Sacrilege, I know, but...  I love the idea of these, because of the low carb count and the fact that they are sturdy enough (but not tough or hard) to hold even sloppy Joes.  However, if you have ever tasted them, you know they taste like chemicals, compared to homemade breads.

I would like to make these, but don't have the foggiest idea where to start.  I know they are docked, at some point before baking, but would you do that before a final rise or after?  Would you roll out the dough and cut?  What type of a whole wheat or whole grain recipe would you use to make sure they hold up? 

Where to start...

I'm new to this blog and thought maybe someone on here could help. I just started to make my own bread using store bought flour. I can not afford a mill at this time and am trying to find already milled hard winter white flour. Does anyone know where I can find that without splitting my pocketbook open?? My girlfriend makes the best bread using a 2-1 hard red and hard white ratio, but she has a mill. So I need help! If hard white is not to be found can I use bread flour in lieu of the hard winter white?? Any helps would be great!!

Hope

I have been grinding Hard White Wheat to make my pan loaves for sandwich bread for a few months. Recently all of the loaves baked are sinking in the center. Does anyone have a suggestion for the cause of the sinking. Belo is the recipe that I use.  Kent

3 Cups Warm Water
½ Cup Raw / Unpasteurized Honey
2 Tbsp Yeast
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 Large Egg
½ Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 Cup Gluten
2 ½ Cups Soft Wheat Berries
2 ½ Cups Hard Red Spring Wheat Berries
Place your water, honey and yeast in your mixing bowl to let proof
for about 5 minutes. While your yeast is proofing place both your
soft and hard wheat into your grinder and grind on fine. Makes a
little over 6 cups of flour, Add in your salt,vinegar,egg,oil, gluten and
2 cups of flour to your water and yeast mixture and mix together with
your dough hook just to combine. Now add the remaining four cups
of flour one cup at a time and continue kneading until you have a nice
soft dough that is just pulling away from the bowl into a ball.
Continue kneading your dough in our mixer for 8 minutes or hand
knead it if you like a good workout:) Turn your dough out into a
greased bowl and cover with a towel letting it rise until doubled.
Remove your dough from bowl and punch down, form into 2 loaves
of bread or buns and let it rise again in a warm spot for
approximately 1 hour, bake for 20 minutes at 400° F.

Tonight I went ahead and started to bake my Whole Wheat Hearth Bread from WGB by Reinhart. I followed the recipe precisely, and had the biga and soaker ready when I came home from work that I prepared the night before. I added the final ingriedents, mixed well, kneaded, let rise till at least 1 1/2 times the original size (ended up being one hour as suggested in the formula) in my 4 Liter container with markings to get a near precise measurement to the best of my ability. Then went ahead, shaped it into a batard, dusted with flour and let rise for 40 minutes covered on my counter before I poked it. This is where I ran into issues. As I stated in my last blog my batard seemed to burst open at the score due to what I believe after help from (sorry can't remember your name) someone who pointed out it might be due to under proofing. So this time I wanted to make sure that wasn't going to happen. Since I did bake a loaf of Vermont Sourdough with Increased whole grain and the same issue happened two days ago; pale crust, extra large burst at the scoring.

So I searched for what 'should happen' when you poke a loaf when it is ready for baking. I came up with many different answers, mainly; The dough should spring back slowly, or the dough will not spring back...

I couldn't figure out what it should be, so I decieded to put it in the already heated oven since it appeared to be almost 1 1/2 times the size now. The oven was already at 500 degrees and the stone had been in there the whole time. I proceeded to carefully place the loaf on the stone, score it (I realized now I didn't do it deep enough or was it over proofed??) and threw some ice in the oven and squirted the bread twice. After twenty minutes I rotated the loaf, and to my surprise on the other side of the loaf low and behold, my two poke marks were still in the loaf...

So...did I under proof, over proof and just fail all around : /

And here is a picture of the batard lengthwise to get a better visualization of the scoring if it helps any more.

Any thoughts on the matter? They'd be much appreciated! And tomorrow morning after I slice it and have some for breakfast I'll give some input on the crumb and taste.

Arlo

If you want to explore *fresh* home-milled flour from whole grain but don't own a grain mill, I am willing to mill your grain for you.

I own a Nutrimill grain mill which can mill wheat, rye, spelt, kamut, rice (brown or white) and other grains of similar size.

You must have purchased the grain and be willing (and able) to come to a location in upper Manhattan. I will mill your grain for you on the spot at no charge. This offer is only for TFL members and is primarily for home bakers who wish to have from 1 to 5 lb of freshly milled flour for home use.

Interested home bakers should PM me for further instructions.

Having just noticed the prices of Vogel's Flaxseed and Spelt bread, I decided it can't be that hard to make my own.  Famous last words.  I concocted a recipe by stealing bits of other recipes, threw it in the breadmaker, and got very excited when the smells started to emerge.  However, when the bread emerged, I didn't get quite so excited as it had collapsed.  I still ate it and it was delicious, albeit, flat.

Here is the recipe I used: 2 tsp Edmunds active yeast, 250 gm white flour, 80 gm spelt flour, 20 gm kibbled wheat, 80 gm flaxseed, 1 Tbsp bround sugar, 1.5 Tbsp Butter, 1.5 Tbsp Milk powder, 1 tsp salt, 300 ml water, 2 tsp linseed, 2tsp poppy seed.

My challenge is how to get this mixture to rise and stay up!  I love the mixture of grains but would prefer a loaf of bread, not a cake of bread.

Is there such a thing as a %100 whole wheat bread recipe, that is a bit crusty like a peasant bread, and is not so tricky to make successfully?

I am new to bread baking and am starting out using a Hodgson Mill whole grain cookbook recipe for the whole wheat french bread.  I measured all the ingredients accurately but the loaves seem extremely dry when I added all the flour.  I proofed the yeast then added all the ingradients and half the flour.  I let is rise until it double in size then added the remainder of the flour and kneaded it for 10 minutes.  It was extremely dry at this point and was falling apart and not forming a solid ball.  The recipe called for another rise and doubleing in size.  I let it go then rolled it but it was very stiff.  I rolled it out, rolled it up, stuck it in the oven at 110 as the recipe called for.  It didn't double in siae, but probably increased by 50%.  It is in the oven now and smells great...I just have a feeling it is going to tast horrible.

My question is, do you usually add all the flour that is called for in the recipe or just add until it feels right?  Also, once you've added too much flour, can you just add a little water to bring it back?

Thanks

Hi,

in many recipes I read the cooking is required to be made "undercover", that is with the pan enveloped in aluminum foil, while in others the envelope is not required and generally a much higher temperaturae is used.

I noticed that when I don't cover the pan the bread comes out with a gummy and tough crust, that I consider really annoying; moreover the crumb comes out lighter and less sweet.

I'd like to have some advise on the cooking method to use; at the moment I'm relying just on luck and on past experience rather than on a methodology.

BTW, how to decide when the bread is cooked? a stick inserted in the bread comes out _always_ wet, even after 6 hours.

Thanks.

My daughter is asking me to bake a fiber-rich sandwich bread that has the mouth feel and texture of soft, commercial breads, e.g., Aunt Millie's, Klosterman, Butternut.  Like many of her generation, she favors soft crumb to the rougher, more substantial artisanal bread.  I searched here but found mostly hard-crusted breads.  Does anyone have what I'm looking for? --- cake diva