Quinoa Bread

This recipe is from the Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day...a cookbook I highly recommend!!

This makes enough dough for at least four 1-pound loaves.  The recipe is easily doubled or halved.

3 cups white (or regular) whole wheat flour
3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour (must be UNBLEACHED)
1 cup whole grain quinoa, uncooked
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets (bulk yeast is much, much cheaper!!)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
3 3/4 cups lukewarm water

1. Mixing and storing dough:  Whisk together the flours, quinoa, yeast, salt and gluten in a 5 quart bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid).

2. Add water and mix without kneading, using a spoon, a 14 cup food processor with dough attachment, or a heavy duty stand mixer (with paddle).

3. Cover (not airtight), and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

4. The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold.  Refrigerate it in a lidded (not airtight) container and use over the next 10 days.  The flavor will be best if you wait for at least 24 hours of refrigeration.

5.  On baking day, dust the surface of the dough with flour and cut off a 1 pound piece (large grapefruit size).  Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.

6.  Elongate the ball into a narrow oval.  Allow the loaf toe rest on a pizza peel prepared with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper for 90 minutes (40 minutes if you're using fresh unrefrigerated dough).  Alternatively, you can rest the loaf on a silicone mat or a greased cookie sheet without using a pizza peel.  (I use a piece of parchment paper dusted with flour).

7.  Thirty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450*, with a baking stone placed on the middle rack.  Place an empty metal broiler tray on any other rack that won't interfere with the rising bread.

8.  Just before baking, use a pastry brush to paint the top with water.  Slash the loaf with 1/4-inch-deep parallel cuts, using a serrated bread knife.

9.  Slide the loaf directly onto the hot stone (or place the silicone mat or cookie sheet on top of the stone if you used one).  Pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door.  Bake for about 30 minutes, until richly browned and firm.  If you sued paper, silicone, or cookie sheet, carefully remove it and bake loaf directly on the stone or over rack two-thirds of the way through baking.  Smaller or larger loaves will require adjustments to resting and baking times.

10.  Allow the bread to cool on a rack before slicing or eating.

Now, I have recently discovered an easier way to do the baking.  I now use a Pampered Chef Deep Covered Baker or you could use a cast iron Dutch Oven and skip the whole broiler tray/water step.  When I turn the oven on to preheat, I put the Baker in, too.  Then I dump the bread on the Parchment paper right into the baker.  I bake for 30 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.  Works fabulously!!