May 26, 2020 - 8:48am
How do I make my 100% home ground whole wheat rise like a 50/50 loaf?
Hey folks, my first post here: I’m taking advantage of quarantine to try to learn how to bake bread. I’ve been experimenting with Jeffrey Steingarten’s Pane Ganzanese and trying to adapt it to work with my home milled flour (hard red winter wheat). This photo shows my WW loaf in front of a 50/50 loaf.
The WW loaf tastes good but I can’t figure out how to make it light and fluffy. Is there any way to get that excellent WW flavor and the tender and light 50/50 texture?
thank you!
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Hi, p_h, and welcome to TFL!
The short answer to your question is "no." You know about how you can only get two of "good, cheap and fast?" It's kind of like that.
What you can do is mill your wheat very, very fine. This reduces the degree to which bran particles cut the gluten strands. You can increase hydration. Whole grain flours absorb more water than white flours, so to get the same dough consistency in a 50% and 100% whole wheat dough, the latter needs more water. And, of course, you want good fermentation, gentle dough handling and shaping, and all the things that contribute to good oven spring.
Besides that, you can maximize gluten development by intensive mixing in a stand mixer - like 15 minutes or more at Speed 2 in a KitchenAid mixer. This will give you a very evenly aerated, lighter crumb. The cost will be flavor. The intensive mixing oxidizes the carotenoid pigments in the wheat which contribute a lot of the good flavors.
Another TFL member, txfarmer, blogged on this approach a few years ago. I tried it once. It did result in a fluffier loaf, but the taste was blah.
Hope this helps.
Happy baking!
David
IMO there in no reason to compare the two. If you like 50/50, then go for it. It is a pretty good option with small difference in terms of nutrients.
On the other hand, WW has its own benefits. I will never have the same texture as a bread with 20-30%+ white flour, but the flavor can be quite a bit better. My advise is to make a long cold ferment. A starting point is to cut in half the yeast and let sit for 24 hours in the fridge. Have fun!
I like to make the Fresh Milk bread from the Laurel's Kitchen bread book when I want a light and fluffy loaf of bread. The added milk and butter make the bread rise much higher.
Intensive kneading to fully develop the gluten is also key. Personally I have not found it to harm the flavor of the bread, but I do it by hand, so perhaps there is less oxidation. My approach is to autolyse the flour and water overnight, then add the salt and levain and knead on the bench until the gluten is fully developed and the dough will windowpane. It takes about 10 minutes. If there are enrichments, it takes 20 (10 to develop the gluten, 10 more to knead in all the butter.) If there is rye flour in the mix that can interfere, so just knead for 10 and call it good, or leave out the rye when the primary goal is light and fluffy. I don't find the kneading to be unpleasant. I suggest hydrating enough that the dough is a little softer and easier to knead, and using one of the stretch techniques.
WW is a tricky beast to make into a fluffy loaf but it can be done.
THIS is the link dmsnyder is referring to about txfarmer's Hokkaido Milk Bread. She explains how to achieve her type of loaf. THE most important aspect is allow the WW flour TIME to hydrate. This allows the starchy gel in the flour to be fully developed and to be kneaded to windowpane. Even with the bran particles in the dough, windowpane can be achieved. Any time you work with WW, it needs adequate hydration AND TIME to absorb it into all the branny bits. THEN you knead until a windowpane is achieved.
Contrary to popular belief, WW flour (even the most popular commercially sold WW flour) has plenty of gluten to make a great loaf of bread. The key is to fully hydrate and then develop it. Any recipe that calls for a biga,autolyse,sponge,preferment will usually do the trick. A tang zhong also helps. (search box!).
I found the easiest way to get a soft,extensible dough is to pay attention to proper hydration and kneading but then I put the dough into the refrigerator overnight to rise overnight.
Search ideas:
tang zhong, epoxy method, remix method, biga,autolyse, preferment, sponge, windowpane.
Additional links:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24300/i-hate-whole-wheat
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62438/community-bake-whole-wheat-bread-multitudes-starts-next-week
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51446/2017-dabrownman%E2%80%99s-blog-index
Bake some delicious fun!