Whole Grain Breads w/ Peter Reinhart

I took a class at the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking last week with award-winning chef Peter Reinhart. The focus was whole grain breads. Most people, as Reinhart pointed out, know very well that whole grains are good for them, but they've also discovered that they often taste bitter and not nearly as good as, say, a fresh baked Italian bread. To quote page one of his newest book, we will only eat whole grain breads "if they taste very, very good." The class delivered on this promise.

Reinhart's emphasis is on pulling out the flavor hidden in whole grains, which includes converting some of the starches to sugars. Reinhart's technique is to make two pre-doughs and combine them after a day or so of flavor development. He called this "the epoxy method," because, like epoxy glue, two substances that are relatively inert on their own combine to make something much more useful. Apparently Reinhart devised this method himself, and it is considered somewhat revolutionary in the field of breadmaking. Despite the numerous steps, the whole process ends up involving less labor than typical breadmaking because less kneading (and other labor) is required--time and the epoxy method create the flavor. Both of Reinhart's most recent books have won James Beard Awards.

None of this matters, of course, if the bread doesn't taste good, and it definitely did. Perhaps the most impressive recipe was the miche (pictured above), a bread originally conceived by French baker Lionel Poilâne* and considered to be the national bread of France right now. Reinhart's version is much easier than Polaine's, and Reinhart says his shortcuts would have gotten him "kicked out of Polaine's bakery." They result in a damn good bread, though. There's a definite sourdough flavor, and it essentially tastes like a heartier version of a good French loaf. It's supposed to be made with high extraction flour, which is a cross between wheat and white flour. One can appoximate this, though, by combining 25% bread flour and 75% whole wheat flour.

The other doughs we "made" were mash, spent grain, and vollkornbrot (whole grain German Rye). Because of the nature of Reinhart's breadmaking technique, we couldn't make anything start to finish. We combined the two pre-doughs (typically a "soaker" and a "biga") along with some other ingredients, kneading quite briefly in a stand mixer, and took home some of each dough to make on our own.

The mash bread was somewhat sweet and would be a perfect sandwich bread. A "mash" (which is more typically used in brewing) involves holding grains at a certain temperature, quite hot but below boiling, for an hour or more (the times and temperatures are important, but not nearly as exacting as in brewing). This extracts sugar from the starches.

The spent grain bread uses spent barley (or wheat) from the brewing process. This loaf was very hearty (but not too bitter) and would be good with a flavorful meal. The vollkornbrot was extremely full-flavored and almost black from the rye, molasses and cocoa added. It was basically a pumpernickel**. Reinhart said that it holds up against any accompaniment, and it would probably be great with some corned beef.

The class was very enlightening and enjoyable. The extensive theory behind the baking, which I've only briefly summarized here, sometimes became overwhelming, but I definitely felt like I learned a lot. Reinhart was extremely friendly and helpful, and even gave us his e-mail address to help us with any troubleshooting while we were baking.

I baked all four doughs at home (we also made yummy crackers, and hopefully that dough is still good as it's unyeasted and in the fridge). Each bread, especially the miche and vollkenbrot, was well-received by Sarah and her family when we had them over. We're still working on the spent grain and mash, and I'm looking forward to taking them to lunch with me tomorrow. I'll definitely try making a loaf or two on my own once these are gone.

*Bread making is so important in France that the entire country went into mourning for days after Poilâne died a few years ago in a helicopter crash.

**Reinhart told us that the term "Pumpernickel" supposedly comes from the the idea that this kind of bread was only good enough to be fed to a horse (one named "Nicolas"). "Pumper" may mean "to fart," referring to the high fiber content of the bread. Apparently the recipe has been improved since the time of the story.