spatter shield on the bowl and turn up the mixer’s speed. At this point, after each tablespoon of water it needs to mix for a minute or more before I add another tablespoon. As soon as it starts sticking to the bowl I stopped adding water and turned the mixer’s speed up to high. I also felt the dough with my fingers to make sure it wasn’t too stiff or too wet.
Then I put it in a greased plastic bowl with a snap on lid, but before putting its lid on it I press some plastic food wrap down onto the dough. Even with plastic on it the top darkens. I let it rest for at least an hour before I transfer it to the loaf pan and cook it.
I let the dough rest for at least 2 hours.
The reason I let the dough rest is that I read that whole grain flours don’t absorb fluids as quickly as white wheat flour does. And that the bran needs extra time to soak up its fluids. Additionally, there is enzyme activity going on that adds complexity to the flavor of the bread, but that probably requires a longer rest (for example, a day).
After its rest I put it in the mini loaf pan, buttered, tightly covered with aluminum foil, and cook it at high pressure for 25 minutes, then let the pressure go down naturally.
I set up my pressure cooker by putting the pressure cooker’s trivet in it then I put the folding steaming basket on top of it (with its center handle removed). I want the loaf pan up away from the water and I put in several cups of water.
I chill the cooked loaf overnight in the fridge. I prepare it for the fridge by wrapping it in 3 layers of paper towel and then put it in a plastic bag which I wrap around it. The paper towels pick up any moisture that comes out of the loaf; without the paper towels the moisture collects on the plastic bag and gets back on the loaf and makes its outside sticky and gummy.
Next I slice the bread at the 2 setting. I couldn’t help myself and kept eating the odd bits that weren’t well sliced. Barley flour bread is very tasty; rich and buttery, which is why I used butter instead of oil in this recipe, to accentuate the barley flour’s flavor.
The slices are drying at 115 degrees; I set the timer for 10 hours.
After drying and several hours of resting and relaxing … quite nice. Wonderful taste; nice and rich and buttery. The texture is good as well. My only complaint is that it was hard to slice them well with the slicer; the top or bottom is thinner than the other side.
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Lumpynose 