Whole grain bars with seeds

Eva, author of Bake-Street, brings us some delicious whole-grain bars. You'll see how easy they are to make at home, and they'll only require a pinch of patience, nothing more; and the wait will be rewarded, because you're going to love this seed bread!

One of the types of bread we like most at home are the bars or mini baguettes. Since they come in individual portions, they’re very practical for making sandwiches, breakfast toast or, simply, for serving them at a meal to each diner. Today we’re going to see how to make some very simple whole grain bars with seeds.

Bread on its own is a real treat, but adding seeds not only improves its final flavor, it also boosts its nutritional benefits.

To make this bread, I used a mix of brown and golden flax seeds, sesame, poppy seeds, millet, and sunflower seeds. Of course, you can always adapt the seed mix to your taste.

When working with seeds in bread, we can do it in two ways:

• Exterior: We will always use them raw
• Interior: They can be used toasted, dry, or with a prior soaker

In our case, we will use the seeds in both ways.

Why should I use the seeds on the outside raw?

Seeds on the outside of a loaf should always be used raw because they will toast during baking. If we use seeds that were previously toasted, they will keep toasting during baking, developing a bitter, unpleasant flavor.

What is a soaker?

The technique of soaking the seeds before being used in a dough is called soaker.

When applying this technique, we should consider toasting the seeds beforehand to add more flavor. Of course, there is no problem in using the seeds from the soaker untoasted, the only thing we need to keep in mind is that they will have less flavor.

To make a soaker with the seeds we need to consider how to carry it out. We will use the same weight of water as seeds that we are going to soak. That amount of water that we have used for the soaker, we must subtract it from the dough’s final hydration since it will also be present through the seeds.

We will make these whole-grain rolls with seeds without prior soaker. This means that part of the dough's hydration will be absorbed by those seeds. Something to keep in mind when you make this or other breads.

How to work with whole wheat flour?

Whole wheat flour is a bit more delicate than regular wheat flour; for that reason, when we knead this dough or any other dough with a percentage of whole wheat flour, we should do it gently.

It’s never advisable to knead bread roughly, and even less so when we’re working with this variety of flour.

Seeds should always be added at the end of kneading, when we have already developed the gluten network. The reason is that the presence of sharp shapes does not favor the dough developing properly at all, since they will cause tearing.

When you incorporate the seeds, do so gently and delicately, folding until they are evenly distributed across the entire surface of the bread.



Le Creuset jam jar, Opinel spreading knife and Opinel bread knife

Ingredients (for 3 whole-grain bars)

• 200gr of medium-strength flour W=280
• 100gr of whole wheat flour
• 210gr of water
• 15gr of honey
• 30gr of toasted seeds + raw seeds for the outside
• 2gr of dry yeast or 6gr of fresh yeast + 5gr of water
• 6,3gr of sea salt

Preparation

We prepare the dough for our whole-grain bars

1. In a bol large we add the two types of flour and mix with the help of a silicone spatula.
2. Add the water and mix until both ingredients are fully combined; there should be no dry flour left.
3. To mix it we can do it in manually or in a Kitchen Aid-style mixer and using the hook. We will always mix at the lower speed for a maximum of 2 minutes.
4. We cover the dough with a cotton cloth and we allow autolysis to occur for 30 minutes.
5. After this resting period, add the yeast. Dissolve the yeast in the 5gr of water and pour it over the dough to fully incorporate.
6. Add the honey along with the salt and knead again until fully incorporated.
7. Once the dough has developed gluten, add the seeds.
8. We will knead carefully to avoid tearing the gluten network. We should make gentle folds until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

We do the first fermentation and/or bulk fermentation

1. We put the dough into a airtight container or bowl previously greased with olive oil. Cover with its corresponding lid or plastic wrap, to prevent the dough from forming a crust, and let it undergo a first fermentation of 3-hour block at room temperature.
2. The dough will rise 2/3 of its volume. At that point we refrigerate the dough until the next day.

We pre-shape and shape the baguettes

1. We bring the dough to room temperature 2 hours or 2 and 1/2 hours before of working with the dough.
2. Lightly flour a work surface and turn out the dough.
3. We divide into three equal portions—about 190gr each—and pre-shape.
4. We cover the pieces with a cotton cloth and let rest for 15-20 minutes. After this time, we proceed to shape our baguettes.
5. We will have prepared a coated of linen or, failing that, a very large linen or cotton tablecloth, dust generously with flour. Set aside.
6. To form the bars we will do it the same way we formed the olive baguettes. You can see it illustrated in that post and read it in detail in the post by traditional baguettes.
7. Once it’s shaped, spray with water and cover the entire exterior with seeds.
8. We place the whole-grain bar on the coated. We repeat this step with the other two pieces.
9. Cover and let rise for about 60-90 minutes. You should notice that they almost double in volume.

We bake the baguettes

1. When there are 45 minutes left to bake the baguettes, we will preheat the Emile Henry oven.
2. We place the ceramic oven, base and lid, on the rack located at the lowest part of the oven and Preheat to 250°C.
3. We uncover the baguettes and proceed to make the cuts before putting them in the oven. We will do it with a blade or a slightly moistened lame to prevent it from sticking to the dough and tearing it.
4. The cuts should not be slanted; they are practically straight. We will make 2 cuts on the baguette with a quick, confident motion; we should not hesitate or cut again over a cut. It will be somewhat laborious due to the presence of seeds on the outside.
5. Once we have scored the three loaves, we mist them with a little water and place them in the oven:
6. With about oven mitts retiramos the lid of the ceramic oven and set it down on a surface it can't damage, the glass-ceramic cooktop for example. We transfer the sticks, as quickly as possible, to the Emile Henry oven, and leave them over the cavities.
7. We cover again with the ceramic oven lid, close our oven, and bake for 10 minutes at 250ºC.
8. After this time, reduce the temperature to 240ºC and bake for 10 more minutes.
9. Finally, we remove the lid of the ceramic oven, always using gloves, and bake for about 5-8 minutes with air at 220ºC.
10. Remove and let cool on a rack.

Storage: This bread has a short shelf life; ideally, it should be consumed on the same day we make it.

Emile Henry Ceramic Baguette Baker

Important Notes

• This time I'll show you how to make the bars in 2 days. That way we can split up the work and make it more manageable. It also enhances the bread’s flavors after a resting period. But if you want to do the whole process in one go, just let it rise until it doubles during the first fermentation and then follow the process exactly as I detail it in the recipe.
• If we make the loaves with sourdough, We need to be much more careful with fermentation. Whole wheat flour greatly speeds up the proofing process, and we risk overproofing if we get distracted.
• The seeds I'm referring to are optional, you can always adjust them to your liking.
• If we don't have shovel to transport the bars of the coated baked we can do the following. Place a strip of parchment paper on the couche, and on top of it place the baguette, so that once it has risen it will allow us to move it to the oven without having to handle it with our hands, since we risk ruining it.
• We don't have to let the baguettes rise in the Emile Henry oven, as specified in the manual, because we need to preheat it well before using it in order to get good results after baking. Otherwise, they would turn out soft or gummy.
• We should make the cuts or scoring on the small loaves right before baking. We can't score them a few minutes before putting them in the oven.
• The final bake should be with the fan on because it helps achieve a nice, even golden color and removes excess moisture, allowing for a thin, very crispy crust.

We hope you'll get excited about these very soon whole grain bars with seeds. As you can see, different varieties of bread can be baked in the Emile Henry ceramic oven, not only baguettes but also this smaller format.

It could be a fantastic option for making individual bread rolls for the upcoming holidays. Don't you think?