I have a Grandmother Bread question.  I have been baking this bread weekly for sometime now and am always very pleased with the results.  I have fun adding some different flours.  Usually, half Best for Bread flour and half whole grain with 2Tbs. of Dough Enhancer.  This week I decided to knead in some sunflower seeds.  Wasn't sure how to go about it…decided on 1/4 cup (which now I know isn't enough for a loaf) and I added the seeds during the last 5 minutes of kneading. 

My problem is that the seeds seem to have all worked their way toward the surface so my crust has sunflower seeds but not the bread. 

When and how is the best time to add seeds so they are incorporated into the bread?

Thanks for your help.

Sandra

I make my bread with half all purpose flour and half wheat flour.  I do use egg and oil in it to make it fluffier, but I would like for it to be softer.  I read somewhere that using milk instead of water will make it softer.  Anyone have any thoughts on that?  I am thinking about trying it out tomorrow and replacing most of the water with milk.

I know I should use dough enhancer, I've just never bothered to make any.  Haha  I really should try that.  Anyway, I have 3 loaves of "milk experiment" bread rising, and they will go into the oven soon.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

I have found a recipe that calls for orange juice at the same ratio as the milk and water. I bet the recipe using orange juice could be interesting.

We are using our own brand of whole grain wheat flour.  We bought organic hard red wheat from a neighbor and then ground it ourselves. I have heard two different ideas why some wheat rises better than others but I can't remember them at the moment. If and when I do, I will post them. Maybe my husband remembers. He worked for a seed grower for many years, so he retains that kind of stuff, whereas I don't always.

I have made and used the diastatic malt with wheat. I don't have any barley at the moment, but would like to try it, and compare the two. Barley is supposed to be the most used in breads. It is pretty easy and I was able to dry it at a very low temperature, but it sure didn't want to go through our grinder very easily. 

Without any other enhancers, it did a very good job. I am still in the experimental phase with it, but am pleased it as the bread appears to rise fine. What I am finding so far is that I am getting some big bubbles here or there. I have seen this in one of my four loaves today. I will let you know how the other 3 turned out later. The flavor is good, though.

Since the malt works on starches and converts them to sugars, I would like to try using potato water in place of my water. I could have done that today, but forgot that I had some in the fridge! I will try it out next time. I am not sure if this might give me more or larger bubbles or give a heavier bread in the end when using the malt. Does anyone know?

I found that I needed to knead more too. I read somewhere that it should be 7-10 minutes the first time, and a little less the second time before you shape the loaves. I guess that I have been neglecting a good knead lately.

I have been putting it in the oven with the light on, and I put all of my cast iron in too, to help hold a nice even heat. It works wonders.

A side note to the diastatic malt…if you use it mixed with milk powder, you get malt flavor like what you would use in milk shakes, I understand. I love malted milk things!