Little Boy Baker: Oliver's bread recipe

**Updated: when initially posted, this recipe called for 6 cups of flour. I have since tried it with 6 1/2, and the dough is much easier to handle.** 

 

 I never thought I would see the day when I would consider bread a huge expense, yet it has arrived. The kids are eating more all the time, which means far less left over after supper. With nothing in the refrigerator to bring to work, Darren has to fall back on the ol' two sandwich option. Lunch in our house has become a 12-slice a day affair. I've been buying bread four loaves at a time! They last almost a week.

Then a lady in my spinning group posted this video:

Normally, I would have scrolled on by, but spending right a round $50 per month — on bread, can get a person thinking it might be worth the few minutes spent watching. Plus, it's a solid group of gals, I spin with. Most of them are also foodies, and I trust their judgement.

It worked out that Darren and I made a rare trip to the mall shortly after. As long as we were there, I wandered into the cookbook section of Barnes and Noble. I hadn't mentioned the bread video to Darren at all, but when I showed him the book, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, he handed it back along with the cash. He likes bread. 

There has been a bucket of dough in the refrigerator ever since.  I've tried a few of the basic recipes, but for the most part, I've been experimenting with add-ins to the master recipe. The master recipe itself is pretty good, but we like a little more texture in our bread. I was looking for some cracked wheat, but found instead Bob's Red Mill 10-grain hot cereal. The first batch of dough, I just mixed a little in there. It was alright, but a little bitter. I told Oliver, "Next batch, we need to sweeten this up." He heartily agreed.

The book's recipe for whole wheat bread uses honey to balance the bitterness of the whole wheat. So that's what we decided to do. Oliver got to make the call on how much honey to use. He said, "Three."

"Three what?" I was a little nervous about giving him the reins on that and had made up my mind to accept anything between a tablespoon and 1/4 cup. "… teaspoons, tablespoons?"

"Teaspoons!" Perfect. Three teaspoons equals one tablespoon. He dumped everything in the KitchenAid, and we mixed our dough.

It was delicious! And I'm not just saying that because we made up the recipe. It is actually darn good.

Oliver's 10-grain bread: It rises nicely,
and tastes as good as it smells.

The first loaf we made was a free-form loaf baked on the stone. The dough was a tad wet for that; it got a little wide. I just took a second loaf, baked in a bread pan, out of the oven and it looks perfect!

Up to this batch, I'd made all the bread using all-purpose flour. Last week, though, Dakota Maid unbleached bread flour was on sale, 25 pounds for just under $10. Since I was making bread and all, and bread flour was on sale, it made sense to give that a try.

I highly recommend watching the original bread video, before trying our recipe. It provides a lot of context, and will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. The dough is not firm like a regular bread dough, and it doesn't require any kneading.

Oliver's 10-grain Bread

6 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup 10-grain hot cereal
3 cups warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp honey

Mix all the ingredients together until well combined. I use a KitchenAid with a dough hook.

Transfer to a large, lidded bucket. I used an ice cream pail, one of the gallon + a pint ones. The important thing is to make sure it is not airtight.

Let the dough rise at room temperature for two hours, or until it falls back down a little and flattens on top. The dough is now ready to use, or be placed in the refrigerator for later.

To bake: Grease a non-stick loaf pan. Sprinkle the dough with flour, and remove a grapefruit size ball of dough. Sprinkle with more flour and shape into a ball. Stretch it out a bit into a long oval and place in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with more flour. Let sit for an hour and forty minutes (if the dough is room temperature, let it sit for 40 minutes). Preheat the oven to 450º while the bread finishes rising. Slash dough with the tip of a sharp serrated knife and place near the center of the oven. Pour 1 cup of hot water into a broiler pan placed where it won't interfere with the baking bread. (I use a junky old pie tin on the bottom self, which I set in place before preheating the oven.) Bake for 30-35 minutes. The crust should be golden and hard. Remove to wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Makes 3 small or 2 generous size loaves.

So, there it is! Oliver's bread recipe, of which he is very proud. I haven't tried it, but I bet if you added a little more flour, a 1/2 cup or so, a free-form loaf would be very doable. Update: I have since added a 1/2 cup of flour to this recipe and think it would work fine as a free from loaf.

Just a quick note on the size of the loaves of bread. I have a cold house. Nothing ever rises respectably in here. In a properly warm house, it may be necessary to find a bigger bucket, and making three, decent size loaves with this recipe probably isn't out of the realm of possibility.