Greetings!
I'm looking for input on your experiences baking breads using cracked wheat vs. bulgur (with cracked wheat referring to wheat berries that have been cracked into pieces, and bulgur being parboiled wheat berries that are then dried and cracked).
I have used bulgur a bit before, and appreciate how easy it is to use (for me, overnight soaker using just tepid water), but I have a good source for organic cracked wheat in bulk, but imagine I'd at least need to use boiling water, if not a bit of cooking, to make it fully tender.
I'm also interested in your perceptions of any differences in finished bread between the two.
Thanks!
I tried bulgur in a soaker once and the brand I had got completely hydrated in about 30 minutes, and I mean completely - there was no structure to it at all. Now, cracked wheat I use fairly often, in a short cold soaker - 2 hours is enough for the kind I have. I do not want it completely tender though - I want to add some chewiness to the bread, so for me it's done as soon I can bite through it without encountering any hard parts.
thanks for that...and with the cracked wheat you use...do they turn really hard when they are on the crust. When I've used cracked grains before (rye), I've had some tooth-breakingly hard bits on the surface of the loaf after baking (which is part of why I have cut back on using them).
I don't see how you can avoid it entirely.
Last week, I ground up some roasted job tear barley in a blender. I didn't sift or soften the flour first before adding to dough and regretted it. Very many hard bits in the bread and on the surface. I fine sifted the remaining flour and ground the large bits again. The last remaining bits I put into a small bowl and covered with cold water. I checked the softness of the sand sized particles thru the day and 24 hrs later with practically no change. Decided to quick boil them in the microwave. They softened and swelled after about 2 hours.
Roasting seems to make the grain harder so I would expect roasted wheat might be just as tough to soften. Should you decide to roast any. :)
I should also add that in my experience cold soaked bulgur has not turned mushy or disappeared in my breads, they seem pretty ideal texture-wise, so I imagine not all bulgur is the same.
Certainly, hence the added qualifier "the brand I had" in my original reply.