substitution for whole wheat bread flour

I had adopted a recipe for manually making whole wheat sandwich buns into one that could be made partially in a bread machine. The original recipe called for 7 - 8 cups of whole wheat flour so I cut the recipe in half in order to use my breadmaker. I then found "Rogers Best for bread 100% whole wheat flour" which worked out very well. The store where I purchased the flour was phased out of our town and finding it in other stores is hit and miss at best. Is there any other way of keeping 100% whole wheat without buying "best for bread 100% whole wheat flour"?

Sorry to be vague. The recipe I adapted has: 1 cup warm water, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 tablespoons plain yogurt (or unsweetened applesauce), 1 teaspoon salt, 3 1/2 cups "best for bread" wholewheat flour, and 1 tablespoon yeast. Occasionally I will add about 1/2 cup grated cheese to the recipe or else 50 grams of chopped candied ginger.

Basically I toss everything in the machine, set it to "dough" and, once it is done I roll the dough out and cut it with a 4" cookie cutter to make 8 buns. Let raise for 30 minutes and bake for 15 minutes at 375 degrees. Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated.

Grace

Hi Gracey,

Depending on where you live, you have some options.

You could locate a different WW flour that has a moderate to high gluten content, like the Rogers brand you have been using. You can check the Rogers flour label, or go to their website, to get information about the protein content of the flour. I'm guessing that it is probably 12%, maybe higher. Some stores in my area (I live near Kansas City) carry the Wheat Montana brand flours, which would work quite nicely for your purpose.

If the other WW flours available in your area have protein contents similar to All Purpose flour (roughly 10%-12%), you can add vital wheat gluten to your flour. Recommendations generally suggest adding 1 teaspoon of gluten per cup of flour. If the bread turns out too crumbly, you can experiment with adding more gluten. If it is too rubbery, you can try reducing the gluten.

I hope this is useful to you. Happy baking!

Paul

I never thought of adding gluten. I'll give that a try.

Thanks!

Hi Gracey just at a glance it appears you are asking the the dough to carry quite a load with all the goodies that you have included,the mix could certainly do with a bit of help in gas holding capacity (gluten) or try 50% wholewheat flour and 50% white flour it also seems to be a short time you have given the dough to rise. I tend to think of a fast dough if it is proved up double in size in an hour, and the longer the better with in reason.( 4 hours is good) plenty of time to develope some great flavours) You can always try experimenting, dividing the dough into a number of pieces and giving them progressivly longer periods if you are not sure if the dough has achieved its full proof, take notes as you go. A set of digital scales are a great addition to your kit, you can be precise and it makes it a lot easier to check your formula. A formula that i like and works very well is what i call 2% FLOUR 100% (50% WHOLE WHEAT + 50% WHITE) SALT 2% YEAST 2% FAT 2% ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT TO ADD 2% WATER start off with 50% it will need more but will depend a lot of whatever else you add yohgurt eggs etc. if you can get hold of a thermometer check and record finished dough temp you should be aiming for 80 deg f or 28 deg c record these things in your notes it will help a lot later regards Yozza

Thank you! I'm going to be trying your suggestion about the 50% whole wheat, 50% white flour and the 2% tomorrow. I do have a digital scale which I've been using when I make the "regular" bread (not breadmaker).

Is leaving the dough for longer okay? Usually it is spilling over the breadmaker pans and I end up punching it back down if I don't have time to handle making the buns right away.

I didn't realize what you said about the thermometer either and will also be trying that. I'll post my result!