Best Multigrain Boule Recipes

MULTIGRAIN BOULE

Steps:

• Make the starter: Stir together flours, yeast, and water with a rubber spatula in a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let stand at cool room temperature until it has risen slightly and is bubbling, 12 to 15 hours.
• Make the dough: Whisk together flours, wheat germ, seeds, and yeast in a large bowl. Add water and starter, and stir with spatula until mixture comes together in a slightly sticky, loosely formed ball of dough. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 20 minutes.
• Gently turn dough onto an unfloured work surface. Sprinkle with salt.
• To knead: Gather dough, lifting it above work surface. Hold one end of dough close to you while you cast the other end in front of you and onto surface. Pull the end of dough in your hands toward you, stretching it gently, then fold the dough in half on top of itself. Repeat: Lift, cast, stretch, and fold. Knead the dough until it is smooth, supple, and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. Use a dough scraper to clean the surface as needed, adding the scraps to the dough. (Dough will be very sticky, but avoid adding more flour until the end, when it may be necessary to add a very small amount. Add the flour to your fingers, not the dough.) Form dough into a ball.
• Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with oiled plastic wrap, and let rise at cool room temperature for 1 hour. Gently turn dough onto a lightly floured work surface. (Do not punch dough to deflate.) Fold dough into thirds, as you would a business letter. Then fold it in half crosswise. Return to bowl, cover, and let rise until it has almost doubled, 40 to 50 minutes.
• Gently turn dough onto lightly floured work surface. Spread into a rectangle that's roughly 12 by 8 inches. Fold dough into thirds, as you would a business letter, pressing seams with your fingers.
• Roll up dough tightly, starting at 1 short end. Gather edges, and gently pull and tuck them underneath the dough to create a round shape, pinching to seal.
• Place dough on the work surface. Cup hands around dough, and rotate it in circles until a smooth, taut ball forms.
• Place dough, smooth side down, in a colander lined with a generously floured linen towel. Cover loosely with a piece of oiled plastic wrap, and let rise at cool room temperature until it has almost doubled and a floured finger pressed into the side leaves a slight indentation, 40 to 50 minutes.
• Place a skillet on oven rack adjusted to lowest position and a baking stone on middle oven rack. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Turn boule out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Just before baking, use a lame or a razor blade to make 4 slashes on top of dough in the shape of a pound sign. Pour 1/2 cup hot water into skillet in oven. Slide bread and parchment onto baking stone.
• Reduce oven to 400 degrees. Bake, rotating halfway through, until bread is deep golden brown, sounds hollow when bottom is thumped, and interior registers 205 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, 65 to 75 minutes. Let cool on a rack. Bread is best the day you make it, but it can be wrapped in parchment and then foil, and stored at room temperature overnight (or frozen for up to 1 month; thaw at room temperature before serving).

DUTCH OVEN BAKED - SEEDED MULTIGRAIN BOULE

Steps:

• Mix dough: Grind rice in a blender or coffee mill (a food processor won't work) until mostly powdery but with some fine bits remaining. Transfer to a 6-quart (or larger) bowl. Thoroughly stir in 2 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, 2 cups bread flour, oats, wheat germ, 2 tablespoons each pepitas (or sunflower seeds), flaxseed, poppy seeds and sesame seeds, the salt and yeast. Thoroughly whisk 2 1/2 cups ice water and honey in a medium bowl. Vigorously stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, scraping down the sides and mixing just until the dough is thoroughly blended. The dough should be moist and somewhat sticky, but fairly stiff. (The seeds will absorb moisture, stiffening the dough as it stands.) If the mixture is too dry, stir in just enough additional ice water to facilitate mixing, but don't overmoisten. If the dough is too wet, stir in just enough bread flour to stiffen slightly. Lightly coat the top with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
• First rise: Let the dough rise at room temperature (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit) for 12 to 18 hours; if convenient, stir once partway through the rise. For convenience (and improved flavor), you may refrigerate the dough for 3 to 12 hours before starting the first rise.
• Second rise: Remove dough from bowl. Form loaf on parchment paper coated cookie sheet. Allow to rise at room temp for 1 1/4 to 2 1/4 hours, covered with a large bowl never allowing the dough to touch the bowl.
• 20 minutes before baking: Position a rack in lower third of oven with a 4 - 6 quart dutch oven in it, this is where you will cook the bread; preheat to 475 degrees.
• Brush the loaf with egg white and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas) and 1 tablespoon each flaxseeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds over the top (it will be heavily coated). Using well-oiled kitchen shears or a serrated knife, cut two 1/2-inch-deep concentric circles in the top of the loaf, one about 2 1/2 inches out from the center, the other 3 1/2 inches out.
• Slide dough from cookie sheet into the duch oven, the parchment paper should still be on the bottom of the dough. Bake, covered, on the lower rack until the top is lightly browned, 50 to 60 minutes. Uncover and bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs on the tip (or until an instant-read thermometer registers 204-206 degrees), 15 to 25 minutes longer. Remove from pot as soon as you remove from the oven. Cool on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool to at least warm before slicing (if you can!)