During a recent expedition to the local Pan-Asian grocery, I came home with 25 lbs of whole wheat atta. Not knowing from nuthin', I expected it to be a typical whole wheat. Thank goodness for TFL! I checked out archived postings on using atta, and one poster had success with using Atta in TomKat's Semolina Filone, as featured in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking. I started with a poolish including both yeast water and about an ounce of liquid levain for flavor and rise. I didn't get much sour in the final bake, but that's fine with us.
Not too bad for a first attempt, I must say. I think the loaves are a bit overproofed, and slashing continues to be my greatest challenge, but the flavor has been good, and I enjoy the chew. The color is a light whole wheat but with nice gluten development...my past attempts with whole wheat typically result in a crumblier (is that a word?) crumb.
I do made Indian food several times a month, so I will certainly have to try the traditional Indian breads...only 20 lbs of flour to go!
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practice. When I bake using atta, durum wheat with part of the sifted out bran (atta) put back in. I like to sift out the bran and feed that to the starter to make the levian. With the bran wetter and wetter longer, the bread crumb seems to come out better. Post a crumb shot when you get a chance. Well done and
Happy baking
Thanks for the feedback, David! I will have to play with the atta and see what happens, but it seemed such a fine milling that I fear it would take an industrial filter to remove the bran! I have used Hodgson Mill stone ground whole grain flours in the past (I think I might have their rye in the pantry at the moment) and I can certainly sift out the bran from their whole wheat. I'll have to try your technique with those flours.
Re: the crumb--I am so inept at uploading photos I ended up having to make a second posting to my blog to share the crumb shot; it should be just before the loaf shot. What do you think?