12: Another 100% Wholewheat Loaf.

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ninarosner on 3 Apr 2020 at 07:37

I replicated the method of Loaf 11 because of good result. Fewer S&Fs. 

RECIPE

100% (500g) wholewheat stoneground flour (12.7g protein per 100g)
15% (75g) starter
85% (425g) hydration
2% (10g) salt

METHOD

1 day before, I discarded most of the starter leaving only about 2 tbsp. Refreshed this with 50g water and 50g WW flour.

12.00: AL flour and water
13.00: Mixed in starter and salt, kneaded lightly on countertop, left to sit. *then went out for a walk so couldn't do S&Fs till later*
16.30: S&F
17.30: S&F
18.30: S&F
22:30: Shape into boule, and placed seam side up in floured tea-towel, in colander. Into fridge to proof overnight
09.45 next day: Out of fridge, oven on to warm up
10:45: Into dutch oven, score, and into oven at ~230c
11.05: Lid off
11.35: Out of oven to cool.

RESULT

Good! The thing which is letting me down most right now is my dutch oven. It's too small for my breads, so they get squashed in there. Meaning (I think) they don't rise and open as much as they would like to. I'm keen to experiment without dutch oven and with steam method instead... though I don't have a baking stone.

 

Amazing crumb for a 100% wholegrain loaf Nina, I’m really impressed.  I have yet to even try baking sourdough at that % wholegrain, I’m still working on improving my 50%.

Benny

Hi Nina, I’ve only recently had some luck with my sourdough bread, I still am a novice and still learning, but that is nice of you to say.  If you start using more white flour you’ll find it easier to get an open crumb considering what you achieved with 100% whole grain.  

Enjoy your baking and stay safe.

Benny

Nina,  I've always thought that open crumb is over-rated.  Better to have the healthy benefits of near 100% WW.

A few thoughts though:

  • If you add white flour, just do 10%.  In my fresh-milled WW loaves, that's enough to make a difference in the crumb.
  • I still think you might be using just a tad too much starter for those lengths of bulk ferment and final proof. Or, too long of a bulk ferment and final proof for that amount of starter.  Oven spring depends on just slightly under-fermenting.
  • Try doing about  5 minutes of kneading right after mixing in the starter and salt.  If the dough is too stiff, give it 30 minutes rest (starting from when you mix in starter and salt) and try kneading again.  If it is still too stiff to knead, add just enough water, a little at a time, until it can be easily kneaded.
  • If you are remembering (and being influenced by) making (or seeing made) white pan-loaf bread, keep in mind that the dough (especially WW dough) for hearth style artisan loaves is generally wetter and looser.
  • Unless the loaf is hitting the underside of the dutch oven's lid, the dutch oven is not too small.
  • when scoring, try a cross or "+" shape, or a #-style.
  • A cast iron or steel griddle or large iron/steel skillet, or cookie sheet, can replace a baking stone.
  • An old fashioned thin-walled roaster, such as Graniteware, like grandma used to cook a turkey, can also replace a dutch oven.
  • When you final shape into a boule, are you "scooching" the boule towards you across the counter-top in order to tighten the upper skin?  "Scooching" is usually done 4 or eight times, rotating the boule 1/4 turn in between so the skin forms a nice tight gluten cloak.  Without tightness of the upper skin/cloak, the whole upper  skin expands uniformly, instead of "bursting" along the score lines.  The skin/cloak holding fast and tight forces expansion to occur at the scoring cuts.  
  • If you see a lot of "fine cracks" in the skin after baking, that could indicate that not enough expansion happened at the score lines.
  • Getting a dry upper skin helps too, and that is done by the wicking away of surface moisture during the final proof (via a porous banneton, maybe a cloth liner, and the generous dusting of flour.)

I bet that loaf tastes delicious.  My WW bakes taste best if I can resist cutting it open for 20 hours.

Wow, thanks for all this! A lot to work with here...

- Dutch oven: the problem is that the bread is actually too wide for the dutch oven's circumference. So when it goes in it literally gets squashed. Does that make sense?

- I am doing the 'scooching', though I've read in places not to do it too much in case you rip the top... So maybe I'll try and push it a bit further next time? I do wonder whether it's not tearing open because of the above point about dutch oven... it's too squashed in there, needs more space to expand in all directions. Your point about 'fine cracks' seems to confirm this; I did notice it with last loaf.

- Just an idea: Because I'm not living at home atm, and can't buy more equipment: How about I mix 800g flour and then divide into two smaller boules? (instead of 500g flour for one boule) - then they would fit better in my dutch oven thing. Could that work or would they be too small?

- The last 2 bakes I have taken your advice and proofed with a cloth liner in a colander, and the positive results speak for themselves!

 

And yes.... very delicious. 

"- Just an idea: Because I'm not living at home atm, and can't buy more equipment: How about I mix 800g flour and then divide into two smaller boules? (instead of 500g flour for one boule) - then they would fit better in my dutch oven thing. Could that work or would they be too small?"

That is also a possibility. 

"the problem is that the bread is actually too wide for the dutch oven's circumference. So when it goes in it literally gets squashed. Does that make sense?"

Ah, there is something.  You're losing the tension in the top skin when you do that.

The goal is to transfer the boule into the baking vessel while disturbing/distorting the dough the least possible.  The best solution I know for doing that is to match the size/dircumference of the proofing vessel to the baking vessel.  Since you're limited to that dutch oven, then the solution is to get a bowl the right size.  (  I think you said you were using a colander.)

To get the drying-out effect of a banneton/colander, but using a bowl, get a bowl slightly larger in diameter than the dutch oven.  First line it with a fuzzy absorbent towel, then inner line it with the tight-weave tea-towel.  Choose the bowl size such that the dough ends up just slightly smaller in diameter than the dutch oven.  

Or, if the colander is not too big, put the absorbent thick towel in it, then line withthe tea towel, and that might reduce the diameter of the dough to match the dutch oven.

Pls lemme know if any of that makes sense.

"You're losing the tension in the top skin when you do that. The goal is to transfer the boule into the baking vessel while disturbing/distorting the dough the least possible" 

This is exactly what's going wrong. Disturbing the dough and losing tension in the top skin.

Your solution make sense. Because presumably the size of the proofing vessel is more instrumental in determining final dough size than the flour weight... as regardless it will just stretch to meet its vessel. So you're saying absorbent towel + tea-towel gives colander affect. Gotcha. The colander I'm using is rather big so I'll have to try this.  

Great tip, thanks!

It was a trial and error process for me, but I eventually learned, for each recipe (because WW doughs are denser than white flour loaves, and vary by % WW), how to match dough weight to the banneton size.   

my high hydration dough tends  to spread out, so I like to match the banneton diameter to the baking vessel diameter, and that helps me get height in the loaf, without it pancake-ing.

I have various stuff: 1/2 liter pyrex measuring cup, 1 liter &  2 liter pyrex/borosilicate measuring bowls, borosilicate glass casserole with lid, 1.75 quart enameled cast iron pot with lid, 3.2 quart Lodge cast iron combo cooker, and I think I've baked in all of them, using aluminum foil as a cover for the glass. 

Dave, I baked another loaf this morning, and used your proofing trick - smaller vessel, with 2 layers of towels.

It definitely went a long way in getting the bread to proof 'up' rather than out. When I tipped it onto baking paper, it did expand outwards - not as much as usual, but was still a bit too wide for the dutch oven.

Nevertheless, it did have more oven spring along scoring line than last time; which basically proves the point that the dutch oven is too small for the bread, so I either need a bigger dutch oven, or a more suitable proofing vessel.

This should no longer be a problem once I can leave where I am and get my hands on better equipment. I should also say I'm using a pretty average knife for scoring which is less than ideal.

Here's a quick snap of the bread: