Honey Whole Wheat from Michel Suas' "Advanced Bread and Pastry."
The Honey Whole Wheat pan loaf from Advanced Bread and Pastry is made with a white levain, more as a pre-ferment for flavor than for leavening. It also uses instant yeast. It is otherwise 100% whole wheat. I used KAF Organic WW.
Suas' formula calls for a "double hydration" method, where most of the water is mixed with the other ingredients and the remainder is added gradually, after the gluten is moderately developed. The dough is rather high hydration - quite gloppy at the finish of mixing. Suas doesn't call for any stretch and folds during fermentation, but I added some to strengthen the dough. By the time it was ready to shape, it was surprisingly manageable.
This dough was so different from the whole wheat breads I had made before from Reinhart's BBA and whole grain baking book. His doughs are quite dry in comparison. This dough had me kind of spooked until after fermentation was complete. But the results were quite satisfactory, some cosmetic issues aside.
The spots on the crust are from oil I sprayed on the loaf before proofing it. Not pretty.
The crumb was not dry, but less moist than I expected. It was somewhat chewy. It has a wonderful wheaty flavor with none of the grassiness that I find in some 100% whole wheat breads and even in some white breads with as little as 10% whole wheat. It was slightly sweet, but not so sweet as to detract from the wheaty flavor.
This is pretty close to my personal ideal for a whole wheat sandwich/toast bread. I'll be making it again, probably with a bulgur soaker and maybe some sesame seeds.
David
Comments
Adding cracked wheat to a whole wheat loaf is always a tasty addition, or perhaps some rye chops. Nice outcome though with your loaf, the spots on it do not seem bad at all. Since the perfect loaf shape makes up for it easily!
thank you,
anna
Hi, Anna.
Arlo hasn't responded, so I thought I'd jump in.
Rye chops are delicious! They are usually cut from the loin of the rye berry. .... Oh, well. I butchered that definition. Let's start over.
Rye chops are quite simply rye berries that have been chopped, as I understand it. I think they are usually soaked before use in a dough. Often they are used in combination with other coarsely ground/cracked/flaked grains and seeds in soakers for rye or multi-grain breads.
Rye chops are hard to find. Flourgirl indicated a week or two ago that she has them for sale.
David
This looks quite good.
Advanced Bread and Pastry was going to be my next book, not in small part because of the fact that I'd like to try puff pastry soon and my baker senses tell me that this book may be the way to go, so I may end up getting to try it within the next couple of months or so. I may see if I can get it through the local library before buying it due to the huge expense (at least for me right now) it would be.
I had an idea for a whole wheat bread that I thought may work. I was planning on utilizing something along the lines of Reinhart's epoxy method, both white and stone ground wheat, and a little extra gluten flour to add a little more lift. We'll see. It's a work in progress.
Maybe if I could get off making sourdough rye for a while...
David
Yup, chopped rye berries. If you use them in a beer bread, you have yourself a great treat! Sorry, I've been in class most of the day.
I've been looking at that bread as I lumber through Suas. You have achieved a very nice crumb profile David. The evenness of the crumb both in aeration and density is perfect. I suspect you are correct about the additions adding personality to this bread.
I have enjoyed the fresh ground aroma of the 100% WW breads I have made from Bread. I don't really care for the grassy smell. I just received a package from flourgirl51 with rye chops. Maybe I'll give this a go with them included.
Great post of a nice looking loaf David. Thanks for sharing this project.
Eric
The flavor of this bread was about perfect, to my taste. I can't really account for it. It must just be a great formula overall. I think it's a good base for enhancements. I'm thinking about adding some seeds or even a multi-grain soaker like that Hamelman uses in his 5-grain breads.
David
david,
what kind of oil did you use to spray your loaf with? and just out of curiosity, you didn't do any scoring on this one? i read your earlier post about the dough being gloppy. i have a similar story to share - i will post it soon - it has to do with my first sourdough recipe. yup, i finally took the plunge!
Hi, ques2008.
I used a spray oil I bought from KAF. It's the end of the can, and it doesn't spray evenly. Time to switch to a new can.
Suas calls for no scoring, and that's what I did.
David.
David, love the bread that you bake. They always look so good, outside and inside. I'm still learning to get my proofing right, so that my bread texture can turn out as good as yours. Do you use an equipment for proofing?
This loaf was proofed in a large, non-stick loaf pan. I put the pan inside a food-grade plastic bag for proofing.
David