100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from WGB, take 2
I am continuing my exploration of fresh-ground flour this week with another bake of Peter Reinhart's “100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread” from Whole Grain Baking. I baked this bread three weeks ago and found the flavor marvelous, but the crumb was somewhat dense and cakey. I had ground the flour from hard red Winter wheat at the second from the finest setting. I did like the chewiness from the coarser ground grains. So, looking for a lighter loaf overall but maintaining the chewiness, I modified the formula and procedures somewhat.
Reinhart's formula calls for half the flour in a soaker of flour, milk product and salt. For the liquid, I used ¾ non-fat Greek-style yoghurt and ¼ water. The rest of the flour is in a biga made with flour, water and instant yeast. The biga is mixed, kneaded and refrigerated overnight.
I ground the wheat for the biga at the finest setting of my KitchenAid Grain Mill. This resulted in flour that was still a bit coarser than KAF WW flour, for example. I ground the wheat for the soaker at a medium-coarse setting.
I thought that I could get a lighter crumb and higher rising loaf if I developed the gluten in the biga portion before adding the soaker to the mix. So, I added all the other ingredients (salt, yeast, honey and canola oil) to the biga in the mixer bowl. I mixed for a couple minutes with the paddle at Speed 1, then with the dough hook for 11 minutes at Speed 2. The dough was rather sticky, but it cleaned the sides of the bowl, almost cleaned the bottom and had window paning. I then added in the soaker, which was quite crumbly, and mixed with the dough hook until it was incorporated into the dough.
After a 5 minute rest, I briefly kneaded the dough on the board, incorporating another couple tablespoons of fine ground whole wheat in the process, then transferred the dough to an oiled batter pitcher for bulk fermentation. Fermentation, proofing and baking were according to Reinhart's instructions. Note that, three weeks ago, I baked this bread in a Le Creuset oval Dutch oven. Today, I baked on a baking stone and steamed the oven using the SFBI method I've described in earlier postings.
The crust was crunchy, especially from the coarser pieces of wheat. The crumb reminds me of a 100% rye with rye chops. It's not what I was aiming for, but it is interesting. The crumb has two distinct textures from the different grinds of grain - tender and chewy-crunchy. The flavor is delicious.
I'd count this a worthwhile learning experience, but it's still not my ideal crumb for this bread.
The other bread that I baked today was my San Joaquin Sourdough. I fed the levain with a 50/50 mix of KAF Sir Galahad and fresh-ground whole wheat. The final dough had 5% fresh-ground rye.
San Joaquin Sourdough breads with Julia Drayton Camelias
San Joaquin Sourdough Crumb
David
Comments
I'm a big fan of fine grinding and re-milling of bran, but that loaf looks really chunky. even for fresh ground.
I'll wait on the crumb shot, but I wonder if you wouldn't get a good chewiness with a little finer texture by remilling the majority of the flour on the fine setting for the bulk of the flour and then just use coarser grind in the soaker.
Just as a reference, my whole wheat is much finer than a KA whole wheat - mostly because I have sifted out and remilled the bran (which is always a bit coarser than the rest at the same mill setting.) It's more like the whole wheat that I got in Japan - which was very, very fine.
But each to his own taste - there are infinite variations of this milling/baking thing.
I do keep hearing the phrase "gateway drug" in my tiny mind...
Quoted from my OP.
What I have not yet tried is grinding at the finest setting and then re-grinding. I wonder if the flour would come out finer.
I'm counting down to the slicing ....
David
I caught that the biga used finely ground flour - what I didn't catch was that it was a full 50% of the total flour.
What I was suggesting is that a higer percentage of the flour be ground finely - even if you have to put it in the soaker. I think that might result in a nicer crumb - with still some of the chewiness.
Looking forward to the crumb shot.
Pat
I was having a similar thought, Pat. Although, I may use fine ground flour for both the biga and soaker in Reinhart's formula and add my favorite bulgur soaker to get the chewy bits I want.
David
chunky crumb, alright.
But I'm sure that a smaller percentage of freshly cracked wheat would keep the great taste if combined with more of the finely milled stuff rather than resorting to bulgur.
BTW, when I remill on the same setting I do get a finer flour, but our equipment is very different. What really drives the finest flour - for me - is once I get to the finest possible setting sifting and remilling what remains in the sieve. If I'm feeling compulsive I will remill 3 or 4 times with each run getting prgessively finer.
Lots to play with once you mill your own...
I just have a traditional crank flour sifter, but I'm going to try re-milling what I sift out of the flour milled at the finest setting, as you suggest.
If I were to buy a sifting screen for this, what grade would you recommend? (That slope is getting awful slippery!)
David
You just caught me "at work" and I won't be at home for days - so I can't look at my actual sifters. But I can make an educated guess.
I use Keene soil classifiers from Legend Mining company http://www.lmine.com/
I've got it down to two sifters that I use all the time. I think the coarse one is a #30 mesh (.02") and the finer is a #50 mesh (.01"). Since I hand crank the mill, I use the #30 to break down the grain and pull out any bran that I won't be re milling (I don't want to crank any more than I need to). The #50 will give me a flour that is finer than KA whole wheat.
I have a #100 sieve that I can use to make pure white fine as silk flour, but I don't think you want to go there.
The sieves cost about $25 - which is not all that much money and they have done yeoman's work for me. I both shake the screens and use my hands to "smursh" the grain around (like the bails on a hand sifter), but slower.) I have a "big bowl" which fits the sieves perfectly to create my sifting aparatus. I suggest a stiff brush (like a "gong" brush) to keep them clean.
I actually just did 4 pounds of red winter wheat yesterday. Takes me about an hour - but I hand crank.
Sliding down further...
Pat
David
David, that San Joaquin Sourdough looks amazing. I will make my first attempt at it next weekend.
I'am sure it still tastes great, sort of a whole wheat version of a pumpernickel.
It is a green flour afterall, but with fine milling, you should get the crumb you desire.
BTW, i found that by omitting the yeast in the final dough, and letting it ferment longer allows more organic acids to form, and you should have a better crumb structure.
Hi, Khalid.
There is only a very little yeast in the biga in this formula. Most of the yeast is added to the final dough. Since the biga is quite firm and is refrigerated immediately after mixing, the yeast must not have much time to multiply.
If you are talking about the same formula I used, I don't see how omitting the yeast in the final dough would work, unless you are talking about a 12 hour bulk fermentation. Are you?
Organic acid production would increase with a longer fermentation. As I understand it, this strengthens the gluten bonds (although it also inhibits their formation). I don't see that it would have a lot of impact on crumb structure. Please explain.
David
David, first and foremost, your postings are always informative, educational and inpirational - I've learned a lot from your postings!
Years back I used the Kitchen-aid grinder and had to run at least two passes to get anything close to a store bought flour. I since purchased a Wonder Mill which was called a Whisper Mill back and never looked back - and still going strong after 15 years of steady use.
A middle to slightly fine setting on this machine results in whole grain flour as fine as store bought white! And there is room on the adjustment to go even finer. The result is one pass gives a far finer flour than anything ever produced on my kitchen-aid attachment using multiple passes. Same for Rye or other whole grains and including corn ground for fine corn meal. The bran is finely ground too and goes right in to the soaker. When using predominately whole grain recipes overnight soakers with an 45-60 minute autolyze facilitates a lighter texture too.
Several pounds of flour only takes a few minutes. I grind in my garage - should a a whisp of dust come away from the machine, my electric leaf blower clears out anything quickly! These machines can be found for $240 - a purchase that will not be regretted for those so inclined.
The Kitchen-aid will be useful for cracking grains to add texture to a portion of the recipe or bulgar as you mention given the impact mills are better suited to fine milling. Regards...
I would not be shocked by ending up getting a better grain mill eventually. In the meantime, I want to push the one I have to its limits. I still have a few tricks to try out.
Running the flour through 2 or 3 times is not much of a hassle, since I'm only milling 500 g or so at a time ... so far.
David
If I didn't know better I would have attributed that crumb shot to a high hydration, high rye flour bread with chops in it, David. Nice experimentation with your mill and recipe tweaking. Are you finding that your doughs with the milled flour are pretty consistent as to how much water they require, or are you having to significantly tweak each mix?
The San Joaquin sourdoughs are, as usual, beautiful looking and your slashing is first rate!
Larry
I don't have enough experience yet to generalize. I've been using the fresh-milled flours with relatively unfamiliar formulas mostly, so not a good basis for comparison.
Dvid
12 hours without yeast? it shouldn't take that long.. Anyway, iam positive david that upon replying on biga alone, you should end with a better structure to your bread, given that you start off with a wetter dough.
Hello David, That's a nice whole-wheat loaf, with your home-ground flour. The shaping on this whole-wheat sandwich loaf is perfect, and just what I was trying to achieve yesterday with my lemon breads! I didn't get the loaf shape I wanted, but am delighted to see what you've done here. And I love the beautiful, glossy crumb on your San Joaquin Sourdough, along with your gorgeous camellias! from breadsong
I thought your lemon breads looked lovely.
The KAF videos on shaping are good, if you haven't yet viewed them. I learned an almost identical method for shaping bâtards at SFBI. I'm liking it.
David
Thanks & I'm glad you liked the 'lemon breads' - I was going for a lemon shape as well as lemon flavor.
I viewed the KAF videos this morning, and they were just what I was waiting for! I'd been hoping there would be KAF video, for some time.
I signed up for the SFBI Baking Circle videos too, thanks to you posting and letting TFL members know about them.
Video is a wonderful teaching tool - I am truly grateful! from breadsong
The Hamelman videos are excellent.
Most of the demos in the SFBI videos appear to be done by Miyuki Togi. She was my instructor in the Artisan I class, and it was a joy to watch her hands handle dough.
Comparing the KAF and SFBI videos on loaf shaping, I am struck by the similarities in techniques more than the differences. I do like Hamelman's commentary. I think it adds a lot.
David
Great crust and crumb on the SJSD.
I'm glad that your new toy is providing expanded experimentation opportunities, but that 100% whole wheat thing looks way too healthy.
Glenn
That bread is practically guaranteed to suck any evil humors right out of your system! The darn thing is, it tastes so good, too.
The SJ SD is still our fave, though.
Gotta go start on dinner - duck legs braised with two kinds of pears and celeriac. SFBI miche to absorb any stray juices.
David
I'm now starving, and I don't eat that much bread! :)
But the duck legs and pears and celeriac sound fabulous too, and you are the first person other than my mother and grandmother I have ever heard refer to celeriac let alone eat it! I need to get some seed, a friend had some years ago, but don't think I've got any in my seed stash!