I have a recipe for a generic sandwich bread which consists of 3 cups of bread flour, 3 cups of all-purpose, and two tablespoons of dry active yeast.
I would like, instead, to make this recipe using six cups of whole wheat flour. How many tablespoons of dry active yeast should I start out with?
Thanks in advance!
Why re-invent the wheel?
It would be much easier to use a recipe/formula that is designed for 100% whole wheat.
For WW loaves, here are two of my favorite books, with plenty of yeast-based 100% WW recipes:
Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IK8PFU?tag=froglallabout-20
Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, updated edition, all whole wheat formulas: https://www.amazon.com/Laurels-Kitchen-Bread-Book-Whole-Grain/dp/0812969677?tag=froglallabout-20
Good luck, amigo. And go easy on yourself, you don't have to re-invent recipes, just use what's out there.
(Are you going to use store-bought whole wheat flour, or home-milled? There's a difference.)
*warm laugh* As the proverbial "son of an engineer," it's in my nature to re-invent the wheel wherever possible! (Remembering our discussions on oxygen absorbers, nitrogen, et Al.)
Thank you for the book references. Will look them up today.
Yes, my intention is to use home-milled Hard Red and keep the bran and germ in it. What is the difference from store-bought?
I will try to assemble a list of links to previous discussions about store-bought versus home-milled. give me some time.
Shifting a little bit... I am starting to get the suspicion that you may not be totally satisfied eating 100% whole wheat home-baked loaves unless you have first developed a taste for 100% WW store bought loaves.
When you eat store-bought bread, is it "white bread" or "whole wheat" (legal definition is like 40% whole wheat) or do you eat "100% whole wheat" ? Remember, in the US, if it does not SAY "100%" then it is NOT 100%.
The only time I buy white bread is for making PB sandwiches, and even then I don't like it. There's something too "synthetic," too artificial for my taste. I much prefer home-made, ever since I learned how to make it.
As for WW, I have had store-bought, and while an improvement over basic white, I get the impression it's white bread with added coarsely-ground berries and added molassis to turn it a brown color and flavor.
I did once have a bag of Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat. I tried using it for making pasta with unusual properties. I tried making a loaf but was so heavy it resembles pound cake. Probably something I did wrong.
So, you've successfully home-baked white bread, but have not successfully baked any form of 100% whole wheat yet? Is that correct?
And yes, you are right, store-bought "whole wheat" bread is NEVER 100% whole wheat, unless it says "100%" whole wheat. commercial Big-bakery bread, labeled "wheat" or "whole wheat" or "cracked wheat" at grocery stores is still at or over 50% white flour -- always.
so, my question remains, have you eaten store-bought "100% whole wheat" _bread_? Because your home made 100% is going to be as or more dense than that.
--
And yes, it is very hard to learn how to make home-made 100% whole wheat bread that does not look like pound cake. It is an acquired skill that takes a lot of practice. That's why most bread books and home bakers "usually" go up to 50% WW max. And sometimes, rarely, up to 75%.
The 100% whole wheat club of home-bakers is small in number.
I say that to let you know that you have set a very "high bar" for your first WW loaf. But a "challenge" is good!
Also, a 100% WW loaf will NEVER get as fluffy/puffy-poofy as a white flour loaf, or even a good 50/50 loaf. THat is another reason few bakers go after the Holy Grail of 100% WW loaves. it is an aesthetic thing, as well as a technical difficulty.
I generally do 90% WW. And, in order to please my friends who are accustomed to eating commercial bread, I have to limit it to 75% WW for them.
I think I attached a photo of my best loaves of white bread. And now that I've committed to buy my grain mill, I want to broaden my skills and vista.
Yes, I have NOT baked anything with 100% WW. My memory of trying to make pasta with informs me that I truly have a challenge ahead if me. But, "all things are possible to him who believes." I also believe in setting very high goals for myself, because it is the struggle of mastering those skills that causes the brain to grow new dendritic connections in support of those skills.
No, I'm pretty certain I've never eaten 100% WW. The closest I suspect I've eaten is pumpernickel at a local bakery, but I'm probably comparing apples to oranges. if I can buy 50 lbs of berries for $26, I'm willing to take the challenge. I suspect that once I'm making a great 100% WW loaf, it will still be so dense as to be served as an accompiant to something equally sturdy like chili or New England Baked Beans.
Unrelated to this is baking a WW that also has the bran and germ in it, in order to have the maximum nutrition possible.
So I'm looking forward to it. I suspect I'll be giving my grain mill a good workout as I master this craft! :-)
Here's a pan loaf recipe, using 100% WW (home-milled, I think) that uses all commercial yeast, no sourdough:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab
It's the 3rd spreadsheet down in the OP. Text instructions immediately follow the spreadsheet.
Here's the image URL of the spreadsheet, if the one in the OP is too small to read:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com//files/u32564/ApproachableNoSD_Poolish.JPG
Just to back up a minute, "3 cups of bread flour, 3 cups of all-purpose, and two tablespoons of dry active yeast."
That's quite a bit more more yeast than you need. Most formulas start with yeast equivalent to around one percent of the weight of the flour, which would be less than a tablespoon. Recipes that are passed hand to hand often have excessive yeast.
In general, because yeast reproduces in the dough, the starting amount is not critical. If you're a bakery and timings are tight you need to think about this, but if you are willing to wait longer for the dough to rise, then you can begin with smaller amounts.
Anyway, you have great advice on recipes in the responses above.
On the flavor discussion, I've found that once I go over 50% WW an unpleasant grassy flavor takes over the bread, but that may be a matter of taste. I generally do about 40%. A good unbleached white flour, with long fermentation, can produce pretty spectacular flavor too and need not be tasteless and bland. The other thing with WW is that there's a lot of variation in what you can buy, in terms of flavor and texture.
Thank you for these insights. I am very much a newbie baker and so I simply copied the recipe, but I will weigh out the flour and try the 1% you mentioned. Thanks!
Hi, I just wanted to let you know I have taken a similar path: I started learning to bake bread because I wanted to make 100% whole wheat bread. I started by buying flour, and then bought a grain mill and now I make 100% ww bread, both yeasted and sourdough, from home milled flour. It was extremely challenging for me at first, and most people told me to use part whole wheat and part white flour. But I'm here to say, that's not necessary.
I finally was successful at getting a feel for the way the dough is supposed to be, and the way to work with the dough, when I watched the videos on the Elly's Everyday channel. She makes sourdough but it's all 100% home milled whole wheat and it uses the autolyse method, and after I watched those videos things just started to click for me.
I also found a very helpful video for for a yeasted 100% wholemeal spelt bread. It's great because you can see clearly how the dough is supposed to look, feel, and behave at each stage, and how to handle it. I changed it to add an autolyse but do everything else the same.
Here are the two videos I have found most helpful for learning to bake bread with 100% whole wheat, fresh-milled flour:
Elly's same-day 100% whole wheat sourdough (my flour only needs 75% hydration to look like hers does at 90%. I always give it a whole hour to autolyse.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z3ae1vPNQ0&t=635s
Patrick Ryan's 100% wholemeal black treacle spelt sandwich loaves (I also give this an hour to autolyse before adding a proofed yeast/flour/water mix and the salt): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qDLrpQh10&list=PLLurzJ8auZzYft6AIolysfoePkEr6ZPcY&index=2
Patrick's video is especially great for showing what the dough should look like.
If you use instant yeast you can knead it in at the same time you knead the salt in. Use Elly's method of folding them in separately. I have active, not instant, yeast, so I proof it in a quarter cup of water, then add enough flour to make a little bitty dough and treat it like sourdough starter.
You can do Elly's recipe as a conventional yeast if you put 7 grams of yeast in with about 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water, stir together, let sit for 10 or 15 minutes, and then add it in to the dough as if it was sourdough starter.