I’ve mentioned before that on Saturday mornings I often make my son French Toast for breakfast (click here for multiple recipes and photos) but today I made a variation…whole grain pancakes. And why I call this a 3-in-1 recipe is because of just that…I made three things out of one recipe. I often make and post recipes for bread on this blog where I use the same dough for a loaf of bread and pizza (click here for many recipes and photos) but today I also took a bit of the pre-ferment and autolyse (soaking flour) and made pancakes. Yum! Firstly, let me just say that pancakes are not my favorite food…not sure why, just don’t really care for them. But these were so delicious–if I do say so myself–that I ate half of them as they were coming out of the pan, sans syrup. I also topped them with fresh blueberries, caramelized banana, and pineapple syrup (click here for recipes one how to do this). This is an easy way to make pancakes using any of the whole wheat recipes you find on this blog…the next time I make Ezekiel Bread I’ll use some of it for these. Anyhow, the recipe for the bread dough and pancakes are below.
Whole Grain Pancakes
Serves two
1/2 cup fully fermented whole-grain starter (see recipe below)
1/2 cup autolyse (hydrated flour…see recipe below)
1/4 cup milk (more if needed)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Combine all of the ingredients together and cook in either butter or oil or a combination of both. Top with your favorite fruit and syrup (click here for syrup recipes).
Whole GrainBread
Makes 2 loaves
1 cup (6.6oz/187g) 7-grain mix
3 quarts (96floz/2.83L) water
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fully cooked grains
2/3 cup (5.3 oz/157ml) cookingliquid
2 cups (11oz/312g) whole wheatflour
2 teaspoons (.2oz/5.6g) instantyeast
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4 cups (21oz/595.3g) whole wheatflour
2 tablespoons (.5oz/14g) vitalwheat gluten
1 1/3 cups (10.5fl oz/315ml) cookingliquid
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1/4 cup (2fl oz/59.1ml) honey
1/4 cup (2fl oz/59.1ml) olive oil
3 teaspoons (.3oz/8.5g) instantyeast
3 teaspoons (.5oz/14.1g) koshersalt
Combine the grain and water in a mediumpot and bring to a boil; lower the heat to simmer and cook the ricefor about 45 minutes or until very soft. As the grain cooks add morewater to the pot as necessary because the cooking liquid, which isfull of nutrients, will become part of the recipe. After the grainsare cooked allow them to cool in the liquid to room temperature,refrigerating if necessary. Then drain it, squeezing it with yourhands or the back of a spoon, reserving the cooking liquid.
Place two bowlsside-by-side; one will hold the pre-ferment, the other autolyse. Inone bowl combine the cooked and drained 7-grains with 2/3 cup (5.3oz/157ml) of the cooking liquid, 2 cups (11oz/312g) whole wheatflour, and 2 teaspoons (.2oz/5.6g) instant yeast. Stir just untilcombined then cover it with plastic wrap. In the other bowl combine 4cups (21oz/595.3g) whole wheat flour, 2 tablespoons (.5oz/14g) vitalwheat gluten, and 1 1/3 cups (10.5fl oz/315ml) cooking liquid; stirjust until combined then cover it with plastic wrap (take care not toget yeast into this bowl). Allow the bowls to rest at roomtemperature for about an hour, during which time the preferment willbegin it’s job multiplying yeast and fermenting flour, and theautolyse will soak liquid, swelling the gluten.
After an hour or so, combinethe ingredients from both bowls into the bowl of an upright mixerfitted with a dough hook. Add the honey, olive oil, salt, and 3teaspoons (.3oz/8.5g) of yeast (add the yeast and salt on oppositesides of the bowl). Knead the dough on medium speed for about 8minutes. Place the dough in a lightly oiled container, cover itloosely, and allow to ferment for 1-2 hours, or until doubled inbulk. Deflate the dough and allow it to ferment an additional 30minutes. Turn the dough out onto afloured work surface and cut it into 2 pieces. Shape into loavesand place into lightly oiled pans. Loosely cover the loaves withplastic wrap and allow to ferment for 30-60 minutes, or until doublein size and when gently touched with a fingertip an indentationremains. Preheat an oven to 450f (232.2C). Bake the breads forabout 30-40 minutes, adding steam to the oven a few times (eitherwith ice cubes or a spray bottle) and rotating the breads every tenminutes. The breads are done when they are dark brown and soundhollow when tapped upon. Remove the breads from their pans and allowthem to cook on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before slicing.
Urban Simplicty 