Whole Wheat Bread from BBA made with "fine" whole wheat flour.
The 100% Whole Wheat Bread from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice has been one of my favorite breads for years. I love it for it's delicious honey-wheat flavor. However, it often comes out with a dense, cake-like crumb. In April, I tried making this bread using a more intensive mix, as demonstrated by txfarmer. (See Light and fluffy 100% Whole Wheat Bread) I did, indeed, achieve a less dense, more open crumb. But I felt there was some loss of flavor due to oxidation of carotenoids.
It is difficult to make a 100% whole wheat bread with a light, airy crumb. The pieces of bran in the flour act like little knives, cutting the gluten strands that give bread crumb its “structure.” I had heard of flour mills that grind the bran to a finer consistency after it has been separated during the normal milling process and then add the fine-ground bran back in, along with the other wheat components that re-constitute “whole wheat” flour. The smaller bran particles do less damage to the developing gluten during mixing.
Central Milling makes such a flour, and brother Glenn recently got some for me at CM's Petaluma warehouse. Today, I used CM's “Organic Hi-Protein Fine” whole wheat flour to make the Whole Wheat Bread from BBA. I followed the formula and procedures in my April 2, 2011 blog entry with one exception: I only mixed the dough for 12 minutes at Speed 2.
The first difference in the bread was the wonderfulness of its aroma. I can't say it was different in quality, but it just filled the house as never before. When the bread was cool and sliced, the crumb structure was even more open than I got with intensive mixing. The bread is chewy like a good white loaf and not at all cakey or crumbly. The flavor is delicious. I can't really say it is better than the flavor I've gotten with either home-milled flour or KAF Organic Whole Wheat flour, but the combination of crumb structure, texture and flavor was remarkable.
I am now eager to try using this flour with other breads, for example the Tartine "Basic Country Bread." Stay tuned.
David
Submitted to YeastSpotting
Comments
Very interesting milling process. It makes sense to remove the coarser parts of the grain, grind them down finer and then reconstitute the flour again. I am sure it is quite labour intensive, though, and makes for expensive flour. Is it something you could simulate at home with your mill or is your home mill not capable of such a fine grind? At any rate, it has produced a very nice crumb for a 100% whole wheat. I would be very satisfied with that.
Syd
The only mill I have is the grain mill attachment to my KitchenAid. It is not capable of very fine milling. I seem to recall that Pat (proth5) has talked about sifting her flour and remilling the bran. I'm not that into home milling. Maybe some day.
David
Hi Syd,
All industrial wholeheat flour is milled to white flour, then has the bran added back. This enables the miller to keep back the germ oil and thus extend the shelf life of the flour. It also allows for tricks like the one David describes.
Hi David,
A beautiful real wholemeal loaf. It looks just a trifle rustic on the outside, but the crumb reveals a truly impressive light texture from great dough.
Very best wishes
Andy
David
:) Beautiful Crumb on that wholewheat , David!
Do i see coarse wheat burgul in the crumb? That loaf must be very satisfying, as favorful :)
Nice Work. I agree, i have made a loaf of 100% wholewheat before with coarse bran , and despit my intensive mixing the crumb was not fine, nor even.
Yes. I always use medium-coarse bulgur for the soaker with this bread.
David
Khalid,
A comment on your 100% WW attempts.....Have you tried using 2 pre-ferments?
I use 100% whole grains all of the time and used to get cake like crumb too until I found Peter Reinhart's book 'Whole Grain Breads'. I now get loaves that look like the one David has pictured here. Secret is soaking the grains to soften the gluten and more water. Most of his formulas are at 75% hydration.
(I grind my grains in a KoMo mill and use different settings to get the texture I am after. For a loaf like the one above I would grind on the finest setting. I use a variety of grains which include hard winter or spring wheat; either red or white in color....)
Take Care,
Janet
I. wish. I. can. get. that. flour.........!!!!!!!!!
Really lovely looking crumb, David!
A friend of mine whom I bake breads for every week is a big fan of WW breads, but the highest propotion of WW I've ever been successful without getting to dense was 65-70%. I'm starting to feel really sorry for her now......:p
I think the fine milling is the key. There may be a UK miller who produces a fine-milled WW flour. Perhaps Daisy or Andy know of one.
Good luck with your flour quest!
David
Thanks, David.
Incidentally, I saw a couple of WW flour in my regular supermarkets today, different ones from the one I usually use. One of them has a 'window' on the packet, so that you can see the flour inside and it looked finer than my usual. I might try that one someday and see how it's like. The other one was stoneground, which is same as my regular, so I suspect it also has coarser texture......I think.....
lumos
Lumos.. :) You know, you could always buy that mill :P
If you promise you will come and clean the mess (in your cleaning pyjamas) every time I use it, I will buy it. :p
Beautiful result David. You hit it on the head about the gluten being cut by the sharp shards. What a great work around for this problem. I've just got to find a way to source CM products here in the Midwest, reasonably.
Eric
I wonder which CM WW flour Whole Foods Mkt carries as their 365 Organic WW. Maybe Glenn knows, or you could call Nicky Giusto.
David
That is a great looking WW loaf. I'd heard mixed reviews about fine WW (bought some anyway, though) but clearly your result speaks for itself. Very encouraging!
Marcus
I'm curious what negatives you've read about fine WW.
Thanks for your kind words.
David
I don’t remember any specific criticism, just a general unhappiness with the result. It is a different result than a stoneground WW, so maybe that was the problem. I suppose it would depend on the bread, but I’m happy with it so far. Standing alone it might not make the most interesting bread, but I like the way it behaves in pizza dough and in combination with other (coarser) flours and ingredients. I imagine it would be ideal in a WW bagel, as well.
Marcus
Looks yummy. Glad you like the CM Hi-Pro Fine Whole Wheat. It's what I use in the Tartine BCB, and I love that bread almost to excess. I've also used it with success in Hamelman's Oatmeal bread, another favorite.
Glenn
this flour sounds like the best of both worlds: the flavour and nutritional value of whole wheat but lighter thanks to that extra step when milling. Bake away!
what about white whole wheat? has anyone used it before? According to what i read, it is no less 'whole', just a different type of wheat, but it did look noticeably lighter and less coarse.
White whole wheat lacks the pigment in the bran that gives red whole wheat it's redness ... and its bitter flavor. How course or fine its milled is up to the miller. It is attractive to some because it tastes milder ... less like "whole wheat," if you will ... and it results in lighter-colored bread which might overcome the aversion of some to "brown bread."
Personally, I have used white whole wheat just a few times and decided I prefer the red whole wheat flavor, especially if the flour is pre-fermented or soaked.
David
Hello David,
That is lovely-looking whole wheat bread; a fine use of another good CM flour :^)
Are you willing to share a picture of the flour itself? I'm curious to see what it looks like.
Thanks, from breadsong
I'll take some comparison photos as time allows.
David
Thanks David!
To Janet: I always bake wholegrain breads from PT's "WGB". I baked many recipes from that book including the 100% WW, and the one that were made from my fine milled (fine bran too) flour turned out more even and soft, as opposed to the one i made with store bought wholewheat (with large bran), which turned out cakey, as you described.
It is "one preferment, the other is a soker" :)
Ok,
It's time for me to decide if I want to order flour, again, from CM.
I have to have it shipped, so it becomes pretty expensive. I have ordered T85 & WW fine, high protein.
I would appreciate opinions of other users on how important these flours are to your baking, even if expensive.
Money is short, I love to bake, & I love good flour. But, I don't sell my bread, so per loaf adds up.
Thanks
ML