Using Farro to Make Hearty Bread

Most posts that promote the virtues of farro suggest you eat it as part of a salad, soup, or breakfast bowl. But I found at least one recipe for using farro to make bread, and that recipe is shown below.

Farro is an 'ancient grain' with lots of protein, magnesium, and zinc. It's known for its nutty flavor and chewy texture.

Our recipe is adapted from https://www.thespruceeats.com/farro-bread-recipe-3062249. There are plenty of excellent recipes and insights on this website.

To find out more about farro, proceed to https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/farro-benefits .

RECIPE (makes one medium loaf):

1/4 cup farro
3/4 cup boiling water
1 and 1/2 TSP salt
1 and 1/2 TBSP butter
1 TBSP molasses
1 TBSP brown sugar (add more if you want to sweeten up your loaf)
1 and 1/2 TSP Red Star platinum dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup whole milk (room temperature)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 and 1/4 cups of all-purpose unbleached flour

Directions:

*Stir the yeast into the warm water and let it activate while you do the next step.
*Cook/soften the farro in the boiling water for 15 minutes or until all the water is gone. Stir frequently during the cooking. Turn off the heat and let it cool for a minute, then mix in the salt, molasses, butter, and brown sugar. Let this cool down for a 3-5 minutes.
*Put the water/yeast into your EZ DOH container, and add the whole wheat flour, milk, 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, and the farro mixture. Use the hand-crank to blend everything together (about 2 minutes), and then add the other 1 and 1/4 cup of flour and hand-crank for another 2-3 minutes  to get a smooth, elastic mixture.
*Empty the dough into a container that is coated with olive oil. Turn the dough a few times to coat your dough ball, cover the container with plastic wrap and put it in a warm place to let it rise for at least an hour (or until it has about doubled in size).
*Take the risen dough, shape it into a loaf and put it into a loaf pan that has been lubricated to prevent sticking (we used olive oil). Cover with a tea towel and let it rise again (until doubled).
*Place in a pre-heated oven at 375 degrees and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the temperature in the middle of the loaf reads 185-190 degrees.
*Use a knife to coax the bread from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.
                                                                             

This loaf is a hearty, relatively dense bread with a surprisingly rich texture that stayed fresh for days. In some ways it resembled a pound cake in texture, and I had to be careful when toasting it so it wouldn't fall apart.
                                                                               

The dark color is a result of both the whole wheat flour and the molasses. If you want to find ways to incorporate ancient grains like farro into your diet, this recipe can be a good starting point.

Using Farro to Make Hearty Bread