I always have a small bag of buckwheat flour in my pantry. It’s an easy way to spice up banana bread or waffles, and it tastes wonderful in a loaf of bread, of course. But lately, I’ve been working with buckwheat in a different capacity: as a cracked soaker of sorts. This soft honey buckwheat sandwich bread calls for a buckwheat porridge, which acts similarly to a tangzhong or yudane mix-in. When mixed with boiled water, the buckwheat mixture turns into a viscous, creamy paste that exudes a tenderness in the final pan loaf that’s hard to beat.
To take the nutrition of this bread a step further, I paired the buckwheat with freshly milled whole white wheat. A flour that, especially when freshly milled, has a lovely aroma and mellow flavor, coloring the crumb a creamy hue as golden as the grain itself. Overall, the flavor of buckwheat isn’t terribly pronounced in this bread (though this can be amplified with a flour scald), but you can certainly feel the elements all playing a nutritious role in the final performance.
Baking schedule
As shown on the right, this honey buckwheat sandwich bread is made over the course of one day (aside from the overnight levain), but it could be pushed to two. To bake over two days, after shaping and placing the dough in the pans, cover them and refrigerate overnight to cold-proof the dough. Then, bake the dough in the morning or early afternoon, whichever is more convenient.
Buckwheat porridge
What is buckwheat?
Despite the misnomer, gluten-free buckwheat isn’t wheat at all. In fact, unlike wheat, it’s not grass; buckwheat is a pseudocereal and more closely related to rhubarb than wheat. Buckwheat is high in protein, fiber, B vitamins, and minerals—all the things we want to try and sneak into our diets in increasing quantity. For me, it’s a great way to add nutrition to bread, and I know my kids will enjoy the flavor.
Recommended reading: Read my guide on the best way to store flour, and other things, including buckwheat.
Making the buckwheat porridge
This honey buckwheat sandwich bread includes a portion of cracked, then soaked, buckwheat mixed into the dough. I use Bob’s Red Mill Organic Buckwheat Cereal, which is stone-ground buckwheat groats, with a consistency somewhere near steel-cut oats. The little bits of buckwheat are perfect because they soften easily when soaked in boiling water and appear in the final loaf as small, tender specs. Of course, if you have whole buckwheat groats and a grain mill, you could also crack your own! I found this cracked buckwheat “cereal” in the breakfast aisle at my local market, or you can find it at the link above.
To make the porridge, weigh out the called-for cracked buckwheat into a bowl and pour the boiled water over it (the exact weights are listed in the recipe below). Mix until everything is wet, and let the mixture rest until the end of mixing. If you forget to make this porridge early, stick the bowl in the freezer to rapidly chill the mixture and avoid mixing a hot porridge into your dough (throwing off your final dough temperature).
Flour selection
White wheat shouldn’t be confused with white flour, where the latter can be made from hard red wheat, hard white wheat, or a combination. White wheat tends to have a milder flavor, and in this bread, with 40% white wheat, the overall flavor is mild, with a touch of sweetness. White wheat is one of my go-to flour choices when pushing the whole grain percentage when desiring a mild-flavored loaf.
Honey buckwheat sandwich bread formula
Vitals
| Total Dough Weight | 1,800 grams |
| Hydration | 82% |
| Pre-fermented Flour | 7.00% |
| Levain in final dough | 15.81% |
| Yield | Two loaves, each in a 9x4x4 Pullman pan. |
I used two 9x4x4-inch Pullman pans for these loaves without the lids. These pans have a natural nonstick interior, but I still prefer to butter them to ensure the bread comes out easily after baking.
Total formula
The total formula lists all the ingredients required to make this honey buckwheat sandwich bread. Read on for the method where the ingredients are called for in each of the steps of the bread-baking process.
Desired dough temperature: 75°F (23°C). This dough temperature is significantly cooler than my typical 78°F (25°C); I find that when using a moderate percentage of freshly milled flour, the lower temperature helps rein in fermentation to more manageable levels. In addition, the added buckwheat porridge increases fermentation activity in this dough. Check out my guide to dough temperatures for more information.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 522g | Medium-protein bread flour or All-purpose flour (~11% protein, Central Milling Artisan Baker’s Craft or King Arthur Baking All-Purpose) | 60.00% |
| 348g | Freshly milled whole white wheat (Hard white wheat) | 40.00% |
| 130g | Cracked buckwheat groats (Bob’s Red Mill Creamy Buckwheat Hot Cereal) | 15.00% |
| 35g | Honey (or barley malt syrup) | 4.00% |
| 30g | Neutral flavored oil (vegetable oil) | 3.50% |
| 670g | Water 1 (porridge, levain, and early mixing) | 77.00% |
| 43g | Water 2 (later mixing and porridge incorporation) | 5.00% |
| 16g | Fine sea salt | 1.80% |
| 6g | Ripe sourdough starter (yes, this is a small amount of starter, but it will be used to make a larger preferment (levain)) | 0.70% |
Honey buckwheat sandwich bread method
1. Prepare the levain – 9:00 p.m., the night before mixing
This is a slow, overnight levain. Mix the following ingredients in a container and leave covered to ripen at room temperature, about 76°F (24°C), overnight.
At this time, you can mill a small amount of the total white wheat called for in this recipe to satisfy just the levain, or you can mill the entire amount called for, cover the flour, and use it in the morning. Alternatively, you could use any whole grain flour you have in your pantry for this portion of the flour to make things easier.
Note: This levain uses a tiny portion of ripe sourdough starter to seed the levain, but the levain will expand to fill the preferment requirement. Additionally, I’ve built in a small buffer to this levain. This means the levain will be a little larger than needed for this recipe to cover any loss (bits left on the side of the jar, spatula, etc.) when making.
| Weight | Ingredient | Baker’s Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 47g | Medium-protein bread flour or all-purpose flour | 70.00% |
| 22g | Freshly milled whole white wheat flour (or any whole wheat flour in your pantry) | 30.00% |
| 65g | Water 1 | 100.00% |
| 10g | Ripe sourdough starter | 10.00% |
2. Prepare porridge and mill flour — 8:00 a.m., the day of mixing
Set your grain mill to the finest setting and mill 330g of white wheat. I used my Mockmill 100 to mill this flour. Once you’ve milled the flour, set it aside, as it will all be added to the main mix later.
In a completely separate heat-resistant bowl, place 130g of cracked buckwheat (just the buckwheat, nothing else). Pour 157g boiled water over the buckwheat and stir to combine. Set the porridge aside until mixing.
3. Mix – 9:00 a.m.
Your overnight levain should look nice and ripe (see image above). It will have a sour aroma, be bubbly on top and along the sides, have risen to some degree (perhaps with some collapse), and generally be a much looser consistency than when you mixed it the night before.
Gather the following ingredients for mixing.
| Weight | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 479g | Medium-protein bread flour or all-purpose flour |
| 330g | Freshly milled whole white wheat flour |
| 35g | Honey (or barley malt syrup) |
| 30g | Neutral oil |
| 287g | Buckwheat porridge (from step 2) |
| 452g | Water 1 |
| 43g | Water 2 (held back until the second half of mixing) |
| 16g | Fine sea salt |
| 128g | Ripe levain (from step 1, you might have some excess) |
I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix this dough, but you could mix it by hand just as well. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the flour, ripe levain, honey, oil, Water 1, and salt. Turn on the mixer to low and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated, about 2-3 minutes. Depending on your flour, you might need to add additional water to help the ingredients come together, but be conservative with these additions.
Then turn the mixer to speed 2 and mix for 2-3 more minutes, until the dough is smooth and firm. Finally, turn the mixer off and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
After the 10-minute rest, add a small portion of the porridge with a splash of Water 2 and mix at low speed for a minute. Continue to add the rest of the porridge in small increments while the mixer runs, adding a splash of water as needed. Once all the porridge is added, mix until the dough is homogeneous. This could take up to 3-4 minutes.
The dough will feel strong and cohesive at the end of mixing, but won’t be completely smooth or fully developed. Transfer the dough to a container for bulk fermentation and cover.
4. Bulk fermentation – 9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
At a warm room temperature, around 74-76°F (23-24°C), the bulk should take about 3 hours. This dough requires two sets of gentle stretches and folds during bulk fermentation, at 30-minute intervals (the first set starts 30 minutes after the start of bulk fermentation). If, after the last set, the dough still feels very slack and weak, add in a third set as necessary.
5. Divide and preshape – 12:15 p.m.
At the end of bulk fermentation, the dough will have risen significantly but not be overly wet or loose. As you can see below, the dough shows signs of significant fermentation: a healthy rise, some bubbles, and a domed edge near the bowl—it’s ready to be divided.
Fill a bowl with some water and place it on your work surface. Scrape out your dough from the bulk container onto your dry counter. Divide the mass in half using a bench knife. Using a wet hand and the knife in the other, gently preshape each half into a loose round.
Let the preshaped dough rest, uncovered, for 30 minutes until it’s relaxed outward.
6. Shape – 12:45 p.m.
First, I like to butter the interior of my baking pan. The USA Pan Pullman pans have a natural nonstick coating, but I like to lightly butter them to ensure the loaves come out cleanly after baking.
Next, optionally spread a thin layer of raw wheat bran, rolled oats, or even white sesame seeds on a clean kitchen towel, plate, or baking sheet, and place it on your work surface. After you shape your dough, roll it in this thin layer of toppings to coat the exterior.
Recommended reading: Check out my guide to shaping pan loaves for an in-depth explanation and video to help with shaping this dough.
7. Proof – 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Cover the two Pullman pans with a single large, reusable proofing bag and seal it shut. Let the dough proof on the counter for about two hours until very puffy, and an indentation with the finger hardly springs back.
Watch the dough during the last 30 minutes of the proofing time, as it can overproof quickly if your kitchen is warm. Be sure to preheat your oven a little early before the dough is fully proofed so it’s ready for baking.
8. Bake – 3:00 p.m.
Preheat your empty oven with a rack in the middle to 425°F (220°C). For these loaves, I steamed my oven following my guide on steaming a home oven for bread baking. I wanted to get as much steam in the oven as possible, so I used both the pan with rolled-up towels and the pan with lava rocks.
When your dough is ready, uncover the Pullman pans and slide them into the oven—bake for 20 minutes with steam. Then remove the steaming pans from the oven, turn the oven down to 375°F (190°C), and bake for an additional 35 minutes, or until the crust is deeply colored and the interior temperature reaches about 200°F (93°C).
Once fully baked, be sure to cool your loaves on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing, which is very important with these pan loaves. Also, see my post on the best way to store bread to keep it fresh for a week or longer.
I’ve been testing this soft honey buckwheat sandwich bread for weeks. The combination of freshly milled flour and buckwheat porridge made for such a soft bread that it’s become somewhat of a breakfast favorite around here lately. I’ve even used it to make wonderful BLT sandwiches that go down all too easily. But, of course, one of the joys of baking your own sourdough bread is the simple fact that you can have healthy bread on your cutting board made from only a small handful of healthy ingredients—not sure it gets any better than that.
Buon appetito!
Print
Honey buckwheat sandwich bread recipe
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Total Time: 25 hours
- Yield: 2 loaves
- Category: Bread, Sandwich
- Cuisine: American
Description
An extremely soft sandwich bread made with a touch of honey, freshly milled white wheat, and a cooked buckwheat porridge. The porridge brings a level of tenderness to this bread similar to adding in tangzhong.
Ingredients
Levain
- 47g medium-protein bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 22g freshly milled whole white wheat flour
- 65g water
- 10g ripe sourdough starter
Porridge
- 132g cracked buckwheat groats (I used Bob’s Red Mill buckwheat cereal)
- 158g boiled water
Main dough
- 479g medium-protein bread flour or all-purpose flour
- 330g freshly milled whole white wheat
- 35g honey (or barley malt syrup)
- 30g neutral-flavored oil (vegetable oil)
- 287g buckwheat porridge (from step 2)
- 452g water 1 (levain, porridge, mix)
- 43g water 2 (later mixing)
- 16g fine sea salt
- 128g ripe levain (from step 1)
Optional topper
- Raw wheat bran, rolled oats, or white sesame seeds
Instructions
- Levain (9:00 p.m., night before mixing)
In a small bowl, mix and knead the Levain ingredients. Transfer to a small container, cover, and keep it at a warm temperature overnight. - Prepare porridge and mill flour (8:00 a.m.)
Finely mill 330g of white wheat flour. In a heat-resistant bowl, add the porridge ingredients and mix. Set the flour and porridge aside to cool until mixing. - Mix (9:00 a.m.)
To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the flour, ripe levain, honey, oil, Water 1, and salt. Turn on the mixer to low and mix until all the ingredients are incorporated, about 2-3 minutes. Depending on your flour, you might need to add additional water to help the ingredients come together, but be conservative with these additions. Then, turn the mixer up to speed 2 and mix for 2-3 more minutes until the dough strengthens and smooths. Finally, turn the mixer off and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. After the 10 minute rest, add a small portion of the porridge with a splash of Water 2 and mix at low speed for a minute. Continue to add the rest of the porridge in small increments while the mixer runs, adding a splash of water as needed. Once all the porridge is added, mix until the dough is homogenous. This could take up to 3-4 minutes. - Bulk Fermentation (9:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.)
This dough needs 2 sets of stretches and folds during bulk fermentation, where the first set starts after 30 minutes into bulk fermentation, and the subsequent sets are at 30-minute intervals. After the second set of stretches and folds, let the dough rest, covered, for the remainder of bulk fermentation. - Divide and Preshape (12:15 p.m.)
Scrape the dough out from your bulk fermentation container to your work surface. Using wet hands, divide the dough in half. Lightly shape each half into a round shape. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, uncovered. - Shape (12:45 p.m.)
Butter two 9x4x4″ Pullman pans. Shape each round of dough into a long tube to fit each pan. If desired, roll each piece of dough in any of the Optional Toppers, then place the dough, seam side down, in the Pullman pan. - Proof (1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.)
Cover the pans with reusable plastic and seal shut. Then, let the dough proof on the counter until well-risen and very soft to the touch. - Bake (3:00 p.m.)
Preheat your empty oven with a rack in the middle to 425°F (220°C). When your dough is ready, uncover the Pullman pans and slide them into the oven—bake for 20 minutes with steam. Then, remove the steaming pans from inside the oven, turn the oven down to 375°F (190°C), and bake for an additional 35 minutes, or until the crust is deeply colored and the interior temperature registers around 200°F (93°C). Once fully baked, be sure to cool your loaves on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing.
Notes
- If you don’t have white whole wheat, a red wheat variety will also work well for this recipe.
- If you’re using aged whole wheat flour in place of the freshly milled white wheat, expect that your dough might take longer in bulk fermentation and/or proof.
What’s next?
If you’re looking for more recipes with buckwheat—especially buckwheat flour—check out my sourdough bread with dried cherries, pecans, and buckwheat.
69 Comments
Hello, can I check that the water that is added to the porridge and the levain is not part of water 1, i.e., that is is as well as water 1? Thank you
Both the levain and the porridge water are included in the total water for the recipe.
Hello! Tagged in to this recipe from your recent email newsletter. Which, btw- I so look forward to! Thanks for all your hard work- I know newsletter writing can be a chore. I'm commenting to ask about fresh milling buckwheat groats to get to the proper 'cracked cereal' stage. I'm quite new to home milling and don't know much about the properties of buckwheat other than we like it in buckwheat pancakes. I have a Mockmill 200, what setting would be ideal to take a groat to the right cracked 'cereal' for this recipe?
Hi Teresa,
I, too, made this after seeing Maurizio's email newsletter, and I also had the same question about cracking whole buckwheat groats. I have a Mockmill 100, so I'm not sure if my steps will correspond exactly to your 200. The 100 has a slider rod to select 1 (finest) to 10 (coarsest) grind. The 10 setting was still too fine for what I thought cracked buckwheat should be. To increase the coarseness, I put the setting to 10, turned on the mill, unscrewed the locking nut on the setting rod, slid the rod back to 1, tightened the nut, and slid it to 10 again. This procedure opens up the grinding plates more than the 'original' 10 setting. I tested some groats and it was still a bit too fine. I repeated the process again and did another test grind. In my opinion, it was a great cracked buckwheat. Resetting the grinding plates twice turned the "10" setting into a "30" setting, so to speak. This procedure is described in the 100 manual, so hopefully you can get success with the method I used, or see if there is something more specific in your 200 manual. It's really not difficult to do–it's one of those things that takes more time and effort to write about than to actually do!
Good luck,
Mark
Really great comments here, Mark.
Hey Teresa, @mark_dominick:disqus comments below are very helpful with this! I don't mill my own buckwheat groats, I find this cereal at the market and use that!
hello Maurizio
I have a question about adding porridges to doughs. Besides adding a texture, nutrition and flavor, are there any other functions the porridge serves in the dough? Not sure if I even know how to ask my question properly, I am new to bread baking. Does the porridge change the structure of the bread itself? Would the bread rise and bake similarly if the buckwheat porridge was omitted?
Yes, it makes the final bread much softer due to the water (or other liquid) in the porridge. It also prolongs the keeping quality of the bread because of this softness. You'd likely get more rise if you left out the porridge, it sort of "stresses" the gluten, in a way.
Hello Maruzrio, as you speak to someone on here about the levain, so is it a 12 levain?🤔
It’s correct as listed up in the recipe!
Ok Maruzrio, so it’s a 12 hours levain, and thank you for getting back soon and have a nice weekend…
I had the same question. The recipe says to keep warm for 5 hours…but then that would make it finished at 2:00 a.m. Unless I'm missing something, I think you meant to say 12 hours?
And also Maurizio can please write the amounts for each one in grams for the 12 hours overnight levain…🙏🤔🤗
Check out the Levain box (step 1), Mag!
Any chance this would work if I replaced one of the wheat types with freshly milled soft white wheat and used hard red for the other portion? I recently acquired a grain mill and am still figuring out how to work with the various types of grain…once I made cinnamon rolls with the soft white and while they were tasty, they came out very cake-like and the dough didn’t build much strength. In your experience, does soft white ever work well in breads or is it best reserved for cakes, cookies, etc?
Yes, that would work well! Yes, soft wheat will typically be lower in protein. It might help if you reduce the hydration of this loaf to help with the softer flour. I do use white wheat from time to time, it has a wonderful mellow flavor, and is esp. nice in pan loaves, IMO!
Very strong levain, really good oven spring but I too have a split top and even an ear on one! My finger poke test result was spot on and even 30 min early. If anything, I was concerned I had over-proofed. It’s a warm humid day here. Any thoughts on this outcome?
Thank you so much for the teachings and support you give. Your work has really been an inspiration to me.
Sorry for the delay, Linda! Very interesting result. I almost always see a split when I under proof, but perhaps another cause is at work, here. Is it possible your oven didn’t have sufficient steam? If the skin on the dough is left too dry, it may split as it’s not supple enough to expand and stretch during baking. Just an idea!
Thank you for taking the time to respond. Yeah, I gave it some thought when I made the loaves again and I was certain to proof long enough. It was not such a humid day, so I wasn’t as concerned and they came out perfect! We just love this bread. Perfect for tomato sandwiches!
Made this loaf the other day. Enjoyed the process and turned out very tasty, but was denser than expected (didn’t rise as much as yours) and also the top cracked during baking. What do I change next time?
Hey, Karen! Hmm. Do you think it was under proofed? Be sure to use your starter/levain when it’s fully ripe before moving on to the next stage! Usually, I see splitting in loaves that are under proofed.
I just pulled out this magnificent loaf from the oven and while it smells amazing and the inside looks fantastic, it split open on top: can you help figure out why? Maybe a little under-proofed? Not sure how to troubleshoot it to have the perfect domed top like yours 🙂
Yes, those splits are usually due to under proofing in my experience. Try to keep everything the same and push the proof a little longer!
awesome, great and thank you!
Beautiful loaf, and delicious! I’ve been looking for a sourdough sandwich loaf that was at least 50% or so whole grain and that I could also fit into my work day (can only do so many stretch and folds before the afternoon zoom meetings start) – thank you for this recipe. I mixed the levain at 9pm the previous night and left it at room temperature before mixing the dough together at 9am the following morning, but for my work schedule it would be better to mix the dough around noon. The recipe mentions putting the levain in a warm place for five hours, so I could easily mix the levain at 7am, but would I need to increase the amount of starter? If so, what would the proportions be? Thanks again!
Yes, if you want to want to make a 5hr levain you’ll need about 50% sourdough starter to flour weight in the levain.
Hey Maurizio, I made this loaf the other day and it turned out very tasty, but quite sour (no sweetness at all), with a crumb that looked moist / gummy (even though I let the bread cool fully for 3 hours before slicing). I was wondering if you could help me debug what I might be doing wrong! I followed the recipe exactly, except for using store bought, not home milled, flour. My bulk and final rise times were about the same as yours, maybe slightly longer — I used the poke test on the final loaf to determine when to bake. I did use all the reserved water when mixing in the buckwheat, so perhaps that was causing the moist looking crumb? The texture of the inside is quite firm and bouncy / shiny, not soft like sandwich bread. I’m thinking the extremely sour flavor (like proper sourdough!) was because of either my levain (maybe overripe?) or my rise times, though I don’t think I let things overproof 🙁 It’s still delicious as a sourdough sandwich bread though! Thanks for the great blog.
Hey there! It sounds to me like it might have over proofed on you, and this might have also been related to over hydration. I’d say try dropping the water by 50g or so and really keep an eye on the dough in bulk fermentation, you might need to cut it 15m – 30m short.
Hi Maurizio! Can I use buckwheat flour instead of cereal?
I wouldn’t! That will change the recipe as buckwheat flour acts much differently than the mix-in cereal. If you’re looking for a recipe with buckwheat flour, check out my cherry + pecan buckwheat sourdough bread recipe, it’s a tasty one!
This looks amazing! I’m clean out of white whole wheat at the moment — would I be able to sub regular (red) whole wheat, perhaps using a lesser amount to keep the flavor less intense?
Thanks! Yes, absolutely, it’ll be delicious. The result will be little more flavor-forward, but I think that’s a great thing!
Thanks. This recipe looks great and I intend to try it over the weekend. As for adding a porridge, I have used polenta and/or an Indian cereal product called Wheat Dalia in other breads. I am anxious to try buckwheat. Also, adding some nigella seeds to the dough is a nice touch. Gives a slight onion background flavor to the bread. BTW thanks for clarifying the water issue.
Is it OK to let the leaven ripen overnight instead of the five hours?
Sorry, I re-read the entire article and note that your timetable calls for soaking the porridge overnight. Anyway, just finished the bake and both loaves look exactly like the pictures. Taste is spectacular! Thanks for adding another arrow to my quiver.
Sorry for the delay, Peter! If you want to let the leaven ripen overnight you’ll have to adjust the build parameters. I’d go with 10% sourdough to total levain flour instead of the 50% I call for. This will give it about 12 hours of “runway” before ripe (assuming room temp and same flour mixture).
So glad to hear it turned out well, Peter!!
I used a dough enhancer, steamed with just a pan of water and I got terrific rise. I was concerned since the dough seemed to be very low hydration and dense, but they turned out great. I wish I could show a picture.
Right on, Robert! Super glad to hear it turned out well for you. I too wish I had a way for attaching photos. Thinking about something for the future, there!
Can you please clarify the water in the buckwheat porridge bread? Looks like 65g in the levain, and a total of 495g additional in the mix? Thanks!
I added a little extra water in the levain as a buffer (as I mentioned in the note), so per the formula it should be 61g, but I bumped it up to 65g to add a little extra to the levain.
61g water levain (plus 4g “extra”)
157g water in porridge
452g water in mix first part
43g water in mix second part
Hope that helps, let me know if it’s still confusing!
Thank you, I’ve made this bread several times now and it is a favorite in our house. I was wondering if I could sub steel cut oats for the buckwheat cereal, and if so, would the proportion of oats to soaker water remain the same? Love your thoughtful and detailed recipes!
Love hearing that, Susan! Yes, I’ve actually used steel cut oats in exactly the same way, one-for-one. Works very well!
Looking forward to trying this one. Would KA white whole wheat flour work in place of the freshly milled? How about regular KA whole wheat flour? Thanks!
Yes, certainly (I love that flour)! See my reply to @disqus_XPYOe43QhY:disqus above.
How would I adjust the ingredient measurements for two 5x 9 1/2 x3 loaf pans? Don’t have Pullman pans and don’t want to buy any.
Also, can I use store bought white whole wheat flour?
I think the dough weight should probably be similar for this pans. They are the same overall volume, just slightly different dimensions. Yes, store bought white wheat will work, just be sure to give the dough plenty of time in bulk fermentation. I used freshly milled white wheat which will be much more active and speed fermentation along. Try to use the words and photo I have up in the post to gauge when your dough is ready to be divided.
Hi could i use Red River cereal instead of Buckwheat ? I bought Buckwheat out of bin at health food store..would that work or is that just a grain?
Yes, that will work! Really, any cracked grain will work for the porridge/soaker.
okay will try, In the process of making now. Will send pic if all goes well. going to make boules and bake in my covered cast iron pot. same as my sourdough. should work.
What about cracked rye?
Yes, that would be awesome as well!
Hello Maurizio, love the look of these two loaves, do you use (buckwheat cereal), stone ground with 158 grams of boiling water in bowl to soak for 1 hour…🤔
I’m a bit confused about the (buckwheat cereal) which one is it🤔
Thanks! It’s called “buckwheat cereal” by Bob’s Red Mill, but really it’s just cracked buckwheat groats. Combine the cereal with the water called for and let soak until used in mixing.
Ok and thank you so much Maurizio..
I made this loaf today using buckwheat cereal instead of the cracked buckwheat. Was worried as there didn’t seem to be enough water and it was an incredibly dry cereal. But it all worked out in the end, looks and tastes delicious.
Awesome, Lesley! Yes, depending on your cereal it can be quite dry, but it’s better to be conservative with adding water there–in my testing I had a few over hydrated loaves! Glad it turned out well, enjoy 🙂
great idea. Tangzhong is a technique every bread baker should explore!
(I am having difficulty grasping your meaning in your first paragraph above where you chose “eschews”. What am I missing?)
Yikes! Sorry, mean’t “exudes” 🙂 Fixed!
Question: In the instructions under divide and preshape you say the following: Divide and Preshape (12:15 p.m.)
Scrape the dough out from your bulk fermentation container to your work surface. Using wet hands, divide the dough in half. Lightly shape each half into a round shape. Let the dough rest for 350minutes, uncovered. Do you really mean 350 minutes? Perhaps it should be 35 minutes.
Typo! It should only be 30 minutes. Fixing now 🙂
If baking this bread the next day would i take the bread out of the fridge and let it fully rise or bake directly from the fridge? Thanks! I’m going t loo my myo make this tomorrow, it looks delicious 👍
As long as you take bulk fermentation far enough, you should not need any time on the counter to proof the next day—bake straight from the fridge. Thanks and let me know how you like it, I’m eating (another) slice right now and just love it!
Thank you so much. I am very excited to try this loaf!
My bread is out of the oven and I am patiently waiting 2 hours for it to cool. It looks great! I would send a picture but don’t know how.
I messed up at the beginning and added the cooled porridge at the beginning. I was sooo upset! But i did a workaround by autolysing the whole thing for 45 mins then mixing on low for 3minutes/resting 3minutes and doing this mix/rest 3 times total. Then followed the balance of the directions. Thanks for the great recipe!
Ah, no worries about adding it in a little early, Christine. With sandwich bread like this, it’s fine and this dough doesn’t need extensive mixing, anyway. So glad it’s looking good! Enjoy 🙂
I just had a piece (well, many pieces if truth be known) and it is beyond delicious! I love this bread!! Thanks again for this wonderful sandwich bread recipe. I definitely will be making it often. 👍👍👍
So awesome to hear that, Christine!
This looks great. Can buckwheat flour be substituted for the groats?
Thanks! I’m using the groats as more of a soaker mix-in so it’s not calculated as a flour component. If you added the same quantity of buckwheat flour as the groats, you’d probably end up with quite a bit of buckwheat flour in the final bread and would result in a denser loaf. If you want to, you could skip the buckwheat porridge altogether (water and groats), and sub out perhaps 5% of the whole wheat flour for buckwheat. I’ve been playing with a recipe like this and it’s tasty!
I omitted the water and groats from the mix and it ended up really dry. I feel like I should have added that water in to get the right percentages