Name: French Mixed-Grain Bread
Yield: Three hefty baguettes or two large round or ring-shaped loaves
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: ½ teaspoon active dry or instant yeast; 1 teaspoon active dry or instant yeast; ½ cup unbleached bread or all-purpose flour; 1½ cups warm tap water (110 degrees); 3½ cups unbleached bread or all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting; ⅓ cup whole wheat flour; 2 teaspoons salt; ¼ cup warm tap water (about 110 degrees); ⅓ cup dark rye flour

Preparation info

Three
hefty baguettes

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

How to Bake

By Nick Malgieri

Published 1995

About

This is an adaptation of a bread called pain à l’ancienne (old-fashioned bread) from the book Pains Spéciaux et Décorés (Special and Decorated Breads) (Editions St.-Honoré) by Alain Couet and Erich Kayser.

Ingredients

Sponge

¼ cup warm tap water (about 110 degrees)
½ teaspoon active dry or instant yeast

Method

To make the sponge, place the water in a mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast. Stir in the flour smoothly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the sponge to rise at room temperature for about 8 hours, or overnight, until tripled in volume. If the temperature is warm, allow the sponge to rise until tripled, then refrigerate for the remainder of the 8 hours.