October 27, 2018 - 7:35am
Hello from Virginia
Hello all,
My name is Phil. I am fairly new to bread baking. I have made several bloomers that came out well, IMO. But my real goal is to make good 100% whole wheat bread. I tried King Arthur's recipe, but I find working the dough is a real challenge. I ended up kneading in my mixer with a dough hook. Does anyone know how long I should let the mixer knead the dough and at what speed I should set the mixer? I did about 4 mins at medium. But I have no idea if this is correct.
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/classic-100-whole-wheat-bread-recipe
Does anyone have advice? Thanks
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I would knead for about five minutes, let it rest for about ten minutes then knead for a few minutes more. You may have to pull the dough down from the hook, if it rises too high,
Ford
If you want to make really delicious,soft,supple 100% WW, you have to pay attention to it's unique needs. KA has a quick, slapdash recipe that anyone can make and have a loaf-not a great loaf, but a loaf.
WW needs time to absorb water. Build in some kind of soaking time-as little as 30 minutes after the initial mix can make a great texture difference in your loaf. When WW is not given enough time to absorb the water fully, the branny bits will continue to absorb the moisture after the loaf is baked ,resulting in a crumbly slice.
As for the dough feel, if you read the recipe, it says to adjust the flour or water for a better feeling,softer dough. I suggest to do that. Add a little more water so the dough feels a bit sticky. Let it sit for 30-60minutes,remix and it should feel tacky rather than sticky.
Mix to a windowpane. Look that up in the search box. Mixing to windowpane demonstrates that the starchy gel is fully developed in the dough. Adding potatoes,potatoe water,rye or other starchy (low protein) flour can help with that but then it isn't 100% WW. WW can AND SHOULD be mixed to windowpane. The loaf will develop a nice,supple crumb. The branny bits won't cut the gluten if they are well-wetted.
Have delicious fun!
Thanks for all the help. Today I tried Jenny Jones’ recipe. She has a vid o on YouTube where she makes it look so simple. Ha ha.
Simple Whole Wheat. Bread
Thanks for the windowpane test advice. I found a video on YouTube where a baker shows how to do the test by gently stretching the dough. Before I’d just yank on the dough and it always ripped making me think that test was just for professionals. Ha ha. Now I know better.
BTW, does anyone have any great whole wheat recipes they are willing to share? Thanks.
The King Arthur recipe is a fine recipe. The technique needs a simple tweak-some rest time (new phrases-autolyze or even a cold retard) needs to be built in. There are many ways to do this.
1. Mix the whole recipe up (and mix to windowpane) the evening before you want to bake. Add enough water that the dough is sticky (when you touch it with a clean finger, a little dough sticks to the finger). Don't let it rise. Just put all the dough in a large, oiled covered container and put it into the refrigerator overnight. It will rise some but not usually to double. Also, by that time the dough should no longer be sticky. It should be tacky-the finger comes away from the dough with no dough-kind of like a "post-it" note. Next AM, take it out and let it finish rising in a warm place to double. Shape,pan, final proof,bake.
2. Autolyse involves adding the water to all the other ingredients EXCEPT THE YEAST and mixing. Let the wet flour mix sit for 1-24 hours. Add the yeast and mix to windowpane. "Instant dry yeast" can be added to the dough by sprinkling over the dough and mixing it in. If in doubt that it will dissolve in the dough (or adding regular "Active dry yeast"), just dissolve it in a tablespoon of liquid and add to the dough. Make sure to mix thoroughly, do the usual rise to double,shape,pan,final proof and bake as usual.
Bread is very forgiving and it isn't just a list of ingredients. Techniques are very important to yield good tasting bread. All the different ingredients (AP flour, bread flour, WW, non-wheat flours, vegetables, yeasts, acids, additives like seeds) all have different techniques that will help produce a really delicious loaf. Choose whichever techniques and ingredients serve your purpose-simple, fast, complicated, exotic, etc. The important thing is to make the same recipe many times and take note of it's behavior when different techniques are used.
Have delicious fun!
EDIT: If time and life are such that you really don't have time for an involved learning process, just go simple with 1 recipe. Mix 100% WW recipe just a little wetter than the recipe calls for, rest in mixer 30 minutes, remix dough to windowpane and see if just doing that works for you. I believe this is called......drumroll....The Remix Method! Look in the search box for "remix".
Also, search for "soft whole wheat" "shreddable whole wheat". Man recipes are sourdough but there should be many that are made with yeast.
This is my favorite recipe but it involves the overnight soak of a "Biga" (fancy name for WW flour,a very little yeast to produce flavors as it digest the flour , and water").
https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/100-whole-grain-bread-with-biga-soaker-458576#activity-feed
I find that the king arthur recipes are good, however if you mix the dough up briefly so things are mixed but with out adding the salt and let it set 20 to 60 minutes and then add the salt and then knead your bread will be better. I do this with ALL of their bread recipes.