seasidejess's blog

This was a fun outcome. I tried out my new petite Fat Daddy loaf pans and they do fit into my roasting pan side by side,  thanks to the vertical sides and small rolled rims. The loaves merged together where the pans touched.

I preheated the roasting pan sitting on top of a pizza stone in the oven. Final shaped panned proof was only 15 minutes. I loaded them into the roasting pan, sprayed then with water,  and put the lid on.

This is the best oven spring I've gotten. The flour was 100% freshly milled spelt. No sifting.

I'll upload a crumb shot once I cut one open.

Edited to change the photo to 'Fiona ii' with an improved plait and glaze.

My 10-yr-old neighbor came over today to learn to bake bread.  I was very surprised at her kneading skills, developed by making 'slime' at home. We made a sandwich loaf, an enriched plaited loaf, and a crusty batard.

This is the plaited loaf,  which she christened Fiona. It is the Laurels Kitchen Loaf For Learning made with fresh-milled spelt.

The only change to the dough is, instead of the two tablespoons of oil we made a milk and honey scald, and after the dough was fully kneaded we kneaded in the scald along with 4 tablespoons of butter. And by 'we' I mean she did, because she did all the kneading for all three loaves, by hand.

The bulk proof was about an hour and a half,  the 2nd proof was about 35 minutes,  and the final proof after plaiting was about 20 minutes. 

We washed it with a mix of egg white,  water,  and honey,  but it wasn't as glossy as I wanted so next time I'd leave the water out.

Here are some crumb shots.  It came out suuuuuper soft and fluffy, with a hint of tanginess balanced by a honey scent. This bread is spectacular. So tender and springy and delicious. I will definitely make it again.

Here is the latest in the 100% spelt Laurels Loaf For Learning series. It's the 2nd one I made with a scald. 

The first I tried (not pictured) used the original recipe hydration of 73%, which gave me a dough remarkably lacking in extesibility. The final bread tasted good but didn't rise well and had a bit of a claggy crumb.

This time I increased the hydration to 75%, keeping everything else the same,  and got a much better result.  The gluten was still very fragile. As you can see, the top surface isn't smooth and there is crumb compression in the lower half of the loaf. But the rise was decent and the mouth texture is excellent. It's tender, moist, and just a touch chewy.  It toasts like a dream.

Next time, I want to experiment with adding the scald at the end of kneading,  after the gluten is developed.  I also want to try adding the oil at the end of kneading after the gluten is developed,  but not in the same bake because I don't want to change more than one thing at a time.

I gave up doing bran scalds in my whole wheat bread a while back, as it didn't make much difference in my bread and I didn't enjoy all the fiddly sifting and messing about with it.  These days I just mix the dough and let it sit for half an hour to hydrate before I start kneading.

However, if I want an extra tender and soft bread I have started experimenting with doing a flour scald instead, which you can read about here: http://www.wholegrain100.com/making-yeast-bread-blog/converting-your-recipe-to-yudane

And here: https://www.marcelpaa.com/rezepte/tipps-und-tricks-zu-vollkornbroten/ This is in German but if you use the Chrome browser you can tell it to translate the page.

My current working version of how to convert a recipe to use a flour scald:

1. Increase the liquid in the recipe to minimum 75% of the weight of the flour.
2. Then set aside 20% of the recipe flour and an equal amount of the recipe water (by weight) to use in the scald.
   - Edit: 10 to 20% of the flour, based on info from Einfach Backen - Marcel Paa
   
3. Boil the scald water and pour it over the scald flour and stir,  then let it cool before adding it all back into the dough when you mix everything together.
4. Feel the dough after the final mix and add more water if needed or if it is meant to be a higher hydration dough.
5. Let the mixed dough sit for half an hour for the gluten and bran in the dry flour to fully hydrate before you start kneading.

Example of Scald/Yudane Method:

• Your recipe calls for 450 grams whole wheat flour. Multiply by .75 to get about 338 grams total liquid.
• 20% of 450 is 90, so you'll use 90 grams of the flour and 90 grams of the liquid in the scald,
• This leaves 360 grams flour and 248 grams water for the remaining dough.

Porridge/Tanghzong Method:

If using porrige method, make it using 3x the amount of water to flour. Then subtract 2/3 this amount water from the main dough. Overall hydration is increased with this method, but might need to be increased more since the water is so bound up in the porridge. Add some of this water amount gradually back to the dough after mixing if needed to correct hydration. - based on info from Einfach Backen - Marcel Paa

Example of Porridge Method:

Your recipe calls for 450 grams whole wheat flour. Multiply by .75 to get about 338 grams total liquid.

1. Set aside 45 grams of flour and 3 x this amount (135 grams) of the recipe water (by weight) to use in the porridge.
   
   
2. This leaves 203 grams water for the remaining dough.
3. Cook the porridge until very thick and all the water is absorbed.
4. Combine porridge with flour and remaining recipe water, and other ingredients.
5. Also measure out 2/3 the amount of water that went into the porridge, which may be needed to correct the hydration. In this case, 90 grams.
6. Feel the dough after the final mix and if needed, gradually add this additional water, 10 grams at a time, until the dough is soft, not stiff.
7. Let the mixed dough sit for half an hour for the gluten and bran in the dry flour to fully hydrate before you start kneading.

-

Hi everyone,  I'm happy to be back after a year of having a young person with celiac sharing my home.  They have moved on and I can mill and bake again without worrying.

To celebrate, I brought out my barely-used Nutrimill Artiste mixer and started really digging in to try and learn exactly how a fully kneaded,  fully developed 100% WW dough looks and feels.  And since spelt is my favorite-est  most delicious wheat, I've extended the project to 100% spelt.

All the flours are freshly-milled on the finest setting of my MockMill 100. So they're a bit chunky. For these bakes I am not sifting and re-milling or soaking the bran.

And,  you guys! Check it out! Spelt is not nearly as difficult to work with as I thought.  It's just more extensible.  So the funny thing is,  autolysing the dough is done to increase extensibility and flavor. Weel, when you're using spelt you get the extensibility AND absolutely delicious flavor, without needing to autolyse.

For this bake I did rest the flour without kneading for an hour after the initial mix. Because the yeast was in the dough,  it basically did a first bulk rise during that time.  It behaved the same as when I only rested it for 15 minutes,  so I didn't find an advantage in the longer rest. It didn't do any harm though. 

I have been using the Laurels Kitchen Bread Book "Loaf for Learning" formula for these bakes. It is a relatively lean dough,  with the additon of 2 TBSP oil and 1/3 cup of plain yogurt in each 450g-flour loaf.

I haven't been able to find many photos of 100% whole wheat dough at different stages of development,  so next time I'll try to take more pictures.

The lineup from left to right:

1:2:2 levain of ryestarter & wheatflour & water, sitting on top of a  1:2:2 starter refresh of ryestarter & ryeflour & water

1:1 levain build of wheatberry-honey yeast water & wheatflour, sitting on top of the wheatberry-honey yeast water

1:1 levain build of apple yeast water & wheatflour  sitting on top of the apple yeast water

All flours are freshly milled 100% whole grain.

I thought it would be good to write a few things down that I have learned in my milling and baking adventures.

When I first started baking (I started with 100% WW from the beginning) I used to knead in a stand mixer but I couldn't make good bread. After a lot of trial and error, I'm making consistently good 100% ww bread from home milled flour, both sourdough and conventional dry yeast. The key for me is an autolyse combined with the right hydration (between 70 to 80%). This means that there's not much kneading required in any of my breads.  

My suggestion is to start by mixing flour and water until just barely mixed/wetted, then stop. It should be mushy. *It's important that you stop, do not keeping going and developing the gluten at this stage. Cover and let rest for an hour to hydrate the bran and develop the gluten.

After an hour (or up to 12 hours refrigerated) spread the dough out flat on the counter, sprinkle on your instant yeast and salt and whatever else is in the recipe, roll it up, and knead by hand on the counter for about 2 to 5 minutes until it feels like the salt has disappeared and the gluten is developed. The dough will be very cohesive and springy and have a moist tacky surface.

If it is a sourdough, spread on the levain at this point, fold it over, add the salt, and knead it in. For active dry yeast I like to put the yeast in water and then add flour to make a paste and add it as if it was a sourdough levain. 

Then continue with your bulk proof. (Optionally you can do a letter fold or two at 1/2 hour intervals during the bulk proof, just to organize the dough and build strength.) Then do a final, gentle letter fold, shape the dough, and let it have it's final hour-long proof. 

Here is a really lovely video of 100% whole wheat bread using this method.   You can see that after the autolyse, when combining the dough with the levain and salt she only kneads for 3 or 5 minutes minutes, just to bring together the starter and salt with the dough. That is enough to develop the gluten for a rustic bread. If I'm making a sandwich loaf, especially an enriched dough, I will knead it longer, for about 10 minutes, until the gluten is very well developed and is showing a nice windowpane. 

I don't usually do stretch and folds. If the dough needs strength I give it letter folds on the counter at the end of bulk fermentation. This is especially useful for spelt and for khorasan/Kamut both of which are very extensible and need to have letter folds to soak up some of that lengthening capacity in order to be able to tighten them at the final shaping. 

I don't know why developing the gluten at the very beginning mix stage messes things up so badly for me. I just know that it makes the gluten weird: it almost seems to separate the gluten from the dough into strings. It's just not good. 

This is my first venture into baking with Kamut in a while. In the past, I have found this flour challenging, as the gluten needs a lot of time to hydrate, and once hydrated it's a bit weak and very extensible. I adapted this recipe from AnnieT's Semolina Bread recipe here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20044/semolina-bread#comment-138273

I am delighted with this bread: it has a very thin, very crisp, delicate crust, a moist, tender interior, and a nice clean gentle wheat flavor.

I was concerned about the possibility of the gluten breaking down so I chilled the autolyse immediately in hopes of preventing too much early yeast and enzymatic action during the autolyse. This worked really well.

Here's what I did:  

Poolish/Pre-Ferment:

• 100 grams yeast water,
• 100 grams hard red whole wheat flour

Mix, leave covered on the counter overnight, refrigerate until needed.

Autolyse

• 1 cup chilled yeast water,
• 115 grams fine-milled hard red whole wheat flour, sifted, bran discarded
• 190 grams fine-milled (twice milled) Kamut flour, plus more to dust

Dough:

• All of the pre-ferment
• All of the autolyse
• 9 grams salt
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Mix flour, yeast water, and oil together to make a soft, sticky dough. Add more water if the dough isn't soft. Put immediately in the fridge to soak (autolyse) overnight. 
2. Take dough out of fridge, combine with pre-ferment and salt, and knead for about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Add a little warm water while kneading if needed.  Gently round, place into a lightly oiled bowl and let rise in a warm location until ripe, about an hour and a half.
3. Turn out, top down, onto a lightly floured surface. Slide your lightly-floured hands, palm down, under dough and lift and gently stretch the dough out, like a pizza dough. Lay the stretched dough down on counter and stretch the edges out too, into a square-ish shape. Press out any large air bubbles. Fold in thirds from the sides, and then again from the top and bottom (letter fold.)
4. Place back in bowl, seam down, and let rise 20 minutes or so. Repeat step 3 and let rise again for 20 minutes.   
5. Preheat oven to 425. Shape dough into a batard. Let dough rise until visibly expanded, about a half hour. Don't let it get all the way to the very tender quivery, fully-inflated stage. Place in clay baker, brush off excess flour, score, spray heavily, cover, and place in oven.
6. After 20 minutes, remove cover and bake another 20 minutes or so, until loaf is browning at edges and the internal temperature registers around 210 Fahrenheit. 

Pictures show the hole the thermometer made, alas. 

This was a 100% whole wheat lean dough leavened with a poolish. I used my basic 100% whole wheat same-day sourdough method but substituted 150 grams of poolish for the sourdough starter.  The flour is 440 grams of hard red, and 110 grams of spelt, twice milled, no sifting. 

I proofed it a little less than usual and got more oven spring than usual, so that was neat. It has a nice light crumb, a crisp crust, and tastes great. I  was really happy with how it came out, although I wonder if scoring it deeper would have resulted in it springing apart at the score, rather than next to the score.

Since folks have been sharing their simple whole wheat loaves, I thought I should share this. It's a very easy, straightforward bake and makes an absolutely delicious, moist and flavorful loaf of bread.  It's adapted from  Patrick Ryan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qDLrpQh10I corrected the salt and added a pseudo autolyse (with yeast but no salt.)The hydration is 73% and is really perfect.This recipe produces two 600 gram loaves.

• 700g wholemeal spelt flour
• 510ml water
• 35g black treacle (or honey, molasses, or barley malt syrup, which is what I used)
• 20g salt
• 7g dry yeast

2 x 400g (1lb) loaf tins or 20cm (8inch) proving baskets

1. Mix together the molasses/black treacle/barley malt syrup and the water.
2. Add the water mix to the spelt flour. Sprinkle the yeast over the water. Use a dough whisk to just combine. Let sit for 1 hour to hydrate the gluten and bran.
3. Spread the dough out on a counter and add the salt. Roll the dough up, fold it over, and knead for about three minutes, until the salt is mixed in. The gluten is already developed by the rest, so it doesn't need much kneading. The dough will be very springy, cohesive, and tacky, and will show windowpane after a brief rest.
4. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it rest for 20-30 mins at room temperature.
5. After 30 minutes turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and stretch the dough out like a sheet, and give it a letter fold. This helps to build strength within the dough. Fold the dough in thirds from one side and then the other, then roll it up from top to bottom. Return the dough to the bowl, seam side down. Cover and leave to rest for another 20-30 minutes.
6. Again, turn the dough out onto a clean work surface then stretch the dough out and give it another letter fold. Return to the bowl and for a further 60 minutes until fully proofed.
7. Turn out the dough on to a clean kitchen surface and do a gentle letter fold to knock back. Don't stretch it as much as before: allow it to keep some thickness and air. Pop any large bubbles. Divide the dough into two then shape each piece of dough into a rough round shape.
8. If making a round loaf, tighten the round. (You can watch how to shape the dough in the video). Place the shaped dough upside down into a floured proving basket, seam side facing up, or alternatively in a bowl lined with a lightly floured tea towel
9. Alternatively, the dough can be shaped and placed into a bread tin. (You can watch how to shape the dough in the video). Once the dough has been shaped, place it in a buttered floured loaf tin.
10. Leave the dough to prove at room temperature for about 50 minutes. While it's proving, pre-heat the oven to 230°C/425°F and get your steaming setup ready, if desired.  Turn the dough out of the basket onto a baking tray and score the top of the loaf with a sharp knife or baker’s razor blade. Or if using a bread tin, dust the surface of the dough with some wholemeal spelt flour before placing into the oven.
11. Place the loaves in the oven. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a good crust has formed and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the base.

Here's a picture of the dough after the first letter fold.