Molasses Mash Bread

The dark-hued breads found at Cheesecake Factory and Outback restraurants may just be the best thing on their respective menus. Dense and sweet, when married with a generous slather of salted butter, spells "delicious." This recipe is based upon the recipes found in Peter Reinhart's book, "Whole Grain Breads." In the book he outlines a mash method that attempts to keep your oven hovering around 150 °F for the duration of the cook. I own a consumer sous vide "stick" so holding the mash at that temperature for several hours is super easy — barely an inconvenience.

To ensure the finished bread has good chew to it, I substituted some bread flour, making this a transitional whole-grain recipe by the definitions in Reinhart's book.

Yields a single loaf or two batards.

Mash

• 100 mL molasses
• 200 mL warm water
• 120 g whole wheat flour

Biga

• 127 g whole wheat flour
• 100 g bread flour
• 1 g yeast
• 150 mL water

Final Dough

• 200 g whole wheat flour
• 55 g bread flour
• 8 g salt
• 7 g yeast
• 14 g honey
• 14 g olive oil

Miscellany

• olive oil (for lubricating bowls)
• additional bread flour (for final dough adjustments)
• plastic wrap