The Quest
I am a new baker exploring the boundaries of whole wheat berries, heritage wheat's and ancient wheat's. I do understand that light fluffy is not the norm for whole grains but I am guessing people made really good bread for a few thousand years using whole grains, may not have been "light and fluffy" but I'll bet it was good. I do not want to sift out the wheat I want all of that fiber and nutrients. That said I am not opposed to buying some bread four and fluffing things up a bit but for now I want to see what I can get out of the whole wheat berries.
I am quit happy with my biscuits and pancakes and bread baked in a pan.
I have had success using the poolish biga approach AKA Reinhart method but sourdough has been a little more problematic so far. The breads that have worked pretty well have been in loaf pans, last weekend was the first time I attempted a bowl using sourdough proofed in a banneton and it wound up being pretty flat with a thick tough as nails crust, big waste of time in the kitchen but the ducks did seem to like it. ( : It rose fine in the banneton but lost its shape when put in the baking couche.
It was the Tartine country loaf recipe which I thought I followed pretty close minus the bread flour, I used 100% white Sonora. The problem was not enough structure "gluten" I guess. Since you were not there and have no way of knowing exactly what I did or did not do I realize you cannot reasonable diagnose my failure so I want to ask a few question if you please.
Surely it is possible to make a good artisan whole grain bowl? yes, no
Am I being hardheaded by not using bread flour?
What should be the hydration "water" percentage using 100% whole wheat for a whole wheat artisan bowl?
For the most part, I only use 100% whole wheat, no sifting, and haven't used commercial yeast in many years. You can get a nice boule - or other non pan loaves, but if you want it to look fairly good, you need to everything right. Even if you don't do everything right, you normally get something that tastes great, certainly not something you have to throw to the ducks, though it will not have as open a crumb as when things are perfect.
Hydration should be exactly something between 0% to 150%. Obviously being sarcastic, but hydration varies based on how fine you grind, the type of berries , etc. My standard recipe with white whole wheat is 82%, but again, getting the fermentation and proofing just right is more important to a more open crumb than hydration.
One frequent problem is overproofing. If you felt strength in the dough at the end of mixing, and when you took it out of the oven, it is lower than when it went in, that is an indication you may have overproofed the final proof. Search for aliquot jar, and consider trying that. The most critical thing is to keep accurate notes of each attempt, and that should lead you to what works in your kitchen, with your oven, your flour, your mill, etc. also try varying the amount of rise for the initial fermentation - while some recipes suggest doubling in volume, others have reported success at 30% increase. I hesitate to link to this page, because your goal should not be to obtain bread as pretty as this, but he does lay out his steps, temps, and timing in a lot of detail. https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/33735/home-bread-fighting-gravity
Ryebaker.com uses whole grains in Eastern/Northern European recipes. Fluffy, no but certainly evenly aerated and delicious.
They incorporate scalds (softens bran, compensates for lack of gluten, creates a nice moist texture) and multiple stages based on a sourdough.
Benny did a fluffy 100% whole wheat sourdough Hokkaido milk bread using a tangzhong scald, as well as another whole wheat sourdough, See the blogs.
My greatest success so far with 100% whole wheat sourdough I just posted last weekend. My blog post here.
A 100% whole wheat pan loaf with great success is this post.
Benny
I think you can sift the bran(possibly germ too) and use it in some other recipe(also toast the bran before using).
I've actually got pretty nice results using Reinhart's whole wheat hearth bread formula (without the yeast of course) from WGB.
The additions I made to the recipe were to knead a lot more (If you also use a weak flour), until you're sure you got enough development, 4 s&f sets during bulk in each 30 mins, and only letting it rise to about 1.5 times before preshaping, more than that and you'd hardly get any spring. I think that the main element (assuming shaping is done correctly), is to avoid fully proofing the dough. I generated a lot of breadcrumbs for my schnitzels until I got it right.
As mentioned above, the flour I'm using so far is also fairly weak (~10% in US measurement), but aside from extra kneading, the shaping tips from The Perfect Loaf were very helpful, especially the part where you add extra tension after placing in the basket, though I probably wouldn't try that last part on a stronger flour, unless your hydration is really high.
In the old days, fields grew both rye and wheat - > "wheat" contained some rye. I find that I get a better sourdough starter when I add 2% rye flour and 2% bean flour to my whole wheat flour. ( White flour also has malt in it, so sourdough cultures from white flour and home milled whole wheat will be different.) I admit to putting a couple of grams of barley malt in every kilo of whole wheat flour that I mill.
Since I have started adding rye, beans, and barley malt to my wheat, my sourdough has been MUCH better. These are all legal under French law for at least some breads.
In the old days, fields grew both rye and wheat - > "wheat" contained some rye. I find that I get a better sourdough starter when I add 2% rye flour and 2% bean flour to my whole wheat flour. ( White flour also has malt in it, so sourdough cultures from white flour and home milled whole wheat will be different.) I admit to putting a couple of grams of barley malt in every kilo of whole wheat flour that I mill.
Since I have started adding rye, beans, and barley malt to my wheat, my sourdough has been MUCH better. These are all legal under French law for at least some breads.