Peter Reinhart’s - Whole Wheat Mash Bread

Disaster. That word ran through my head over and over this past weekend (and yes part of it was from watching the Eagles give away yet another game to the undeserving team whose name we will not mention). Disaster, first when the mash did not resemble the gravy like characteristics described in the book, but instead it had more of a cream of wheat texture. Then when I tasted it before and after, there was not a distinct increase in sweetness as described in the book. But I had put 3 hours into this bread already so there was no turning back at this point.

I think I should take a step back at this point, and answer the question of: why on earth would I go through the trouble of attempting to make a mash based bread. Well, for one I wanted to use a mash in order to begin to build a sour dough starter, and thus needed to learn how to make a mash. Secondly, it was supposed to taste better and have a smoother, creamier texture. To me both are good enough reasons in and of themselves, so why not give it a shot…

So, the weekend drug on and I eventually found the time to make a biga, this time using buttermilk to compensate for the lack of a starter. I woke up the next morning and was terrified to find that it hadn’t risen at all… but after pulling it out of the fridge it rose as it warmed up. So with my heart thumping, that disaster was avoided, and I was at least confident the biga was acting somewhat as expected and began to do the final mix.

Two hours and two rises later, a freshly risen panned loaf of bread sat in my hand as I opened what should have been a preheated oven… but no it was cold. Disaster. Not only had the pilot gone out, but in the process of getting that fixed another leak in the old stove was discovered and fixed as my panned/risen loaf sat in the fridge. I came back to it the following morning, hoping that it was salvageable (Disaster) only to find that it had shrunken nearly to its original size. Three hours after pulling it out of the fridge it had finally re-risen slightly, but not nearly as much as before, or as I hoped. So I slid it into the oven and waited to see what would happen.

The end result was dense, mainly because of it falling in the fridge (probably due to yeasts dying in the fridge over night), with a slightly sour flavor. But despite all of the issues and failures and miss steps, the bread still had a creamy texture. In the end, I think I need to try this again being much more careful with the initial mash, as far as the other issues – I am amazed that it did as well as it did despite being panned for over 12 hours. And I am still really happy that I was able to get that creamy texture that has been so elusive so far, even if the loaf, on the whole, was a failure.

Difficulty: Difficult

from: Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor.


Tips:
1. Make sure you have plenty of time – making a mash is time consuming.
2. If using a biga and active dry yeast - activate your yeast first in 2 tablespoons of water before mixing it with the flour and buttermilk.