As of late there has been interest on the forum about an organization called, "The Bread Lab". It is an extension of Washington State University with a laser focus on wheat, people who process the wheat, bakers that work with the wheat, and consumers that eat the wheat.
The Bread Lab has instituted a program to encourage commercial bakers to offer a basic whole wheat sourdough bread that is targeted for the average consumer. They named the bread, "The Approachable Loaf". A simple name for a basic loaf of natural and nutritious goodness.
A quite a few bakeries have joined to participate in the vision.
Here is a brief write up detailing a common recipe for the Approachable Loaf. NOTE - the formula and method is not meant to be an absolute. Bakers are free and welcomed to develop formulas and methods that meet the minimal criteria. This bread is intended to be a sandwich type bread with a nice airy crumb that will hold the condiments on the bread and not drip down into your laps. Forget the Instagram holes. <LOL>
Basic Criteria -
- is baked in a tin and sliced.
- contains no more than seven ingredients.
- contains no non-food.
- is at least 60% whole wheat—preferably 100%.
- is priced under $6/loaf. (Bakeries)
- 10¢ of every loaf sold returns to The Bread Lab to support further research of other whole grain products. (Bakeries)
Great News for bakers that don’t use sourdough. An Affordable Loaf can be baked using commercial yeast. The main goal is to promote whole grain breads. If you plan to bake using commercial yeast only, a poolish (preferment) would be a great idea.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to join in and participate in the event. For those that are new to Community Bakes, it is a great opportunity to share and learn with and from others.
Some bakers, including myself decide to get a jump start on the bake. See this link for early bakes.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62438/community-bake-whole-wheat-bread-multitudes-starts-next-week
Below are a few variations of the Approachable Loaf. All spreadsheets are shown with 1000 grams for the Total Dough Weight. If you choose to bake 1 or more breads of a weight other than 1000 grams using any spreadsheet below, do the following in order to figure the weight of each ingredient. Suppose you want to bake a single loaf with a Total Dough Weight of 750 grams. Simply multiple each ingredient by .75 to get the correct weight. Or lets say you want 2 loaves that weigh 900 grams a piece, then multiple each ingredient by 1.80. During my experimentation I found that 1000 grams was a good weight for a 9" x 5" bread pan.
The spreadsheets below are examples. You are free to come up with your own version.
The formula below is for sourdough with no Commercial Yeast.
The version below is a hybrid version using both sourdough and Commercial Yeast. Make sure you watch the bulk ferment and the final proof like a hawk. CY ferments much faster than what sourdough bakers are accustomed to.
The next version uses Commercial Yeast with no sourdough.
For those that are new to the Community Bakes (CB), see this link to get an idea of how things work. Browse the post to get a feel for things.
The CB is not competitive. It is a learning event where bakers from all of the world share their ideas and learn from others. All bakers are encouraged to share "the good, the bad, and the ugly". We learn much more from our failures that we do from our successes...
A word about email notifications. The Community Bakes garner lots of participants and post. Because of this the thread grows very large, very fast. Those that reply to the CB will be notified via email whenever new replies are posted to the thread. If you click the link in the email notification and you are not brought to the post mentioned in the email, just refresh your browser window. This will correct the issue.
Danny
Thank you. I confess I’ve never assumed that my starter couldn’t raise any bread dough I added it to. Perhaps avoiding extinction for 3.5 Bn years tends to make bugs infinitely adaptable.
French folding is very much a “knocking down” treatment. So yes, I intentionally repeated the French folding throughout the bulk, to push gluten development without regard to crumb aeration since a sandwich bread should have a closed crumb. Nothing to do with flours, less so the durum at only 12%, other than the fact that whole grains in general reduce crumb aeration without extra efforts to promote it.
Tom
It is super gratifying to see so many participating bakers turn out such beautiful loaves. I believe that together, we are all baking better breads.
An individual can only bake so many breads and run so many experiments, but because of Floyd and his forum, we can all post our findings and learn collectively!
A big thanks to Floyd! U da’ man...
Danny
Love the crumb and seeing the blisters on the outside. I was thinking about trying to create more steam for this bread beyond misting the oven with a spray bottle. Does anyone know what the percentage of oil or butter would have to be in a bread recipe, to not benefit from steam?
Thanks. No idea about your oil/butter question. Interesting one.
I steamed that Approachable by covering the pan with a inverted identical pan after painting the top with water via pastry brush. Worked well but I can’t help but wonder how my regular steam system might have changed the outcome. Next time maybe.
Tom
The first 5 bakes can be seen HERE.
In a prior bake the recommended 0.8% CY (IDY) was used. The fermentation ran much faster than I am accustomed to, being a SD baker. The end result of that bake was an improperly proofed bread that lacked the complex taste that I have come to expect. So for this 6th bake a SD levain (25% pre-fermented flour) was used with a 0.1% yeast kicker that was mixed into the Final Dough.
The Results
The 0.1% CY didn’t affect the fermentation, rise, crumb, or loft of the bread. It also had no affect on the SD flavor. It was as if it wasn’t used. More testing should be done, but it appears that 0.1% (1g per kilo flour) is not enough CY to make a noticeable difference in this type of bread.
This was the least successful bake of all 6. I handled the dough with consideration of the CY. The dough should have fermented more. But in spite of it being my least favorite, it still made a great tasting, nice looking bread. The slightly dense crumb was very pleasant to eat. The texture was actually enjoyable. This bread has inspired me to try Trevor’s whole wheat bread where he purposely mills the wheat coarse in order to obtain a dense and hearty bite.
Danny
Hello Everyone!
It's pretty incredible to see you all baking your own versions of the Approachable Loaf using our criteria but with your own personal spin. We are humbled to see the enthusiasm for the project. And the finished products look delicious!
Janine
I am happy to report that this latest Approachable bake is absolutely the best tasting Whole Wheat bread that I have ever baked. By Far!
I hope the great flavor is the result of the 0.3% CY (IDY)! The starter used Bread Flour, so the mix was 75/25% (WW/BF). The whole wheat was Hard Red Wheat (100% extraction).
The loaf and possibly the crumb can be improved a little, but the flavor is going to be hard to beat.
I will be baking this one again, and again, and...
I included the spreadsheet with the most recent tweaks.
The complete writeup of all bakes can be seen HERE.
Danny
You got this out just in time for me to try this formula this weekend---It looks great!
Looking forward to hearing more about your process. I have become enamored with this bread and plan on making it a regular thing. I love the fact that my usual 80/20 white to whole wheat that I use for lean sourdough has been flipped on it's head. I think the honey comb crumb you are pursuing can be more easily achieved with this method. Maybe not lacy but still a nice eating bread with good mouth feel.
The mixed flour one I did was a really nice tasting loaf and I am in the process of making a buckwheat approachable with butter and maple syrup.
I am hopeful that the 0.3% Commercial Yeast is the sweet spot! I know that 0.8% is way too much for me nad the 0.1% has no noticeable affect on the fermentation or flavor. But the 0.3% enhanced the fermentation, loft, crumb, AND the flavor is phenomenal! As I said, I hope this can be duplicated. The bread is addicting...
From what I have recently read, Active Dry Yeast can be added to the flour like instant yeast or rapid rise. It will just start more slowly but finish stronger. I am going to test that theory next and try retarding it in bulk or shaped.
MT, we talked about retarding in another post today. I keep forgetting to degas the CY dough.
For most of the Approachable bakes I BF on the counter, then shaped and put in pan. Then retarded overnight. Pulled nad baked straight out of fridge in the morning with very nice results.
Gotta’ remember to degas the dough. Would you believe that all 3 of the CY loaves were not degassed? Old habits are hard to break. I never completely degas SD.
or I should say Dave's calculations that is near a half tsp per loaf. Is that correct? How long was the bulk ferment?
MT, I looked up the IDY weight, and got this.
” One teaspoon of instant yeast converted to gram equals to 3.15 g.”
You have tirelessly participated in everones bakes and you have even managed to dedicate the time to perfect your own!
Lance
Thanks, Lance. I am excited about this last loaf. Now, if only the results can be duplicated.
We all benefit from Dan's obsessive-compulsiveness. Seven bakes for one Community Bake!
I'm sure Dan's friends, neighbors, and relatives enjoy his experiments too.
Let me tell you about yesterday...
I give away a lot of bread, I have to. But yesterday I went into the freezer and found that “my stash” was about out! Panick! I’ve been existing on WW and egg sandwiches. I had to whip up an emergency Approachable. AND that was the loaf that I’ve been raving about.
Today I am mixing Kristen’s Basic Open Crumb SD with a starter that was made 2 days ago. I want to see if this is possible. Check out the 5 hr levain. OH! No bad smell or taste, believing the LAB are of the healthy varieties.
Started out with 100% home milled organic rye (100% extraction) @ 125% hydration. That stuff is powerful. It doubled within 24 hr, and never had a bad smell or taste.
We’ll see how it bakes up.
I am so glad that we were introduced to the Approachable Loaf! After dialing in the formula that worked best for me, the flavor is outstanding. This is the second bake that consistently produced the texture, lightness, and flavor that turns be on. It presses my buttons... For those that may be interested, see Bake #7 on THIS POST for the spreadsheet.
For me, the key was the hybrid formula using sourdough and only a 0.3% yeast kicker (CY). I chose to go 75% WW and 25% white flour because I use the 25% white flour in the levain. I may play with that later, but the bread is so good, I am reluctant to mess with it.
By the way - this bread was baked with a starter that is only 6 days old. This starter was actually ready to build a levain after 48 hours and it baked a bread in 72.
The complete writeup of all bakes can be seen HERE.
Much Thanks to Dr. Stephen Jones and The Bread Lab!
Danny
I haven't posted much....same story, making very similar breads every week, so kind of boring to post about the same things! I was intrigued by the lead up to this CB, so thought I'd give it a go, as I would like to develop a go-to sandwich loaf. Gave it my first shot today, and was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I'd like to go all SD at some point, but thought I would start with hybrid, as I always have an issue with getting my SD sandwich attempts to rise above the bread pan lip. Details......
RWC Approachable WW Sandwich Loaf #1 (ingredients for one loaf, though I made two)
120g Levain (100% fresh milled hard red spring, 100% hydration)
248g AP (Gold Medal)
248g WW (fresh milled hard red spring)
367g Water
27g Olive Oil
22g Honey
11g Salt
4g ADY
First I mixed all the dry ingredients together, then the wet. Combined them together in a single container, and mixed by hand until well incorporated. Let rest for 30 minutes, then pinched in the salt, and did ~25 "slap & folds" (these were nothing like my normal s/f, as I usually bake at 72% hydration!) Let rest another 30 minutes, then performed another ~20 s/f. After another 30 minutes, a round of stretch/fold (twice around), and a final 30 minute rest. Folded the dough one more time to release from the container, shaped into a ball, and let rest for about 15 minutes while I cleaned up a bit. Did the final forming into a log, and placed into a 9x5 bread pan that I had sprayed with baking spray.
Left it for about 30 minutes, then while checking progress I set the oven to 375F. The dough needed about 30 minutes more until it had risen well above the rim of the pan (see below), and I baked the loaf until done ~40 minutes. Depanned, and allowed to cool for several hours and then sliced.
The crumb turned out a bit more open than I would like for a sandwich bread, and the tops got a bit of a white crust to them. Both of those are things I can work on, but overall, I was very happy with how this turned out. Soft crumb, great wheat flavor/aroma, and I am certain it will make fabulous toast in the am.
Some pics......
Risen in the pan:
Cooling on the rack (x2):
Sliced up:
Crumb close up:
As always, Dan, thanks so much for being the driving force behind these CB's! Even when I don't participate, I learn a ton from watching the TFL community go through the process.
Rich
Very nice Richie Rich! How do you stop the crust from splitting open without scoring? I tried without scoring but they keep busting open. I like the look of your bread.
But when I do score the breads are very fragile and easily deflated. Maybe I’m over-proofing all of them.
How long was your BF? I am wondering if the percentage of CY was a little high. This might account for a fast BF and also the more open crumb than you would like. Most of The Bread Lab formulas call for a 0.8% yeast kicker when using a SD levain. For me that was way too much. I played around and decided on 0.3%. That worked well with my original starter. The flavor was perfect.
Thanks for the compliment, Dan.
I have no idea why the loaves didn't split, but they were both VERY jiggly when I was ready to put them in the oven, so I didn't dare try to score them (I'm not great at scoring room temp loaves as it is!) I tried brushing one loaf with water before baking, but it didn't turn out any differently than the other loaf.
BF was ~2 hours, which I will either shorten next time, or I'll reduce the ADY. I read so many different formulas in the CB, that I just decided to put a stake in the ground and start with .7%. I agree with you (and had seen your other posts) that something around .3% is probably going to be a sweet spot for good rise, but control some of the other factors (like the open crumb.)
I'll give this another go with an ADY adjustment, and see how that works out.
R
Rich, one of the greatest benefits of our Community Bakes is the shared information among bakers working with the same type of bread. We get to learn from each other. It’s almost like a single baker baking 50 loaves of the same type.
Bake 7 used my original starter and 0.3% IDY. It BF for ~5.5 hours. Bake 8 used my latest starter and 0.3% IDY also. It is super active, and the BF went only 3 hours. If I bake another with the latest starter, I think I’ll reduce the Prefermented Flour from 25% down to maybe 15%. I prefer the longer BF for flavor. I will say that Bake 8 probably achieved the goal for the Approachable Loaf better than any of my other bakes. The texture was soft with a super creamy chew, and a moderate flavor. I am a fan of the stronger flavor of Hard Red Wheat, but White Wheat would probably be preferred by the average consumer. AND the bread wouldn’t have that distinguishing brown look.
It's really fun to see how everyone modifies a CB to suit their own methods and taste.
Ideally, I'd like to do a pure SD loaf, but as I mentioned in my post, I really wanted to be sure I got the loft I wanted. I'll be playing around with different ADY and starter percentages for sure.
As for wheat varieties, you are probably right that for a commercial loaf, white wheat would be preferable. Then again, all of this bread is for me, my family and friends, so......hard red it is! :)
R
As I bake this bread more, I have learned to achieve better gluten. This latest loaf was very nice in that respect. But like Rich said the dough is somewhat fragile and giggly when ready to bake. The dough sighs (relaxes, sunk slightly) after scoring. They all spring back in the oven (slight to moderate oven spring), but I hate losing inflation after scoring.
Looking for words of wisdom about how to improve the strength of the dough at the end of the final proof. Could it be that all of my bakes were over proofed?
I have used a very shallow cut when scoring for that reason. I agree that well developed gluten seems to help with this recipe. I think degassing properly is helpful because it gets rid of those gasses that break down gluten. Maybe more salt or vitamin C would strengthen it further. I know that dough conditioners are a no-no with this recipe and I have no experience with using them but someone like you that likes to tinker with things it may be worth a shot.
From your description and the pictures, I suspect that the loaves were just a shade past optimal proofing. The baked loaves appear to have lost some height, compared to the pre-bake photo. For the next round, perhaps you could bundle them into the oven when the dough has crested just half an inch above the pan rim. That will allow for some oven spring and probably a smoother texture in the crumb.
For all of that, I'd still be happy to munch on a slice of that bread.
Paul
The activity of the hybrid dough caught me napping a bit! I haven't used ADY for anything but bagels for so long, that I am sure you are correct that I was a bit past ideal. That's easy to adjust either in the formula (less/no ADY), process, or both, and I'll be more vigilant on the next go 'round.
I can confirm that munching on this bread is a happy experience!
Thanks for checking in!
Rich
I realize I just broke the rules and exceeded the ingredient count. Oh well! I made two loaves out of the approachable loaf dough, but turned one into cinnamon raisin swirl. Fun to try something new. I've never made a pan loaf before.
How would you describe the taste of both breads?
How did the CY affect the fermentation and taste?
At 85% (not counting oil & honey) p, how did the dough handle?
I still need to cut open the bread without raisins so I hope to be able to provide better notes on taste at that point.
The bread with raisins was certainly flavorful. I think with a 3+ hour bf and 12 hours in the fridge that I was able to develop good flavor even with the use of some dried yeast. I've never made a 70% whole grain loaf before (50% has been the max) so the flavor was a bit different than I'm used to.
In terms of how the dried yeast impacted fermentation, it seemed like the dough started to ferment almost immediately (unlike pure sourdough where it takes some time for me to see signs of fermentation), but then calmed down a bit. Also with pure sourdoughs I generally get no rise overnight in the fridge, but this dough continued to rise quite a bit even in a very cold fridge. It seemed really delicate and poofy when I took it out of the fridge so I decided not to score as I feared the loaves would deflate completely. Very different feel from when I take my sourdoughs out of the fridge.
The dough was quite sticky before the slap and folds, but then it came together really beautifully! I started out at closer to an 80% hydration, but kept on adding more water as I felt the dough could handle it/needed it. The dough ended up being stiff enough that I could have baked it free form.
Very good information.
It was surprising to hear that your dough (mixed to 85% not counting honey and oil) was strong enough to bake free form. I mill my four and use it at 100% extraction. Like you mentioned, mine is also delicate and poofy, but I don’t think mine would be strong enough to bake well if free formed.
I really like the crumb of your bread. I am going to try retarding the shaped loaves next time. Did you soak the raisins before adding them in? The other loaf looks like a monster! Can't wait to see the results.
I was going to soak the raisins, but just didn't get around to it and then I figured that the hydration of the bread was high enough that it was okay if the raisins absorbed some of the liquid. I'd say I have about a 50/50 track record when it comes to soaking raisins!
Hi everyone!
I was inspired by your many gorgeous Approachables (and I ran out of sliced bread at home) so I baked at the lab... and these are my best yet!!
I used Jeff Yankellow's formula, which you may find on our website www.thebreadlab.wsu.edu
Janine
If you have a crumb shot, we’d like to see it. The breads are beautiful, a sight for baker’s eyes. I hope someday to produce loves of such beauty.
For those that are interested in the direct link to Jeff Yankellow’s formula see this link.
http://thebreadlab.wsu.edu/the-approachable-loaf/
For those that may be interested in Jeff’s formula, take special notice of the 16 hr levain that is mixed 1:50:50 (2g levain + 100g water + 100g flour). I missed that interesting fact before this. I have this levain fermenting now.
Janine, what temp are you fermenting?
Nice looking bread. Would it be possible get my hands on some of the Skagit 1109 wheat berries to bake with at home? If not do you anticipate it becoming available in the near future?
This bake used the Yankellow formula and method, with a few tweaks by Martin Philip at King Arthur Bakery. The 1g of starter for a 1000g loaf intrigued me!
The bake went well. The levain was built the night before and the dough was baked by 11:00 AM the following morning.
Taste is subjective, but for me, bake 7 & 8 are the clear winners. But, to think that a single gram of starter produced a 1000g dough!
The complete writeup of all bakes can be seen HERE.
After reading your posts for the last 2 weeks I had to give this a try as I’d taken a break from sandwich loaves since my San Joaquin Sourdough batards have been coming out so darn good.
I modified the Bread Lab’s Unsifted recipe by incorporating 600 g of poolish (all KA Bread Flour). Used 270g levain (equal parts KA BF and KA WW @ 100% hydration). Total flour of 930 g (including poolish and levain flour) was 60% KA WW and 40% KA BF. I took Dan’s advice and used only 3 g of ADY.
Was shocked by the realization that this recipe is nearly 98% hydration if you include the honey and oil weights with the water. Machine mixed but I never felt like the dough was really developing much strength early on. Over maybe 3 hours of bulk fermentation with 3 stretch and folds in the first half, the dough did finally start resisting stretches. When I got to preshape it was almost like handling ciabatta dough (gel?). Never really felt like I could develop a skin until final shaping and even then it was a delicate business. Lost a bit of upper volume and got some weird muffin top by attempting to use inverted bread pans for steam...NOT recommended. Bread is mighty tasty with a decent crumb and nice crust. Gotta try 100% WW before long.
First Community Bake for me. Thanks for the inspiration.
Phil
Next time you could hold out ~10% water and add as needed. 80% water (not counting oil and honey) seems high for 40% white flour.
Thanks for joining in, hope you become a regular on our Community Bakes!
Danny
I can see making this bread on a regular basis and want to improve on this pan loaf thing. What I have learned from these CB's is that following a tried and true recipe really helps. Often my first attempt that adheres to the recipe produces the loaf as intended but I tend to wander off the reservation so to speak and lose my way. Sometimes little adjustments work out and other times it's back to the drawing board. I know most recipes are just a list of ingredients and some vague guidelines that are left to interpretation and it is up to the baker to make it as pretty as the picture.
I like to understand why a recipe works or doesn't. I get why the extraordinary amount of water works for this whole wheat bread but fine tuning the yeast amount has been a hit or miss affair. I am beginning to believe that a shorter, more vigorous rise with with more yeast like the recipe calls for makes a better loaf. As I have reduced the yeast a step at a time the fermentation time has lengthened but the bread ends up not as tall as the earlier versions with more yeast. I was wondering why traditional whole wheat bread recipes and this one recommend a third rise or a punch down(now known as folding) in the middle of the first proof. Are the properties of whole wheat such that a long slow rise causes the gluten to break down?
I applaud all the hand mixers for their efforts to slap and fold themselves to full development, but at this point with the all the oil, honey, and water and a neglected Bosch mixer I will be a speed two freak on windowpane.
Another question I would like help with the answer to is the dense crumb at the bottom of some of my pan loaves. Poor shaping? Too much degassing? A lower rack in the oven required. Is there an Instagram pan loaf master to follow?
I couldn't resist giving the humble pan loaf the artisan bread hold. A toast to the Approachable.
Twenty minutes on speed two and even the thin crust has holes.
A really good looking tinnie, MT! I too get that dense layer at the bottom sometimes - not sure why. Check out Simons Bread on IG. He has some of the best looking (and consistently best looking) loaves I have ever seen and he bakes a few tinnies and is fully upfront with recipe details, as long as you are comfy with working with a skeleton recipe.
Lance
MT, your edges are slightly denser than most. But it seems that most pan loaves are somewhat dense around the edges. I attribute that to the dough being confined in the pan. Notice that the dense section is around the perimeters but not on the top. The top had no restriction from the pan.
I have baked a sourdough pan loaf on a stone and the bottom had larger holes than the top like a free form loaf. I'm thinking of try that next time or more steam. More tweaking to come. I think I need a better toaster too, the dense bottom doesn't toast evenly but the last bite is the best one. Same with a grilled cheese.
“ I have baked a sourdough pan loaf on a stone and the bottom had larger holes than the top like a free form loaf”
That makes sense to me. I’ve baked some of the Approachables in a pan on a preheated stone but I don’t remember which ones. I think they would be some of the first bakes. The crumb shot on my first bake (Bake 1) looks like the best crumb. I believe it used a stone. This merits testing.
I look forward to reading your results using a stone. Very good thought!
Thank you for gathering all of this in one place.
Have been on TFL for a while now, but I haven't posted anything in a long time.
So here we go, another terrific project to tackle in this beautiful community, where I have learned so much.
I followed the original recipe from the link, but used Dan modifications.
The dough was super wet, so wet that I didn't add the 10%water after development.
I mixed in the stand mixer for a while, then decided to just give it a rest and folds, also did one lamination, to help with development.
The process was longer, but not much work from my part in between rests.
Placed in oiled tin, let it proof until it was about over the edge and baked as per link, no steam apparatus.
Slice it this morning before heading to work, I am pretty happy with the overall result, I will have to test it little later.
I am trying the stiff SD version later today.
So exciting!!
Just had a end butt and its delicious, I am totally hooked on this flavor, it will be our new staple along the semolina loaf I have been making for some years now, thank to TFL very own Zolablue recipe :-)
More bread making to come.
Also I wanted to mentioned that when I mentioned the dough was super wet, it is not the recipe's fault, probably a mix of user error and type of flour. Another thing, I wasn't able to tightly roll when shaping for the tin, I did more of a miche folding, but it was still little sticky, I did oiled the bench to help with that. Even though it was wet and still little stcky, it felt substantial and not sloppy :-P
I want to try some red fife (I still have some, semolina and Kamut flours, in the next few bakes.
Happy baking everyone!
Your bread is picture perfect. Both the loaf and crumb look exceptional.
Have you considered some semolina with the Affordable?
Which formula did you use? All SD, all CY, or hybrid?
Thank you Dan! Its your work that made this possible. Sharing your experiments and knowledge!
I have followed the original recipe, for the first bake I wanted to try not to get too creative, you know, but I did follow your modification of lowering the CY. On 1000g of flour I have used 3 gr of CY, 250 gr of preferment 100% hydration.
I will try some durum next bake and a stiff starter.
Thank you for all the inspiration and the info!!
“The good, the bad, and the ugly”. Let’s call this one the bad AND the ugly :-)
This bread used Red Fife instead of Hard Red Wheat (winter). I toasted the bran in the oven @ 200F for ~15 minutes. The toasted bran was soaked for ~2 or so hours. The flavor is best described as bland to my taste buds. Only 0.3% CY was used, but the fermentation was very quick. 25% PRe-Fermented Flour as usual but it seems the Levain was very active. I don’t think the lack luster flavor can be attributed to the Red Fife. A taste comparison of different grains can be seen HERE. From indications of all testing with this bread, it seems a quick fermentation (less than 4 hours) is detrimental to the taste. Future testing will work from a formula of 15% Pre-Fermented Flour as a safe guard against speedy fermentation. At this time I believe the yeast kicker at the proper percentages enhances the flavor of this bread.
OH! a biggie. Don’t bake breads with sweeteners at high heat! I preheated at 450F and intended to reduce the temp after a few minutes into the bake. Got busy and forgot until it was too late. Aluminum foil couldn’t rescue these two. In all actuality, the darken crust didn’t taste too bad. It was the bland flavor that disappointed.
Click HERE to view the complete set of test bakes.
I just listened to an episode of the Gastropod podcast entitled "White vs. Wheat: The Food Fight of the Centuries". It included an interview with Stephen Jones of the WSU Bread Lab and a discussion of The Approachable Loaf. I haven't gotten deep into this thread or the accompanying Community Bake thread, but the podcast was a great listen, and I may have to dive in eventually - still just working quietly on my own sourdough loaves. Episode can be found here: https://omny.fm/shows/gastropod/white-vs-wheat-the-food-fight-of-the-centuries
PR
I downloaded the podcast and plan to listen this morning on my daily walk...
Danny
I revisited the approachable loaf at the weekend. I've nearly run out of whole wheat flour and grain and there's no more to be had at the moment. However I did manage to get hold of a 10kg bag of Tesco medium chapatti flour last week so that will have to do for the moment!
I believe that medium chapatti flour, at least in the UK, is a mixture of wholemeal and white flour, but I'm not sure of the proportions. Protein is 10.9%, so not too terrible. Out of interest, I sifted some through my #40 and got a 9% retention. I was a bit worried about starch damage as this has been discussed at length on TFL, but I suspect that this only applies to Indian Atta chapatti flour which is milled in a disc mill. I can't see UK millers buying disc mills when they have perfectly good roller mills.
I used the same recipe as last time apart from
The loaves turned out fine, just not as flavoursome as last time. I did get that compacted dough layer at the bottom of the loaf again, even though it was cooked through, as others have also reported. Does anyone know what is causing it and how to minimise it?
Lance
Lance, it seems to me that the denser crumb at the bottom is a result of compression exacerbated by the confining walls of the pan. What do you think?
I decided to take a look at a generic US sandwich bread slice. It also appears more dense around the bottom and side perimeters. The texture looks more like felt fabric than bread. Disclaimer - it is the only type of bread my wife will eat. I never touch the stuff.
Your loaf looks pretty dog gone good...
I am fermenting a levain now in preparation for an Approachable. I am almost out of bread and sandwiches is most of what I eat these days. I plan to bake in a 13”x 4”x4” pullman using ~1550 TDW. Not sure how filled the covered pan will be once baked. I’ve learned you can’t say “X” amount of dough will fill the pullman. Whole wheat obviously takes more. And I’m going to omit the CY.
Baking for me has changed from the quest for that perfect loaf to “I need some sandwich bread”. It’s a different style of baking and it is enjoyable.
Stay safe and healthy!
Danny
Since Covid-19, my bakes have been utilitarian, instead of the ultimate quest for “The Perfect Loaf”. I am happy to say that this latest bake is proof positive that pan breads can be mixed, immediately shaped and placed in a bread pan to complete all aspects of fermentation. This eliminates a lot of time and work and also produces a very nice crumb. See THIS LINK for more information.
A list of all Approachable bakes can be seen HERE.
Hi,
I am trying this community bake again and my dough is currently fermenting! When I did this community bake last month it was my first time baking sourdough in pan form and I found that the bottom of the loaf was somewhat soggy. I stuck the loaf back in the oven without the pan to let it firm up a bit and that worked okay, but any advice to avoid having another soggy bottom? The top of the loaf also created some overhang that stuck to the sides of the tin. Thank you!
I now bake mine on the lowest rack and use a sheet pan on the top rack that I pour boiling water into. l leave it in there for at least 15 minutes. I am getting better oven spring and the bottom of the loaf is well browned. I had one stick before but now I make sure it is well greased. The soggy bottom reminded me of one of my favorite movies. "O Brother Where Art Thou".
I am no authority on pan breads but have turned out nice loaves baking with a pan on top of a pre-heated baking stone. Don’t know if it makes a difference or not, but the results have been consistent.
The loaves are also removed from the pan and baked a while longer.
MT, do you keep a can of “Pomade” on you at all times? LOL
Dan
Is the preferred brand. One of my favorite lines is "Well it looks like hard times has flushed the chumps!" Great music and a great film.
I wanted to use a stone but my roasting pan isn't quite deep enough for pan loaves. I saw a stainless steel cat litterbox on Amazon that might work but I couldn't pull the trigger on it because well it's a cat litter box for $40! I did bake a single loaf in my Romertopf and it steamed well but the bottom was soggy.
"Yes sir the South is going to change from now on everyone is going to be hooked up to a grid and everything willl be run on a paying basis, It's going to be a whole new age of reason, like the one they had in France"
About to stick them in the oven on the bottom rack with steam at the top of the oven. Looks like the fermentation went a bit nuts in the fridge overnight, but fingers crossed!
I tried this once to see if it would work, knowing that the worst-case scenario was making a large batch of sourdough pancakes for the freezer. And it did, so I did it again, and it is behaving consistently:
30 grams mature 100% hydration starter (as in, straight from storage in the refrigerator - I told you this was lazy)
500 grams water
10 grams salt
100 grams dark rye flour (finely ground)
500 grams whole wheat flour
Olive oil for the bowl
---
Right before bedtime: Dissolve the starter in the water, then add everything else and mix until combined. Oil the bowl. Cover. Leave on the counter overnight.
In the morning, it may be about 30 minutes past "prime." Don't worry. Stretch & fold a few times. Refrigerate.
Remove from the refrigerator about 3 pm. Shape and put into parchment-lined cast iron cocotte, aka French chicken roaster (I may have to invest in a second one, so that bread and chicken can be cooked simultaneously). Slash. Let the chill come off for an hour or two. Bake 40 minutes covered at 450, drop to 375 and finish uncovered.
Hey Beth, sound like a great formula. You are using only 2.4 percentage of prefermented flour. That sounds accurate for a long room temp ferment with whole grains. I assume reasonably warm temps (73-76F) What would you estimate the overnight room temp?
Your method seems ingenious! I may give it a try someday.
How would you describe the gluten and handling considering you are using ~17 whole rye?
Thanks for posting. Where’s the pictures?
My goal is to achieve the maximum lazy bread.
In SoCal, we can open the house at night in the summer (until September when the Santa Ana's start blowing 100 degrees day and night), so its in the low 80s at the start and falls below 70 by morning.
The gluten always looks very fragile to me with that much rye (regardless of CY or sourdough), but I like the flavor, and I've learned to go ahead and bake it. It turns out fine as long as I bake it in the chicken pot. It doesn't have enough strength to reliably make a tall free form loaf. Since the chicken pot also has a lid to take care of steam, I roll with it.
For pictures, it has to not get eaten as soon as it is cool enough to slice! Next loaf.
This is the least beautiful sample of Lazius Maximus, but I promised the next one, regardless. It was a bit warmer in the house and/or I slept too late to get it in the refrigerator on time, so no oven spring at all.
Hi everyone! I love this website. I'm fairly new to baking bread. I've made a few posts here, but mostly I lurk. It's all very helpful.
Anyway, I'd been eyeing the baguette community bake wondering if I should try to contribute, but this popped up near it a few days ago and looked easier. I mean it says "approachable" right in the title!
Anyway, I made a slew of errors and yeah, the whole thing was pretty disastrous, but you all might like to feel better about your own baking skills!
I used the link from the first post rather than the modified spreadsheet. I used my all-white starter instead of making the levain, and I omitted the yeast. I used molasses instead of honey, and only half the amount. I used cheapo store-brand flour.
So, right off the bat, last night, when I went to feed my starter, I made my first mistake. I ended up mixing my regular starter and my jar of fridge "discard" together during the feed. It was an accident.
When I mixed the bread ingredients together in the morning, I held back 90g of water. I know the recipe says to hold back 10%, which would have been 74g, but a) it's really hot and humid here today, b) I don't do well with really wet doughs, and c) I used an all-white-flour starter instead of the whole wheat levain, and white flour needs less water than whole wheat. Actually I meant to hold back 100g of water, because I didn't know how much extra I should hold back and 100 is a nice round number, but I made the mistake of pouring the water directly into the dough bowl as I was measuring it, and I accidentally poured in 10g extra. That's mistake number 2.
I let the dough minus the oil and salt sit for 15-20 minutes while I did some other morning chores. Then I added the salt and oil like I normally would for such a dough and used my hand to sort of knead those ingredients in, but still in the bowl. Normally I do a sort of kneading mix where I pull out some dough from underneath and flip it over the top of the main dough and push down a bit and then turn the bowl a bit and do it again. I normally find this to be a really good way to incorporate fats into the dough and I do this for just a few minutes until the dough firms up enough for me to dump it onto the counter and do real kneading. Well I did this "kneading mix" for ten minutes and the dough was still way too liquidy for me to dump onto the counter. I had to take my daughter to camp, so the dough rested another 30 minutes until I got back. It was still too wet for me to want to knead it on the counter, so I did some more "knead mixing". And then more and more and more. The dough was just so wet I couldn't really figure out what else to do. So I kept doing this in-the-bowl kneading for a whole hour and the dough did not smooth out or harden up at all. Okay, maybe a little bit. My arm was aching, and my back was starting to hurt. I often knead dough for 20-25 minutes, but a whole hour? Anyway, something was clearly wrong at this stage, but I wasn't sure what. Regardless, I figured an hour of "kneading" was enough, so I just stopped and left the dough to rise.
That's what it looked like after the hour of "kneading". Did I end up overmixing it? I honestly don't know. I had to do other things in the morning so I ended up not doing any dough manipulation during this first rise. After three hours the dough looked like this:
It might be hard to tell in the photo, but there are quart measuring lines on the side of the bowl, and the dough was just above the 1-quart mark before rising and just above the 2-quart mark after rising, so I figured it was time for "shaping". Three hours seemed like too short a time, but it had doubled, and it has been really warm and humid here.
I went to fold the dough over a bit before dividing it, and it was still very very wet. It looked a bit smoother, but not really smooth. I opted to again keep it in the bowl. But I tried to divide it into 900-and-some-gram portions, and could not. Dividing it in half left me with two "loaves" of about 880g. Hmmm. Could this explain why my dough was too wet? Did I mess up my flour measurements? Seems quite likely. 2000-90-34 = 1876 (I never added any of the held-back water and I used half the sweetener). I was missing 116 g of dough. Did I really waste that much dough when I was getting it stuck on the bowls and my hands? I don't know. I'd never before thought to measure my dough after mixing, so I don't know how much loss is normal, but 100g seems like a lot. I wonder if I accidentally measured out 780g of flour instead of 870g. It was too late to add more flour at this point anyway, so I divided it:
It was still so wet I didn't take it out of the bowls. Looking at the pictures, it really doesn't look that bad. I mean it looks raggedy, but still rounded. It was bad, though. Very wet. A bit stringy. Not smooth.
I don't remember how long I let it sit, but shaping it was going to be out of the question. I rolled it up as best I could in the bowls and then carefully poured it out into the loaf pans. I actually think that the rolling it up in the bowl and pouring it into the pan would have worked if the bowls and pans had been more similar in shape. The big problem I had was I couldn't roll the dough up oblong in the bowls, only round. If I ever had to try to do this again, I would put the dough into a rectangular dish before rolling it up and dumping it out. The spheres of rolled dough didn't fill out the loaf pans properly so I gently tried to elongate and fold them a bit once they were in the pans.
Which makes me come to another mistake I made. Because the bread was made with olive oil, I eschewed my normal liberal brushing of the pans with my homemade baking "spray", and instead just greased the pans with olive oil. I felt very worried about this and in retrospect I should have not done it. I feel like I could have shaped the loaves in the pans better if I had used my plastic scraper instead of my fingers, but I didn't want to scrape away the oil coating.
Looking at the pictures, they really don't look that bad. But, again: it's worse than it looks. Notice how the dough is already spread to the edges of the pans?
I'm not used to baking with the heat and humidity. Most of the year our house is very cold. I was amazed at how fast these rose. After two hours they were at the top of the pans and extremely jiggly:
Again, the pictures are not doing these loaves justice. They were so jiggly I wanted to put them in the oven right away, but I had to pick up my daughter in 45 mins so the timing just wouldn't work out. I almost never put formed loaves in the fridge (it's always too full), but miraculously I made room for these. They sat in the fridge for an hour before I could get them into the oven. They rose a tiny bit more while there. I fear it was already too late. I should have checked on them earlier.
Look at all the big bubbles! While waiting for the oven to heat up I could actually see bubbles forming and deflating before my eyes!
Into the oven they went, and I sat glued to the oven door desperately willing them to rise. They did a little bit, at first. One of them even had bubbles appear and deflate while it was cooking. Like it almost looked like it was boiling. Then they started deflating. :(
Yup, they came out of the oven lower than when they went in. If only the disaster were over at this point. It was not. Both loaves were stuck to their pans. I had to pry them out with several different spatulas.
And of course, because the loaves were ripped from the prying, I didn't need to wait in suspense to see the gummy crumb inside. At least they came out of the pans in one piece. I've certainly had baked goods stick worse.
I only waited about an hour to slice into the bread. I figured there was no point prolonging my misery.
In the end it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be! The crumb is even pretty even. With all the bubbling I saw, I thought it would be super dense at the bottom and holey at the top, but that's not the case. It wasn't even really all that gummy or dense. It was more, just...moist. I'm not even sure if that makes sense, but it wasn't all that unpleasant to eat. I've certainly made bread much worse than this before. It's not the beautiful sandwich loaf most of you have made, but it's edible. My main problem with it, actually, is the olive oil taste. I also brushed the tops of the loaves with olive oil when I took them out of the oven, just to keep the crust soft. IF (and it's a big IF) I ever try this again, I will use vegetable oil instead of olive oil, just because I don't like the taste of olive oil.
So I still don't know if I overmixed or undermixed the dough. I suspect under and with poor technique. Probably the best fix would be to just get a stand mixer. Slap-and-folds, which I guess is the actual proper technique, look...hard. I still suspect I might have not put in enough flour, though. I suspect I also over-fermented the dough. Total time from mixing the ingredients to putting in the oven was about 9 hours. For a warm, humid day, that might just be too long, and maybe would explain the lack of rise and near collapse in the oven.
Sorry the post is so long. I'm not sure what's important to include and what's not. Thanks if you managed to read all the way through :)
Edit: No, forget what I said about it not being that bad; it's bad. I mean, I HAVE made worse, and this will be used for French toast and strata instead of being thrown out, but it is definitely bad. Barely edible.
Edit 2: Thank-you Pie King for your encouragement.
I did try again, with a lot less water (I used probably just over 500g), and it was a lot better, but still not great. I still ended up kneading the dough for an hour and it still never really smoothed out. Not sure what I'm doing wrong there. . I didn't let the dough rise long enough after shaping, but the end result was certainly much better than last time.
I was making my irritation of the approachable loaf every week for a while two loaves one for my house and one for my best friends house! Please don't give up on it, worth the effort.
Approachable Whole grain sourdough bread
By Will Falzon
TOTAL
Bakers %
Weight 1
Weight 2
Flour
100 %
501.5 G
1003 G
Water
85.2 %
427.27 G
855 G
Levin@100 %
27.6 %
138.41 G
277 G
Final Dough
WW Flour
80%
346 G
692 G
Spelt Flour
10%
43 G
86 G
Whole Rye
10 %
43 G
86 G
Water
71 %
358 G
716 G
Levin@ 100 %
27.6 %
138.41 G
277 G
Kosher Salt
2 %
11 G
22 G
Honey
8 %
40 G
80 G
Olive Oil
6 %
30 G
60 G
Total
214%
1010 G
2020 G
I did my fourth Approachable bake last week and experienced a problem I'd had previously - the dreaded sunken sides. I don't have a picture of the whole loaf, but here's how it looked in the slice:
I know others have reported this problem too. I had baked two loaves, so with the second loaf, I left it in the tin for 20 mins before turning out and then returned the bare loaf to the now switched off oven for 20 mins to dry off the wet sides:
This seems to have solved the problem. The loaf must be so tall and soft when turned out warm that it can't support it's own weight.
But, misshapen or not, it's still such a tasty loaf!
Lance
Before I belatedly bake an Approachable loaf, how (and how long) would I mix if doing it by hand? Also, has anyone tried this with high-extraction flour (type 110?) instead of the white bread flour portion? Thanks!
Hello, Chelsea.
I can't help you with hand mixing, as I used a Bosch mixer for my approachable loaf. I am confused by your mention of a white flour portion? The idea behind the Bread Lab Approachable loaf program, is the bread be made of, whole wheat/whole grain. If you direct your attention to the O.P. you will find a link to the bread lab starting point formula, for an everyday, whole wheat loaf of bread. My irritation is a few posts above this one. I hope this helps.
Sorry I asked about white bread flour, I misread something in one person's formula!
Chelsea, to qualify as an “Approachable Loaf” the whole wheat should be 60% or more. White flour at 40% or less is ok.
Please be sure to post your bake and ask questions if you want to.
Danny, has set it straight. (Blushing) Please do post your bake to the community bake I would love to see!
I miss my grandkids something fierce! I decided to start a subscription bread club. Membership is limited to my daughter and maybe my son, ( if he starts making time for his old dad!) Okay, my som too. Yesterday was Valerie's birthday. I had a countertop bread box shipped to her. meanwhile, I simultaneously shipped her this wonderful specimen of my very own rendition of approachable bread! "Wonderful bread" I call it!
Last week I shipped all 4 of my sisters and all of their adult children pumpkin oatmeal cookies! It was costly but made me feel good. That is priceless!
What a great gift for those that love home made bread. Imagine what it would mean to us if we didn’t bake and rec’d a home made sd bread!
I know I'm behind the curve on this thread but thought it might help to post a few quick notes following a 51-loaf bake of the approachable loaf.
I've been baking approachable loaves, which I call the "Palouse Farmer's Sandwich Loaf," for a local food pantry. It helps feed a few families in this food desert and it's also a great way to refine my technique. I'm using a locally grown and milled hard white wheat, mixing by hand and baking in a Rofco that can accommodate 12 to 15 loaves at a time. I use the sweeter, more yeasted whole-wheat formula and dropped the yeast from .8% to .6% to slow things down and avoid having one batch fully proofed while another was still in the oven. That worked. At a dough temperature of about 76 F, the bulk proof took 75 minutes. I could preshape that batch, immediately mix another and stay out of the weeds. Four batches took me nine hours.
I also had great success following Martin Philip's advice to give a few extra folds. I first mix until there is no dry flour, add salt and the withheld 10 percent water and work that in with several coil folds. At 15 and 30 minutes, I do coil folds. At 45 minutes, I do a gentle tub fold, then leave it for 30 minutes before pre-shaping. In all four batches, the dough ball stood firm and proud after the third fold and had a decent windowpane. The loaves had good strength for the final proof and baked up with a nice, round dome.
My only other issues were Rofco related. By the fourth batch I found I can load with a deck temperature of 500F, load and spray, and effectively turn off the oven and coast on the stored heat. I rotate the loaves after 20 minutes with steam. After a total of 45 minutes, the decks are still about 350 F and the bread has an internal temperature above 200 F.
It's great bread. Thanks to the Bread Lab and the folks at King Arthur for helping make it happen.
If I'm reading the yeast only graph right, is the 259g water the total amount of water and you put all of that in the polish? I'm also seeing two other water amounts and not sure what those are for or what they mean. The "Water" and "Hold out" in the Final Dough column. Can someone elaborate?
SugarOwl, Notice the three separate sections.
If you need more help, let us know.
Danny
I somehow missed the 352 in the overall formula. I am new to reading formulas. So the Hold Out water is a "just in case." Okay, I think I can try this then. The kids will be at school/daycare tomorrow so I can give it a go without too many distractions. This will be an interesting lesson.
One more Question. 517g for whole wheat flour is crossed out, but only 259g is used for the poolish. What happened to the rest (258g)? It's not listed in the final dough.
Depending on your whole grain flour, you can expect to use some or all of the Hold Out water.
Whole wheat flour takes a while to absorb the water. It would be best to mix everything, except the Hold Out Water, then let the dough rest covered for 20-30 min. Then by feel, evaluate the dough and add water as needed a little at a time.
Looks like I edited my comment while you were replying. What happened to the remainder of the 517g of whole wheat? If 259g goes into the Poolish, what about the rest? It's not listed on the final dough.
Look at the column labeled “Final Dough”. The remaining 259g are mixed with the poolish as well as all other ingredients in the Final Dough column.
I made a blog post about what I've done. It's in the oven, but would love any feedback as I'm still very much a newbie. I hope to one day be able to bake by feel like so many of you already do. Feeling the dough is like a stress reliever for me, if I could afford a kiln I'd probably be doing wheel throwing. Something soothing about dough, whether it's clay or wheat.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67960/approachable-loaf
Update: it's out of the oven and cooling. I hope 186.3F was a good temp. Top seemed crusty and bottom was firm. It's good with butter and honey on top!
Update again: I made another one: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67966/approachable-loafpt-2
I tried it again and I think I'm finally happy with it. It tasted good and was very soft. I had three slices for breakfast this morning :)
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68212/approachable-loaf-pt-3
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/71297/20221020-simple-100-wholewheat-bread-clas
Better late than never!
Yippee