April 8, 2009 - 9:58am
How do I make a stiff whole wheat dough
When I try to make bialys, I get too much oven spring - they poof up like round dinner rolls. In the latest batch, 66% whole wheat no less, the center depression with the onions and poppy seeds sprang up higher than the outer rim.
I suspect that my dough was too soft, ie too much hydration.
Does anyone have a formula for a very stiff whole wheat dough (doesn't have to be 100% WW, but that would be fine), and/or instructions for shaping/proofing/baking that minimize the oven spring?
Thanks
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Just add less water to the recipe. For all of those having trouble with whole wheat, myself included, could you detail your method? (Then we could trade techniques.)
Mini
I was hoping someone might have a useful rule of thumb for converting the hydration in a white flour formula to whole wheat while maintaining a similar texture. I started mixing for the autolyse with the original 58% hydration, then added water slowly and mixed until there was no more dry flour visible. That turned out to be too much water.
The original formula was the bagel/bialy dough from the CIA Baking and Pastry textbook (which I don't recommend to anyone, the information is not well organized and the index is next to useless).
high gluten flour 100% (I used 33% high gluten and 67% whole wheat)
instant dry yeast 0.4% (I used about half this because I did an overnight retarded fermentation in the 'fridge)
water 57.5% (I used more, because of the whole wheat)
salt 2.1%
diastatic malt syrup 0.94% (I didn't use any)
I did an 30 minute autolyse with just the flour and water. Then I mixed in the yeast and salt. The dough felt soft so I worked in some more high gluten flour while kneading. I put the dough in the 'fridge overnight with one fold when I couldn't sleep.
In the morning, I scaled a dozen 4 oz rolls; after they proofed an hour I flattened them out, made an indentation in the center, spooned in the onions and poppy seeds, and baked at 450* with convection.
The centers poofed up even more than the edges.
Bwaith (a very experienced baker and long time TFL member) gave a hydration conversion rule of thumb in this TFL post. In part, his answer was...
The original thread is http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5203/preferment-hydration-question - scroll down to see Bwraith's entire post.
Good suggestion, I'll try that as a starting point.
Have you tried this without using the convection setting? I know that I wouldn't use it with bagels, though i've never made bialys.
I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who does a stretch and fold on dough when i can't sleep!
Summer
My experience with our home oven (GE Monogram electric) is that with baking stones on 2 racks, the heat is very uneven on the conventional bake setting. Using the multi-rack convection setting, and 25* F lower than the oven temp for conventional baking gives me nice even temp throughout the oven and baking times very similar to those in formulas.
I'm prety sure the poofy bialys is an issue of the dough hydration and the handling, and not convection.