Facing the Breadpocalypse

Profile picture for user loydb

I've been on hiatus since we moved back to Austin, but since we're now in the middle of a flour and bread shortage (because apparently everyone is suddenly going to bake!), I've started milling flour for myself and my friends, and am back to baking my own again.

I don't currently have an active starter, so this is a yeasted loaf, about 75% fresh milled hard white wheat and 25% KABF.

 

I’ve made this one many times, and yes, with WWW instead of the classic whole wheat flour.  I agree with going easy on the honey.  I also generally skip the dried milk in favor of equal parts water and buttermilk, and our favorite oil vegetable is the olive.  The one time we didn’t finish it by the next day (what were our teenagers thinking?), the crumb started going a little gummy on us.  Toasting and spreading with chèvre solved that one for us, but have you had the gummy-crumb issue? I’ve thought that maybe it’s the buttermilk, but we like the flavor it adds, so we just take the hit and keep the chèvre on hand. 

Last I looked at the ingredient list of Kroger (USA) brand buttermilk, both the low-fat and full-fat varieties had thickening agents added.  

My memory is fuzzy, so don't take this as exact, but it was along the lines of guar gum, xanthan gum, carageenan, locust bean gum, that sort of stuff.

I understand why low-fat would need to add something to make up for less fat. But the "regular" buttermilk had some too.

Most all dry milk is fat-free (you can get full-fat dry milk, Nestle Nido).  

So if you are keeping all the oil in KA's recipe, then adding buttermilk with more fat and/or thickeners, that might be a source for gumminess as the moisture/H2O dries out, and leaves the milkfat/thickeners.

That's great info, thanks for sharing. I use buttermilk in my sourdough sometimes, but have never had a problem with gummy. Maybe it has something to do with the whole grain milled flour.