Pagnotta Multicereali
Following my recent post about posts (!), I thought I had better put my money where my mouth was and submit one of my recent bakes to the forum.
This bake has a bit of a quirky origin: SueVT recently posted about several baking books in Italian and posted a photo of a random recipe showing the effectiveness of smartphone camera translation.
The recipe, which caught my interest, was for Italian baguettes made with a multicereal flour. I don't tend to bake baguettes as my oven isn't big enough, but I thought the recipe would probably work for small boule shapes or pagnotta as I think the Italians call them.
The flour used was Molino Grassi Linea QB Multicereali - not something most of us will have to hand. Looking at the W index compared to the W of the Manitoba flour used, I estimated there was about 15% of non-gluten grain in the mix, so I used 85% of a similar Manitoba flour (basically strong Canadian or American wheat flour) and 15% of a mix of wheat, rye, barley, oats and rice grain all freshly milled together.
And this is what came out the other end:
Unfortunately one of the pagnotta stuck to the banneton liner when I turned out, making a bit of a mangled shape. Other than that, I was pleased with the bread produced - quite a chewy crust, but soft, open crumb. Flavour was mild, with no sour notes.
I think this flour mix might also be good for ciabatta with a bit of extra flavour compared to all white flour.
Here is my bread log entry in case anyone wants to look at the process details (or even bake it!):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1icbZ6S3N7IkC4pTyJhhgax8lCYrkBZFT/view?usp=drive_link
Lance
Comments
Lovely appearance and tasty looking.
Didn't appreciate that when the Italians say multi cereal that it would be so many cereals!
On the subject of TFL, I like to read TFL by /blog which also probably explains why I miss so many conversations.
Lance, very attractive loaves. I don’t see any mangling from banneton turning out. I too, like Jon, hadn’t expected a multicereal to be as varied as you’re describing. I’m sure it was delicious.
Benny
I guess each mill will have their own take on the multi-cereal theme. At least with a home mill, it's easy to make an approximation yourself.
Some of the Italian mills make very specialised products. For example Molini Pizzuti make separate flours for Pizza in Teglia and Pizza in Pala - I always thought they were pretty much the same thing!
Lance
Looks delicious, I thought a multi-cereal loaf would be darker inside, maybe the oat flour lightens the color?
Yes, I was surprised how light the bread came out. Perhaps because the oat, rice and barley brans are lighter in colour than wheat/rye bran?
Lance
That looks so delicious! Your photo looks better than the one in the book. Looks like it's worth a try - I have all of the "multiceriali" flours except barley, and I'm happy to skip that one. Thank you! - Sue
Yes, give it a try. I'm sure you can miss out any one flour from the mix and adjust the others accordingly
. But don't dismiss barley - one of my favourite "off white" flour mixes of the moment is 9% barley, 3% toasted buckwheat, 3% toasted wheatgerm; the balance is bread flour.
Lance