Application Guide

SPECIALTY FLOUR BREADS
Specialty flours, also known as non-wheat flours, include all flours not ground from
wheat. While many of S these flours are not as well known as wheat, they are all ex-
ceptional for making bread in the bread machine. In your search for good whole grain
breads, don’t shy away from recipes that feature some of these unfamiliar grains. Their
imaginative addition to wheat loaves creates breads with a fascinating variety of new
flavors, aromas, and textures, for example, cornmeal millet, white barley bread, or oat-
meal whole wheat. Cooked grains, such as millet, wild rice, buckwheat groats, bulgur
wheat, black rice, polenta, and hominy, meld beautifully into a loaf of bread. The tex-
ture of bread made with specialty grains and flours varies from smooth and fine-tex-
tured to coarse and crumbly. There is no common definition because each flour is so
different and comes not only in whole grain form, but also as fine flour, coarse meal,
rolled flakes, and cracked grains. Non-wheat flours have varying amounts of protein,
fiber, and nutrition. Some are easy to eat, others are an acquired taste.
If you tried to create a yeasted loaf from all, or a large percentage of,
specialty flour, you would produce a dense, flat loaf because of the lack of gluten in
these grains. (Gluten is present only in wheat and rye flours.) Specialty flours must be
used in small proportions along with plenty of high-gluten bread flour and vital wheat
gluten in order to give the loaf an internal structure. I have created recipes here that are
easy to make and will be to the liking of even the fussiest bread eater. Specialty flours
are added in only a small proportion, comprising from just a few tablespoons to a quar-
ter of the total flour in the loaf. Still, each flour and grain addition will result in a dif-
ferent feel—a whole wheat and cornmeal loaf will have a grainy texture in comparison
to a loaf with the bumpy texture of rolled oats, cracked wheat, and wild rice added to
some barley flour.
The main trick to working with doughs made with specialty flours is
to remember that they soak up a lot of moisture during rising, as compared to white
flour breads, which soak up the moisture right away during the mixing and kneading.
When you check your dough ball, leave these doughs, as you do whole wheat doughs,
a bit moister than usual to avoid a finished loaf that is too dry. When you touch the
grain-rich dough gently with your finger, it will pull up as you pull your finger away,
yet still look like a nice ball of dough. You want the dough to retain its tacky feel, so
resist the urge to sprinkle it with more than 1 or 2 teaspoons of flour during the Knead
2 segment of the cycle.
These doughs emit a wonderfully grain-sweet, yeasty aroma during
the rising that I find as intoxicating as the aroma during baking. Do not be put off by
slow risers. Specialty flour doughs are notorious for remaining under half their finished
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