PULLAPART LOAVES – Dec 18/16

December 18, 2015
Yield: 30 little loaves, lovely to serve with a dinner or as a snack with coffee.

If you let them rise really well before baking they are just so soft and delicious!

Until this year I have always baked half brown & half white buns to serve over the holidays. It has been quite a few years since I have baked PULLAPART LOAVES (page 48) so yesterday I took out my EAT MORE WHOLE GRAINS cookbook out and decided to make these instead of the usual brown buns.

Well they turned out so well that I decided I would not bother with the usual white buns at all. Seeing all of our children really do enjoy whole grain breads, why not stick to what is a healthier choice.(They love white buns too, but why not just serve nutritious buns; after all they get the white buns far too often.)

I doubled the recipe last night and turned it into 30 little PULLAPART LOAVES and 4 big loaves of raisin bread.
They turned out so well that I decided to give some buns to a few friends when we visited today and I came home to start another double batch that I am now baking.

2 cups water
1 cup cracked wheat or Red River Cereal
1 cup milk
1/2 cup kefir or plain yogurt
1/3 cup lard or vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 cups freshly milled whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons fast rising yeast
3 cups unbleached flour
Sprinkle the top with any of the following seeds: sesame, poppy, cracked wheat, oatmeal,
caraway, toasted wheat germ, cornmeal, or finely chopped nuts.

Cook the cracked wheat in 2 cups of water; either 5 minutes in the micro-wave or 10 minutes on simmer on the stove. Cool to lukewarm

Put the cooked grain, milk, kefir, lard, eggs, honey, salt and whole wheat flour into a large bowl. Beat well. Then beat in the yeast.
Knead in the unbleached flour. If the dough is too soft, add up to another half cup. Knead 8 – 10 minutes. If using a Bosch to mix, see the quicker method below with no need to let rise before shaping.
If hand kneading, when done, cover the bowl with a towel and place in a warm draft free place to rise to double.

Punch down and shape into 30 small balls. Place 6 in each loaf pan. Cover with a towel again to let rise double.
Brush lightly with a beaten egg. Sprinkle with the seeds of choice. Bake at 350 º F for 20 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove from oven and pans to a rack or towel to cool.

BOSCH KNEADING METHOD
You can save time when mixing in a Bosch or other dough kneading machine. Besides the 2 hooks, the Bosch has an extra flat piece that stretches the dough & helps develop the gluten. So if using the Bosch, after adding the unbleached flour, just cover the bowl with the outside ring and knead on low for 9 minutes. (gluten is now developed) Then shape into balls and proceed to let rise and bake as above.

For many more healthy grain and seed yeast recipes see EAT MORE WHOLE GRAINS cookbook. The yeast recipes in this cookbook have both methods of kneading; by hand and by machine.

I wish working on the computer & taking pictures was as easy as baking. I am gradually learning how to put these posts on the website, but it has been a learning journey. Hope you will excuse the unprofessional look at times.
Have a Blessed Christmas & A Happy & Healthy New Year! Winnie