August 4, 2018 - 3:13pm
Bakers Percentage::Wheat Germ - Inlude in flour??
Hi all,
I'm converting the ATK yeasted wheat sandwich bread into baker's percentage. I've converted all the ounces and cups and spoon measure into grams... So, the 1/2 cup wheat germ in the soaker is 57.5 grams.
The biga has 312g bread flour. The soaker also has 468g whole wheat flour.
Should I include the wheat germ in the total flour mass? I'm thinking not.
How do you handle wheat germ in a formula, do you include it in the flour total or is it a % type ingredient?
So.... Option 1) included in flour total: 312+468+57.5 = 837g flour in this recipe
or
Option 2) flour = 312+468 = 780g
wheat germ = 57.5/780 -> 7.4%
Thanks,
Tom
While others might disagree (and I’ve seen a lot of discussions like this in the past), I believe it needs to be included in the flour. In particular, I think it’s important with wheat germ because wheat germ will absorb a great deal of water, and if you don’t include it in the flour, your hydration numbers will be inaccurate. I think it’s much more important, and more helpful, to have accurate hydration percentages than to be overly meticulous about what constitutes flour and what does not. That’s how I always approach this in any case.