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100% Whole Wheat Bread from BBA

I've been admiring the whole wheat pan loaves txfarmer has shown us in recent weeks. Her use of intensive mixing to achieve a higher rise and airier crumb has particularly intrigued me. (See SD 100% WW sandwich loaf with bulgur (cracked wheat) - discovered a new favorite ingredient). When I read her blog, I decided to make the same bread. However, on further reflection, I changed my plan. I have a favorite 100% whole wheat bread – that in BBA – and I really don't like the combination of sourdough tang and whole wheat flavors. So, I decided to fiddle with Peter Reinhart's formula for 100% whole wheat bread using some of txfarmer's techniques to see if I could get a lighter-crumbed version of a bread I already know well and love. The crumb texture I have gotten with this bread is moist but rather dense and crumbly, following Reinhart's suggestions for mixing time. This is not at all unpleasant to eat, but is very different from the airier crumb txfarmer and khalid have shown.

Reinhart's formula calls for a soaker with a coarsely-ground grain and a whole wheat poolish. As usual, I used bulgur for the soaker, and I used fresh-milled whole wheat flour for the poolish. The flour in the final dough was KAF Organic Whole Wheat. The procedures described are those I used. They deviate from both Peter Reinhart's and txfarmer's in significant ways.

 

Soaker	Baker's %	Wt (oz)
Medium bulgur	100	4.25
Water	141	6

The day before baking, measure the bulgur into a 3 cup bowl. Pour the water over it and cover tightly. Leave at room temperature until used.

 

Whole Wheat Poolish	Baker's %	Wt (oz)
Whole wheat flour	100	6.75
Instant yeast	0.41	0.028 (¼ tsp)
Water	88.9	6

The day before baking, mix the poolish ingredients. Cover the bowl tightly. Allow to ferment until bubbles start to form (2-4 hours), then refrigerate.

 

Final dough	Baker's %	Wt (oz)
Whole wheat flour	100	9
Salt	3.7	0.33
Instant yeast	1.2	0.11 (1 tsp)
Honey	16.7	1.5
Vegetable oil (optional)	5.6	0.5
Egg, slightly beaten	18.3	1.65 (1 large)
Seeds to garnish (optional)		2 T
Soaker	114	All of above
Poolish	142	All of above

 

Procedure

1. Mix the soaker and poolish, as instructed above, the night before mixing the final dough.

2. One hour before mixing, take the poolish out of the refrigerator to warm to room temperature.

3. Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.

4. Using the paddle, mix at Speed 1until a ball forms on the paddle and the ingredients are well-mixed (1-2 minutes). Note that the dough should be quite tacky – neither dry nor sticky. Adjustments can be made by adding either water or flour during this step or during the next mixing step. (I added about 15-20 g additional water.)

5. Let the dough rest, covered in the mixer bowl, for 20-40 minutes.

6. Switch to the dough hook and mix at Speed 2 until a medium window pane can be made. (20-25 minutes) Note: Reinhart's instruction is to knead for 10-15 minutes, “less” if machine kneading.

7. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl.

8. Ferment for two hours or until the dough has doubled in volume, with a stretch and fold on the board at 60 minutes.

9. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form them into pan loaves.

10. Place the dough into lightly oiled medium loaf pans and place the pans in food-grade plastic bags or cover well with a towel or plasti-crap.

11. Proof until the loaves have almost doubled and are peaking above the rims of the pans. (About 90 minutes)

12. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF with a rack in the middle.

13. Optionally, spray the loaves lightly with water and sprinkle on seeds or rolled oats.

14. Optionally, score the loaves.

15. Bake for 45-60 minutes. At 30 minutes, rotate the pans 180º, if necessary for even browning. The interior temperature should be at least 195ºF, and the crust should be firm on the top and on the sides of the loaves. If necessary, return the loaves to the oven and bake longer. (My loaves were done in 45 minutes.)

16. Immediately transfer the loaves to a cooling rack.

17. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

I noticed two significant differences in this dough, compared to my previous bakes of this bread. First, the dough was less sticky than usual. Second, the loaves achieved significantly greater volume during proofing. I attribute this to the more intensive mixing, but also the S&F which serves to further strengthen the dough but also equalized the dough temperature and redistribute the products of fermentation.

Once baked, the loaves felt much lighter than usual. When sliced, the reason was quite obvious. Rather than the cakey, somewhat crumbly crumb this bread has always had in the past, the crumb was airy and, in txfarmer's words, “shreddable.”

Crumb from a previous bake of the BBA 100% Whole Wheat Bread, made following Reinhart's mixing time instructions

Crumb of the 100% Whole Wheat Bread from BBA mixed as described above

"Shreddable"

The flavor of the bread is basically unchanged, but the mouth feel is entirely different - light and mildly chewy. I was amazed.

I'm looking forward to having toast for breakfast.

Thanks, txfarmer, for your inspiring and informative postings!

David

Submitted to YeastSpotting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the WW loaf from the new "Tartine" Book, the procedure is very similar to the basic country loaf (which I posted about here), just with more WW flour(~70%) , even more water(80%+),  and slightly lower mixing temperature since whole grain flour fermentate faster.

 

One thing that bothers me about the book is his math - when he calculate baker's percentage for ingredients, he doesn't count flour in the levain. He doesn't use a lot of levain, so in reality it probably doesn't matter, but it bothers my engineering brain. That's why I adjusted the formula, so the ww amount is really 70%, both in levain and final dough. Phew, feel a lot better after that.

-Levain:

100% sourdough starter, 1/2 tbsp (I used 8g)

WW flour, 140g

white flour, 60g

water(78F), 200g

1. Mix and put in a cool place until it grows by 20%. If you pinch a bit of levain and put it in water, it should float. About overnight at 65F.

 

-Final dough

200g levain

700g ww flour

300g bread flour (book says AP flour but I used BF for the extra lift)

water(75F), 800g (I used a bit more, probably 20g)

salt, 20g

2. Mix levain, flour, 750g of water. Autolyse for 40 to 60min. Add the rest of water and salt, mix to combine.

3. Bulk rise around 80F for about 3 hours until it increase about 30% in volume. S&F every 30min in the first 2 hours, after that S&F according to what the dough needs. If mix with cooler water and let rise in cooler temp, the bulk rise time can be adjusted.

4. Divide and round, bench rest for 20min

5. Shape and proof upside down in floured brotform. I retarded my shaped dough in the fridge (40F) overnight, then warm up for another 30min before baking. The dough can also be proofed right after shaping for 3 to 4 hours at 75F to 80F.

6. Bake with steam for 45min at 450F.

 

Awesome oven spring, crackling thin crust that sang loudly. Since it's a very soft high hydration dough, at the begining of the bake, it tends to spread a bit, so I kept the oven temp at 500F for the first 5min, then dropped to 450F after that. The finished loaves are quite round and tall.

 

Quite an open crumb for so much ww

 

It's not quite as "hole-y" as the basic country loaf. Chad Robertson says whole grain hearth bread can indeed have open crumb, even though it might depend on many things including the type of the flour. I might increase the hydration even more to see how much I can push it.

 

Just like the basic country loaf, this bread is not noticably sour, but very sweet, very fragrant with whole grain flavor. Next up, I want to try the semolina formula.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

 

 

Horst Bandel's Black Pumpernickel.

This is a recipe from "Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes" by Jeffrey Hamelman.   A number of TFL regulars have posted on this recipe, notably,

ehanner: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16501/learning-pumpernickel and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16348/horst-bandel039s-black-pumpernickel-bread

 txfarmer: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13965/still-struggling-horst-bandel%E2%80%99s-black-pumpernickel and http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/14315/horst-bandel%E2%80%99s-black-pumpernickel-finally

and Shiao-Ping: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12790/horst-bandel039s-black-pumpernickel

This is the recipe and formula I adapted and used

Material	Formula [% of flour(??)]	Recipe [grams]
Rye Sour Dough
Dark Rye Flour	30	300
Water	30	300
TOTAL	60	600
Soaked Bread
Old Bread	11	110
Water	17.7	177
TOTAL	28.7	287
Soaked Rye Berries
Whole Rye Berries	20	200
Water	22.7	227
TOTAL	42.7	427
Final Dough
Rye Sour Dough	60	600
Soaked Bread	28.7	287
Soaked Rye Berries	42.7	427
Salt	1.8	18
Molasses	4	40
Cracked Rye Grain	25	250
Strong Wholemeal Flour	8	80
Dark Rye Flour - sifted	17	170
Water	15	150
TOTAL	202.2	2022

 

Notes:

The 100% of "flour" is made up of: dark rye in the sour, whole rye berries in the first soaker, plus the cracked rye and the flour in the final dough.   I have not counted the old bread, as that seemed too arbitrary to sub divide accurately into water and flour.

The total water content does include the water in the old bread soaker, as well as the water taken up by cooking the rye berries.   My aim was to establish a formula which accurately created an overall moisture content of 85% of the "flour".

Obviously there will be some variation from batch to batch, but I really wanted to establish how much liquid is taken up in the bread soaker, and in the berry soaking and boiling process.   From seeing other peoples' postings, I had decided this information was crucial.

For what it's worth, the pre-fermented part is 30%.

 

Method:

• Prepare the rye sour dough using starter from stock.   Allow the sour dough to ferment for 14 - 16 hours at 21°C.
• Soak the rye berries overnight in cold water.
• Soak the old bread overnight in ambient water.   Use the amounts given in the above table - weighed.   The bread will take up all this water, so you can eliminate any problems of squeezing!   I used some wholewheat pain siègle, and some white bread.   This was deliberate, as I did not have any high gluten white flour in stock, so had to change the flour used in the final dough, using more dark rye plus a dash of wholemeal.   It was all I had at the time!
• Next day, cook the rye berries in fresh boiling water [3 times volume of water to berries] for about an hour.   Drain the berries, and discard the cooking liquor.   At this point I weighed the berries to establish exactly how much water they had taken up.   This is the figure shown in the table.
• For the final dough, dissolve the molasses into the water, which should be 40°C.   From there, mix all the ingredients together with the soakers and sour to form an evenly mixed paste.   It was cold in the house when I made this, so both the sour and flour, plus the soaked bread were all well below 20°C    The final dough temperature was 28°C.   Photographs of the mixed paste are shown below.
• Bulk ferment for 45 minutes.   Meantime lightly grease 1 large Pullman pan and lid.   Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.
• Use wet hands to scrape up and shape the paste, and deposit it into the tin.   Smooth the surface as necessary.   Cover with an oiled piece of plastic, and prove at 32°C for 1¼ hours.   I use the hearth in front of our wood burning stove.   When the dough is just short of the top of the tin, slide the lid in place, and set in the oven.


• The baking process is long and complex.   The idea is the loaf should be baked in a falling oven.   For the home baker, this is really difficult to achieve.   I turned the heat down to 120°C after 1½ hours.   After a further 6 hours I turned the oven off.   Then I left the bread in the cooling oven overnight.   This was the best equivalent I could come up with to the recommendations in the book.
• De-pan the bread and cool on wires.   Wrap in a tea towel, and let the bread sit a full 24 hours before giving into temptation and cutting off that first slice.

 

Analysis:

• I'm pleased with how this loaf came out in some ways.   For a start Alison, my wife, has been raving about her sandwiches I make for lunch...all week.   I made this bread a week ago now, and didn't cut into it for nearly 2 days.   It served us for lunch sandwiches Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.   There is a little left for today, and it's still almost as moist in the middle of the crumb as when first cut.
• I like the formula, and am happy with the hydration calculations.   I've attached a couple of photos of the mixed paste to try and show the texture, although I accept they are not the best of shots, I hope it gives an idea.
• I know Eric added too much flour, and commented on the adverse effect in the eating.   Well, I didn't have any high gluten flour in the house when I made this.   I had a tiny amount of strong wholemeal, and some dark rye!!!   That's why I went with lighter bread in the soaker.   This has definitely made a difference to the finished bread.   It is quite difficult to cut through cleanly without the dough trying to tear a little in places.   You can also spot the giveaway hole just underneath the top crust near the middle of the loaf.   It was the plague of some of the VB rye loaves, and is caused by the weakness in the structure of the starch as the final fermentation draws to conclusion.   This is clearly the typical instability from rye as opposed to the stretchy gluten in the wheat.   Still, the flavour does not detract.
• My main disappointment, however, is in the baking.   The outer portions of the crumb are over-baked, and the crust is too firm.   But the middle of the crumb is very moist [I had thought about writing overly-moist here, but that's not right; the bread is baked through, and was fine once it had stood before cutting]   I'm thinking the major issue with such a large loaf [it's just over the 2kg mark], with such high hydration [85%] is to be able to "cook" it properly.   I think I set the bread at too high a temperature in the first place.   I've been with Eric all the way on the idea of steaming.   Eric, could you give me the link to the discussion you had with qahtan regarding steaming?   Baking seems a very difficult way to deal with this bread.   It takes me back to producing 000s of Christmas Puddings at the Village Bakery.   We loaded them into wire baskets in their plastic pots, covered with foil lids.   We lowered the wires into coffins made of aluminium.   These were the same size as a standard baking sheet, and would be about 40cm tall, so they filled the height of our oven.   The coffins had water in the bottom, and a raised platform with 3 big holes in, for the wires to sit on.   They also had tight-fitting lids.   They weighed a lot and were really difficult to control with the peel.   Our peels had handles which were 5m in length!   So, the puddings sat at the back of the cooling wood-fired oven for several hours and cooked beautifully in the steam.   I want to devise a similar sort of system to cook the Horst Bandel loaf.   But this is not that easy.   As you can see in the photos, I've made some in the Christmas pudding pots, and this was very successful.   But I love the shape and size of loaf gained from using the Pullman pan.   I want to find a large enclosed vessel which will hold a Pullman pan, and can take a layer of water on the bottom.   I figure some sort of raised wire racking will support the Pullman pan and keep it above the water level.   Anyway, I need to do some work to come up with something along those lines.   I envisage steaming time in the region of 10 - 12 hours.   I do like those glass pans, Eric!
• I used cracked rye grain instead of rye chops.   I have 2 suppliers for organic rye: one had wholegrain, flour and cracked grain.   The other had chops and flour, but no wholegrain; the explanation was that the grain was tipped straight into the mill on delivery, hence they could not supply wholegrain.   I think this must be a Health and Safety issue, but I found it a little unhelpful, so I went with the other supplier, and the cracked grain option.   I don't think the substitution was that significant.   The whole rye berries need a minimum of 1 hour boil.

 

I'm going to count this as my first recipe in the "Bread Challenge".   To those already signed up, I hope you all think it worthy.

 

 Lots of photos all shown below.   The top 2 on the left were steamed in pudding pots.   The next 2 are of the mixed paste.   Then 5 of the finished loaf baked in the pullman pan.

 

Best wishes

Andy

Posted on www.evilshenanigans.com on 11/25/2009 here

Ready for something a tad more advanced?  It takes time to make, but it is SO worth it.

I fell in love with croissant making a few semesters ago in my Laminated Dough class.  Bread making is among my favorite things to do in the kitchen, but making laminated doughs (doughs with butter sandwiched between the layers) tops that.  It takes time to make laminated dough and the process has taught me a lot about being patient in the kitchen.  Some things can't be rushed.

Making croissants at home is not a hard thing to do.  Yes, it will seem intimidating the first time when you see all the steps all at once, but  it is really just three stages, which makes the whole process less intimidating for me.

Stage 1 - Mixing the dough and making the butter block

Stage 2 - Marrying the butter with the dough and doing your three turns (folding the dough into thirds, like a letter, and turning 90 degrees)

Stage 3 - Make-up and baking

A few things to note:

I proof these croissants in the refrigerator overnight then allow them to set, at room temperature, for an hour before baking. The long, cold proof gives the dough more flavor and allows the butter to chill completely before the final proof at room temperature.

The oven gets a spritz of water from a spray bottle before the croissants go in, and another when I put them in the oven.  The steam helps the croissants get nice and big.  You want that.

Give yourself two or three days to make these.  If I do not have a full day to make the dough and do the turns, about 6 hours for stage one and two,  I make the dough and make the butter block the first day, do the turns and make up the croissants the second and bake the third.

Cook the croissants until they are well past golden brown. The edges should be quite dark and the tops a robust brown color.  This does two things, it gives the croissants more flavor and it ensures they are done all the way through.

Once made up into croissants you can freeze the dough and store it for as long as two months.  Just put the frozen croissants in the refrigerator overnight to defrost and let stand for an hour and a half before baking.

This dough can also be used for some pretty awesome danish!

Roll your sleeves up, get out your butter and remember, no fear!  You CAN do this!!

Butter Croissants   Yield 5 pounds of dough (about 48 croissants)
Adapted from Professional Baking, 4th Edition by Wayne Glisslen

For the pre-ferment:
7 ounces water, warmed to 110F
1/2 ounce dry active yeast
5 ounces bread flour

For the dough:
2.5 ounces sugar
1 teaspoon salt
12 ounces whole milk
1 1/2 ounces water
2 pounds bread flour

For the butter block:
1 pound 4 ounces butter (I use salted for croissants, but unsalted is also good)

Egg wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon cream
2 teaspoons water

 

Begin by preparing the pre-ferment.  In the bowl of a mixer, or in a large bowl, mix the water, yeast, and bread flour.  Mix until it forms a very wet dough.  Cover and let stand for 15 minutes.

While the pre-ferment sits prepare the butter block.

Between two sheets of parchment paper arrange 5 sticks of cold butter into a rough square.  Using a rolling pin press and pound the butter until it forms a rectangle about 1/4″ thick.  Place this in the refrigerator until ready to use.

Once the pre-ferment is rested add the ingredients for the dough and mix on low speed for three minutes.  Increase the speed to medium for two minutes.  You do not want to form gluten, you are just trying to form a rough ball of dough.  Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until it forms a relatively smooth ball.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover until it is double in bulk, about 50 minutes.  Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and, using the palm of your hand, press out the air bubbles.  Form another ball and return to the bowl.  Refrigerate for an hour.

Once the dough has rested for an hour remove it and the butter block from the refrigerator.  Turn the dough out on a a lightly floured surface and press out the air.  Using a rolling pin form a large rectangle roughly  12″ x 24″.

Take the butter block still wrapped in parchment and see if it covers 2/3 of the rolled out dough.  If it is too small roll it out until it fits, leaving a 1/2″ border around the edges.  You can use your fingers to spread the butter if needed, just make sure that the butter does not develop any holes.

Fold the dough with out butter over the center of the dough.  Fold the buttered side in.   At this point check to see of the butter is getting soft.  You want the butter cool and firm, but if it is starting to melt let the dough chill, covered, for twenty minutes before you make the first turn. ( If you work quickly you can incorporate the butter and do your first turn before you have to chill.  Your first time you may not be able to.  That is completely ok.)

Turn the dough 90 degrees, or with the long seam facing horizontal to you.  Dust the board and the dough well with flour and roll out the dough into a rectangle that is about 12″ by 20″.  Dust all the flour from the dough and fold one third of the dough in.  Dust the top of the dough again to remove any flour and then fold the other third over the top.  Wrap the dough in plastic and chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

Repeat this process two more times.

Once you have completed three turns, and the dough has rested for an hour, you are ready to roll out and make up your croissants.

Divide the dough in half.  Wrap the half you are not using and return to the refrigerator.

On a well floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/8″ thick.  You may need to let the dough rest during this process if it starts to spring back.  If so, cover with plastic and return to the refrigerator for ten minutes.  Once rolled out cut the dough in half lengthwise with a pizza cutter.  Now, holding your cutter at an angle cut triangles from the strips of dough that are about 4″ wide at the base.  Cut one strip at a time.

Working with a few triangles at a time, chilling the rest, stretch the dough gently at the base until it is about 5″ to 6″ wide, then stretch the dough lengthwise so it forms a long triangle.  Working from the base, roll the dough onto itself, stopping to stretch the unrolled dough half way through.  Place the dough with the point on the bottom and tuck the edges in to form a crescent shape.  Place on a parchment lined sheet pan.

Cover with plastic and chill for at least 4 hours, but overnight is best.

Heat the oven to 400 F, prepare the egg wash, and fill a spray bottle with water.  Set the dough out to proof for an hour at room temperature while the oven heats.

When you are ready to bake spritz the inside of the oven with water.  Close the door and wait thirty seconds.  Brush the croissants with egg wash, then put the pan in the oven and spritz again and quickly close the door.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes for medium sized croissants, or until the tops are very brown and they sound hollow when tapped on the side.  Rest on the pan for five minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool slightly.

Serve warm.