Susan: Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread

The best way to master a skill, be it bread baking or brick laying, is to study under someone who has more experience than you do. Over the years I've found that the most helpful information these people can divulge usually falls under two categories: useful and unbelievable. Useful, as in, "How great! I never would have thought of that." And unbelievable, as in, "I can't believe anybody would be so stupid as to actually do that."

While I do have my useful moments, the majority of my experiences fall under the unbelievable category. And besides being stupid, I also tend to be quite stubborn. Stick around. You can learn a lot from me and my mistakes.

Take, for instance, this priceless piece of knowledge that I picked up while working on this month's bread recipe:

If you're in the middle of creating a totally new whole grain bread for a rapidly approaching deadline because at the last minute you suddenly decided that writing about the tried and true, previously posted recipe you'd planned to write about felt a little like cheating, don't decide after the loaves have already proofed in the pans for 45 minutes that you really need to dash to the post office to mail something out, especially if it only took an hour for the dough to double in size while fermenting, the post office is 10 miles away, and you know it can take 10 minutes just to get from the farmyard to the blacktop at the top of the driveway.

You see? Even when I read that paragraph I immediately think, "I can't believe anybody would actually do that." And yet for some idiotic reason I did.

But wait. There's more. Too stubborn to admit that there was anything wrong with my recipe except for the fact that I let the loaves proof so long that they only rose about three millimeters once in the oven, the next day (this would be the day the completed recipe and accompanying article were officially due) I proceeded to make up another batch of the exact same dough, despite the fact that I was pretty sure it called for too much cottage cheese, and may have had a few other problems.

This time I stayed home and closely monitored the proofing process, but the same thing happened. Despite doubling in size in less than an hour during the fermentation, the loaves hadn't risen much above the tops of the pans after proofing for an hour, and then they hardly rose in the oven. In a way this was a good thing, because by not messing with any of the ingredients I learned that the recipe itself is somehow to blame for the disappointing results.

The other good thing is that this bread, despite being on the short side, has, as my farmguy, Joe, put it, "a hell of a nice flavor." He also pointed out that it isn't really that short; I just tend to make very big sandwich bread.

This bread is dense but not brick like, and although it does contain white flour, as far as sandwich breads go it's really quite good for you. It's made with oat bran and wheat bran as well as whole-wheat flour, and the cottage cheese and milk add protein and calcium. The interior crumb is pleasantly moist with a nutty chewiness, and the cottage cheese gives it a very subtle tang. It makes hearty toast, and I shaped an extra hunk of dough into some fantastic burger buns. I think it would also make tasty dinner rolls.

But since I'm still not entirely happy with the recipe, what I'm going to give you here is the original recipe it's adapted from, which I created a year ago while looking for something to do with an outdated carton of cottage cheese. Although I didn't have a chance to bake it again this week, I know this recipe works because I have photographic evidence of the taller, beautiful loaves it produced (that's it in the top photo). And I even took detailed notes while making it.

I've included the new version in the sisdebar in case you desire a slightly shorter, somewhat denser, and definitely healthier loaf.

If, however, you don't completely trust either version of this bread (or me), I can safely recommend my Oatmeal Toasting Bread, which the three of us had originally decided I should write about this month. It's one of my favorite sandwich loaves, and I, along with many other people (including Beth), have successfully made it numerous times. Just don't ask me to divulge any of the unbelievable things I did during the several years I spent tweaking the recipe. There's only so much humiliation a girl can take at one time, no matter how much she wants to help others become better bakers by avoiding her mistakes.

Susan's Whole Grain Cottage Cheese Bread
Makes 2 loaves, approximately 1 1/2 pounds/680 grams each (56 ounces/1.6kg of unbaked dough). You can also use this dough to make rolls, buns, or freeform loaves like the 12 ounce/340 gram (round pictured above.

Ingredients US volume | Metric Volume | US weight | Metric weight
all-purpose flour 2 1/2 cups | 625 ml | 12 1/2 oz | 354 g
old-fashioned oats 1/2 cup | 125 ml | 3 3/8 oz | 53 g
oat bran 1/4 cup | 60 ml | 1 1/8 oz | 32 g
wheat bran 1/4 cup | 60 ml | 3/8 oz | 11 g
instant yeast 1 Tablespoon | 15 ml | 10 g
granulated sugar 1 Tablespoon | 15 ml | 13 g
canola oil 1 Tablespoons | 15 ml | 16 g
milk (or water) warm 2 cups | 500 ml | 16 oz | 454 g
cottage cheese 1 cup | 250 ml | 8 oz | 227 g
whole-wheat flour 2 1/2 cups | 625 ml | 13 5/8 oz | 387 g
salt 2 1/2 teaspoons | 12 ml | -- | 12 g

Mixing and fermentation
In a very large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour, oats, oat bran, wheat bran, yeast, and sugar (I use a wooden spoon). Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the canola oil and then the milk and cottage cheese. Mix well, then continue to stir vigorously, slowly adding 1/2 cup of the whole wheat flour at a time, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 7 or 8 minutes, adding a sprinkling of all-purpose flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface. Depending on your flour, your weather, and about 45 other variants, you might not need to add any more flour.

Place the mixing bowl over the dough, and let it rest for 20 minutes. This rest period is called the autolyse.

Remove the bowl, flatten out the dough with your hands, and sprinkle about half of the salt over it. Begin kneading the salt into the dough. After a few turns, sprinkle on the rest of the salt and continue to knead for 7 to 8 minutes, adding a small amount of flour if necessary, until the salt is completely incorporated and the dough is soft and smooth.

Susan's Whole Grain Cottage Bread: The Extra Version
This version came about because I have a More More More tendency when it comes to cooking and food. I wanted to cut the original recipe in half because it made 7 pounds of dough and I thought that might scare some people away, but it seemed silly to only use half a carton of cottage cheese. One half cup of cottage cheese per 28-ounce loaf hardly seemed worth the bother. I decided that extra cottage cheese, along with extra oat bran, oats, and wheat bran would make a better, not to mention healthier, bread.

Follow the recipe above, making these changes and decreasing the rising times as needed. You'll end up with about 69 ounces of dough.

1. Substitute bread flour for the all-purpose flour.
2. Double the amount of oats, oat bran, and wheat bran.
3. Double the amount of cottage cheese.

I've come up with some ideas about why this version isn't rising in the oven, but I haven't had a chance to test my theories. Since A Year In Bread is a learning experience, I thought I'd go ahead and mention them.

I do know that the extra cottage cheese doesn't make the dough too heavy to rise, because during the first rise (fermentation) it easily doubled in size both times I made it. But doubling in size took much less time than the original version (the dough was the same temperature), so it's possible the extra milk sugar may be causing the dough to rise more quickly at first, and that the yeast is already exhausted by the time the loaves are finally placed in the oven. But I don't notice any change in rising times when I make Farmhouse White and substitute 4 cups of milk for the 4 cups of water, so I'm thinking that's not it.

I also used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour, assuming the extra gluten in the bread flour would help offset the lack of gluten in the extra oats, oat bran, and wheat bran. It shouldn't have, but maybe that substitution did something? The increased amounts of bran and oats shouldn't have made the dough too heavy; I bake other similar breads with more that this in them, and they come out fine.

I've seen whole wheat bread recipes that call for just one rise; after kneading the dough you shape it straight into loaves. This would assure a nice height to the loaves, but without that second rise the resulting flavor, crumb, and texture aren't as nice. It would be interesting to try it, though.

Keeping both rises but letting the dough only increase in size by half or two-thirds during fermentation would be another option.

A shorter proofing period is another possiblity. I was afraid to put the loaves in the oven when they were barely up to the edge of the pans, assuming there wouldn't be any huge bloom when I put them in the oven, but if the yeast had some extra energy left they might really poof up.

This is what I love and hate about baking bread. The possibilities are endless!

While I love my antique wooden dough bowls and still use them for mixing doughs, I've started letting my doughs ferment in clear, straight-sided plastic containers with snap-on lids. Besides not having to cover the dough with damp tea towels or plastic wrap to keep the tops from drying out, the containers make it easy to tell when the dough has doubled in size; simply mark the height of the unrisen dough on the side of the container with a felt tip pen (it comes off when scrubbed with a sponge). For home baking, the containers don't need to be very big, and you can find inexpensive ones for sale almost anywhere.

Set your container of dough somewhere that is preferably between 70F and 75F (21 - 24C) until it has barely doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes. You should be able to push a floured finger deep into it and leave an indentation that doesn't spring back.

Ideally, the dough should also be between 70F and 78F (21 - 26C). It's easy to check the temperature of your dough and ingredients with an inexpensive instant read thermometer.

Shaping and final rise (proof)
Turn the risen dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, flattening gently with your hands to break up any large air bubbles. Divide the dough into two equal pieces. I flatten the dough into a large rectangle, use my bench scraper to cut up the dough, and then check the weights on my kitchen scale.

Shape the dough into loaves and place them seam side down in well-greased loaf pans. If desired, before you place the dough in the pans, brush them with water and roll the tops in oats; or you can put them in the pans, brush them with water, and sprinkle them with oats, but this doesn't work as well. There are dozens of ways to shape loaves; see this post for the method I use.

I use 8-inch x 4-inch pans; 9-inch x 5-inch pans will give you wider, shorter loaves. I can't say enough good things about these commercial loaf pans from Chicago Metallic. For the price of a few loaves of bread, they're definitely worth the investment. They also work great for baking beer bread. Note that what they call a 9-inch x 5-inch 1-pound loaf pan is what I call an 8-inch x 4-inch pan. The actual size of the pan is inbetween the two. Chicago Metallic also makes what they call a 1-1/2 pound loaf pan. I'll be using these same pans in our wholesale bread bakery once we have it up and running, only they'll be the 'strap version,' where four pans are strapped together so you can move them in and out of the oven at once.

I usually grease my pans with canola oil using a silicone pastry brush, but lately I've been using Trader Joe's Canola Baking Spray, which is, according to the label, "a unique formula developed for the exacting needs of home bakers. This superior coating provides an even, consistent coating of canola oil and flour for all baking pans." I figured for 99 cents I'd give it a try, and I love it. Unfortunately I've run out, and they've been out of stock for months.

Heat the oven to 375F (190C).

Cover the loaves with a damp tea towel and let them rise for about 45 to 60 minutes, or until the dough slowly springs back a little when you lightly poke it with a floured finger.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown and the bottoms sound hollow if tapped. Reduce baking time for smaller loaves, rolls, and burger buns. Remove immediately from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Try to wait at least 40 minutes before cutting into a loaf. Store at room temperature or freeze in zipper freezer bags. Make sure loaves are completely cooled before sealing in bags.

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