Buckwheat Molasses Loaf

This bread will provide your family with a nice variation in color, flavor and texture. The buckwheat and molasses combination not only creates a unique flavor, they are both great sources of iron. Really yummy!

Before making this or any other yeast bread recipe

on this site may I suggest reading the

"Making Yeast Breads" section of this site.

Makes 1 Loaf

Preheat oven to 425

Final Bake at 325

Biga 2 Cup Whole Wheat Flour 266 grams

1/4 tsp Instant Yeast -

3/4 Cup Room Temperature Water 180 grams

Mix biga ingredients together and knead until incorporated, about 1 minute. Allow the dough to rest for five minutes. Knead for one additonal minute. Cover dough in an air tight container and refrigetate 8 - 12 hours. Use anytime within the next 72 hours. I make mine up before I go to bed. It does its thing while I'm sleeping. Make sure that you allow the biga to warm to room temperature before using.

Soaker 1 3/4 Cup Whole Wheat Flour 227 grams

3/4 Cup Buckwheat Meal or coarse flour 102 grams

1/2 tsp Salt -

3 Tbsp Black Strap Molasses 60 grams

3/4 Cup Milk 180 grams

Mix the soaker the same time you do the biga. It will have a different texture than many of the soakers becuase of the added buckwheat. You can keep the soaker on the counter, but I throw mine in the fridge. Just allow it to warm up to room temperature before using.

Final Dough All of Soaker

All of Biga

2 tsp Active Dry Yeast

1 tsp Salt

1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Butter

Combine: Cut the Biga and the Soaker in pieces and add them to the bowl. Sprinkle the yeast and salt over the pre-doughs, add the brown sugar and butter. Knead the doughs and enrichments together. Turn the dough out onto the counter and continue kneading until all of the ingredients are thoroughly incorporate, about four minutes. This is a wet dough you will need to use a bench scraper to scrape up the dough and bring it back to you.

Knead: Knead an additional 10-12 minutes, approximately 600 strokes. The dough will become shaggy at first, but will begin to come together and form a ball. Remember your bench scraper. I knead with my left hand at this point and scrape the dough up and over with my right. DO NOT ADD ADDITIONAL FLOUR. This dough will take slightly longer to develop because of the added buckwheat, and additional sugar.

Autolyse: Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the dough with a damp towel or plastic wrap and allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes. If The dough will undergo a drastic change in texture as it rests and soaks in moisture.

Knead: After the autolyse, the dough will be smooth and elastic, another 10 minute kneading cycle and the dough will be ready for fermentation. Make sure your gluten is completely developed by doing the window pane test. See Making Yeast Breads

Fermentation: Place the dough in a lightly oiled container. I use a Clear container with tall straight sides which allows me to watch the dough. Allow the dough to rest and double in size, about an hour for this recipe. During fermentation the flavors of the dough will continue to develop. The gluten is becoming even more elastic and the dough becomes fully hydrated.

Shape: Turn the dough out onto a lightly greased counter top. De-gas and shape. I use two methods combined to shape my loaves.

Roll the dough into a long rectangle. Fold the top third down and seal the edge by compressing it with your fingers. Fold the bottom third of the rectangle up over the top third and compress the seam. You have just created another rectangle only smaller. Turn the dough a half turn so that the length is going away from you, and roll it out again to a large rectangle.

Repeat this process a second time.

Roll the dough into a long rectangel the width of your bread pan. Tightly roll the dough up jelly roll style tugging slightly as you go. This will creat a nice tight outer layer on the bread and aid in a nice shape as the loaf proofs. Tuck under the ends of the loaf.

Place the rolled loaf into a lightly greased bread pan and allow it to proof until it has risen double.

Bake: Bake the loaf in a 425 degree oven with steam for five minutes. Turn the oven temperature down to 325 degrees and cook an additional 30 minutes or until the loaf is done.

Cool: Remove the bread from the oven and cool on a rack for five minutes. Remove the loaf from the pan and allow the loaf to cool completely.

This one is hard to resist so don't even try. Just eat it!

Providing your family with whole grain goodness and long term food storage.

This website is lovingly dedicated to my mother who has taught me so much. I will be forever grateful to her for her constant example and her tireless effort in behalf of those of us blessed enough to be called her family.