Healthy Whole Grain Flatbread | Video Tutorial 2: Method And Baking

After the previous post about making the starter (biga), George Eckrich now demonstrates the entire recipe and stretch-and-fold method of his healthy whole grain flatbread. The video tutorials explain step-by-step how to mix and develop the dough, and how to bake this highly nutritious loaf of wonderful bread.

Mixing The Dough

Step 1:
1 Cup boiling water
1 Cup rolled oats (not instant).
1 T molasses
1 T salt
Add the boiling water to these four ingredients, mix together and let cool. The boiling water will dissolve the salt and molasses and explode the starch to encourage water absorption.

Step 2:
To the water-oatmeal-molasses-salt mix, when cooled, add
Preferment from the previous biga tutorial post
Remainder of 1 package of yeast.
3 1/2 cups of white whole wheat or whole wheat flour.
2 Cups water

Mix all together and work into a stiff but still sticky dough. If the dough is too wet, add ¼ to ½ cup additional flour. I mix and then knead with a heavy spatula for a minimum of 100 strokes or until my arm is kaput. Let rest covered in a plastic bag for 1 hour.

After this initial dough rest, oil your hands and gently stretch and fold the dough to increase its strength. Oil the sides of the bowl very lightly to prevent sticking. Let rest for 1 more hour.

At this point, divide the dough into 5 small pieces, pre-shape into balls, and let rest on a floured surface while you grease/oil the baking trays or baking sheets. I use a good quality margarine to grease the trays and I sprinkle the trays heavily with oats to keep the “foot” or bottom of the bread from sticking to the tray.

Pat out the dough balls into ½ inch flatbreads, cut into the edge so that there are 5 or 6 sections for easy separation after baking, then place on baking sheets or trays.

Preheat oven and let flatbreads rest for 35 to 40 minutes.

Before placing in the oven, brush the tops with water and bake at 500 degrees for 12 minutes, then turn the oven down to 350 and bake for another 13 minutes. Let cool on wire racks or on a cutting board.

Touching our Bread Heritage: Whole Grain Flatbreads

Whole wheat bread dough is not very good about standing up at attention and maintaining a nice round shape. Whole grain breads tends to flow and flatten out, all on its own. Most bakers accomplish a strong shape and loaf stability by adding extra gluten or a liberal portion of white flour to the recipe. If we stop obsessing about the perfect slice of bread and consider what our ancestors did with bread, the answer is pretty clear. Let the bread fall, and bake flatter bread. At Dr. Kracker we only bake flatbread. But this is the very thinly rolled out cracker bread popular in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. I’m recommending something more like bread as we know it.

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Recipe Updates:

Since posting this recipe in October 2009, I have made some subtle changes. This recipe has become a family favorite, especially of my 15-year old son, who is a very picky eater.

One time, when I was out of the rolled oats, I switched to steel cut oats. I treat the steel cut oats same as the rolled oats: 1 Cup of oats covered with boiling water. And as with the rolled oats, I add the sea salt and the molasses to the oats so that they are fully dissolved when added to the recipe. This is stirred occasionally until the mix cools and the water is more or less absorbed. As in the original recipe, this mix cannot be added to the main dough until it has cooled so as not to kill the yeast.

The Seedish Mix

One of Dr. Kracker’s signatures is the use of seeds in all of the flatbread crackers. Seeds are nature’s nutritional power house, containing protein, fiber, minerals, micro nutrients and the ultra rich omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. It’s always amazed me what comes out of these little nuggets of life.

To enhance the nutritional value of this whole grain flatbread and to add a nutty flavor, try the following:

Oats (rolled or steel cut): ¾ Cup
Flax seeds: ¼ Cup ground in a coffee grinder
Sunflower Seeds: ½ Cup

On a net basis, you can see that we are replacing oats with ground flaxseeds and adding some additional sunflower seeds. I still add a cup of boiling water to the mix of seeds and oats with the sea salt and the molasses and stir to aid in the absorption of water. The flaxseeds, ground or whole, will absorb lots of water, and the soaking releases some of the soluble fiber that will become part of the bread. Aside from the enhanced nutritional characteristics, the seeds absorb more water and keep the bread moister for a longer period of time, thus preventing the bread from going stale.

Whole Grain Flatbread

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