Approximating the texture of store-bought whole wheat sandwich bread?
I've successfully made white sandwich bread, but try as I might, I can't even come close to the consistency of store bought whole wheat sandwich bread.
For example: https://www.amazon.com/Oroweat-100-Whole-Wheat-Bread/dp/B000R4JHH6
When looking at the ingredients, the only one that stands out is "WHEAT GLUTEN", however despite using up to 2% wheat gluten in my dough, it still results in a dense loaf that you could bludgeon someone to death with.
Here is the my most recent attempt:
100% flour, whole wheat
75% milk, whole, warm
15% oil, olive
10% sugar, brown
10% honey
2% vital wheat gluten
2% yeast
2% salt
Steps: knead for 10 minutes, bench rest for 2 hours, transfer to loaf pan, rest until crest rises above edge of pan, bake at 350F until internal temp of 190F.
I ask what recipe you're using because you can't use a white bread recipe for whole wheat flour. Whole wheat requires different handling. Whole wheat flour takes a long time to hydrate, and if you start kneading it before it hydrates, the gluten develops but it takes a long time, it tends to be fragile, and the dough tends to break down. If you let it just soak with the water for an hour or more, the gluten develops on it's own, and the dough behaves much better.
Another tip is that only letting the bread rise once isn't going to give you great results, typically. You'll see that most recipes call for you to deflate the dough after the first rise and let it rise at least once more.
The method I use now, that finally is resulting in very good 100% whole wheat bread, both sourdough and conventional yeast, is to:
The key points are to autolyse, and to build structure. It seems like a lot of work but after the initial mixing/kneading, the other steps each take only a minute or two.
One final note, if you're using hard wheat, either red or white, winter or spring, you don't need to add the vital wheat gluten. Your flour has plenty of gluten already. And added gluten, I hear, can make bread tough. I don't have any personal experience with it either way though. You just need to autolyse so that the gluten in your flour can develop.
For hydration, I know the right "feel" for white bread, but for autolysing, what kind of hydration consistency am I looking for? I used 85% which was the minimum to hydrate all of the flour and get a sticky, but not shaggy, dough.
85% hydration is right there in the ballpark. I use around 72% for spelt, 80 for my particular hard red winter, 75 for a mix. But I adjust when I add the water and mix it in. Trust your hands and eyes. If it seems right, it's probably right. If it's dry, crumbly, tough in spots, and doesn't want to wet all the flour, add more water. If it's sloppy, add more flour. You want a moist, sticky, soft, somewhat gooey dough mass, but not sloppy or drippy.
It will not be identical to the Orowheat as they use some fast methods that home bakers can't duplicate. They also add some ingredients home bakers don't use.
First of all, use the search box and look for "fluffy whole wheat bread", "soft Whole wheat", "shreddable whole wheat" and finally TxFarmer's iconic "Hokkaido whole wheat". All interesting reads that should be helpful.
VItal wheat gluten is usually not necessary for any bread (except very long fermented doughs) and adds a certain chewiness/rubberiness to the bread. Not my preference but that is very individual. VWG in my view, is used as a shortcut or workaround to properly developing the dough to windowpane. Same characteristic can be obtained using the tang zhong method (another search). Hard, red spring or winter wheat has plenty of gluten to make a fluffy loaf but there are several handling techniques required-it i NOT the same as making a loaf with AP flour.
WW needs a goodly amount of hydration but also the time to properly absorb it into the branny bits.Sometimes, it can be a very high hydration percentage (80-90%) but the dough is not gloppy or sticky if given the appropriate soaking time. Usually this is done by an autolyse, preferment, sponge or biga. All of these fancy terms are methods of soaking the whole wheat flour for a long period of time. Autolyse is simply flour and water and time (1-16 hrs).
The second handling requirement to obtain a soft WW loaf is kneading to windowpane. Very important and entirely do-able if the WW is given a proper soaking time. You are developing the starchy gel that traps the gas bubbles and if the branny bits are not soak/softened and still sharp, the bubbles will tend to break and develop into a dense loaf.
My best soft WW loaf was usually made with a natural levain preferment started in the morning, final dough mixed in the evening and the sticky dough (hasn't had time to absorb the water yet) put into the refrigerator overnight. It would rise to double by morning into a slightly tacky,lovely dough, be shaped/tinned and baked. Great fermentation taste, soft crumb that didn't crumble. Preferment can be made with commercial yeast, also.
So for a soft WW bread, hydration,time and windowpane are key elements.
Have fun!
Here is a link to Peter Reinhart’s TED Talk on how to get a whole grain bread with great flavor, using the epoxy method. I found that using the epoxy method also gives me a much more palatable texture to my whole grain breads. Maybe this will help.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gK8Yk3mEEb8
Here is a link to Peter Reinhart’s TED Talk on how to get a whole grain bread with great flavor, using the epoxy method. I found that using the epoxy method also gives me a much more palatable texture to my whole grain breads. Maybe this will help.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gK8Yk3mEEb8
Here;s what I baked today: 80% WW @ 90% Hydration. There are also 15% scallions and kalamata olives (70g each with 900g flour). It tastes great and has a nice texture. I would like a more open crumb and more oven spring, but the bread is still very good eating if not quite food porn in looks.
The formula is in here: Bread Formulas - look for the 80/90 formula with poolish. As it happens I was lazy the day before yesterday and did not make the poolish. So I just mixed up all the flours and water last night, bulk fermented in the fridge, and baked this morning.
If you want to mix by hand, I use 10 minutes of Rubaud's method in the mixing bowl, after a 30 minute rest at the end of incorporation.