Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Pain complet aux noix / walnuts whole-wheat bread




It is known that some odors can bring us back to a certain period of our childhood. As if time has never flown by. As if our brain has locked in the crumbs of a left cinnamon cookie or the drops of a nearly empty mug of hot chocolate.
When I think about my childhood, different smells swipe my nose, like the smell of fresh coffee in the morning (even though I don’t drink coffee) the smell of the beach, the smell of the soup…But the most recurrent one is the smell of fresh baked bread, especially the one that my mother makes, with black sesame seeds on top. My mother taught me how to make bread, how to knead the dough without being afraid of it. Since then, I have a home of my own that I fill with the smell of fresh baked bread every 3 to 4 days. I never buy bread. I used to, but not anymore.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about making a whole wheat bread. I’ve never used whole wheat flour before. It has the reputation to be a tricky component to work with. Your bread can turn out to be dry and dense. But I wanted this bread so bad. Thanks again to my cookbook of baking for the recipe. I, eventually, modified a little bit the recipe by adding walnuts for the crunch.

Recipe: Makes 2 loaves
2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast
2 cups warm whole milk
¼ cup mil honey
2 large eggs
6 cups whole wheat flour, plus extra for topping the loaves
2 tsp sea salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup diced walnuts

Dissolve the yeast in the milk and let stand until foamy. Using a wire whisk, stir in the honey and eggs. Add the flour, salt, walnuts, and butter. Place the bowl on the mixer, attach the dough hook, and knead on low speed. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5-7min. Form the dough into a ball and let it rise for 1 ½-2 hours.
Punch down the dough and cut it in half. For each half flatten the dough with the heel of you hand. Roll the dough into an oval log and seal it at the end. Place the log, seam side down, in the loaf pans.
Let the loaves rise for 45-60 minutes. Dust the tops of the loaves with whole wheat flour. Bake in a preheated 375 F oven until they are honey brown, 35 minutes. Let cool completely before slicing.

In francais please: Pour deux pains
5c.c de levure boulangere
500ml de lait entire tiede
90g de miel
2 gros oeufs
940g de farine complete
2c.c de sel marin
90g de beurre
100g de noix grossierment hachees

Dissoudre la levure dans le lait et laisser lever. Ajouter le miel et les oeufs en utilisant un fouet. Verser le farine, le sel, les noix et le beurre. Mettre le tout dans votre petrin et petrir pendant 5-7min jusqu’a ce que la pate devienne souple et elastique. Rouler la pate en boule et laisser lever pendant 1 ½- 2 heures.
Couper la pate en deux . Rouler la pate en forme de buche et mettre dans deux moules a cake beurres. Laisser lever une deuxieme fois pour 45-60 min. Saupoudrer les pains de farine complete. Cuire dans un four prechauffe a 190 C pendant 35 minutes ,jusqu’a ce que le pain devienne dore.
Demouler et laisser refroidir completement avant de decouper en tranches.



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