I recently purchased Peter Reinhart's artisan breads every day. I have been kneading by hand and wanted to try the minimal mixing, overnight cold ferment sytle recipes he provides to see what kind of rise/crumb structure I could get. We were having company for dinner last night whose diet required only whole wheat bread so I decided to make a half batch of each of the Lean Bread and 100% WW Hearth Bread. I had never made a 100% WW.
Since I can never seem to keep the variables to a minimum, here are some of the things I did different from my usual style in addition to the new recipes. We are not on the boat so I baked in a real oven that will preheat to 550 as recommended. I used quarry tiles and parchment paper and a metal baking pan for steam. I also used KA White Whole Wheat flour for the first time. I also decided to try some new shapes. I made a WW boule (inpired by David's shaping help) that I proofed in a towel lined 8" plastic bowl and decided to try some rolls for part of the Lean Bread. I made two 75 gram knotted rolls (fake Kaiser shape) and a couple of 100 gram Faux Braids (from Ciril Hitz, Baking Artisan Bread). The shaping of the Lean Bread rolls was tough because the dough was very sticky, but I stuck with it :-)
Here are the results:
Lean Bread (dusted with semolina flour)
100% Whole Wheat Hearth Bread, I like the shape on the boule.
Crumb Shot for Lean Bread. I was pretty happy with this, critiques welcome.
100% Whole Wheat crumb. Is this what it should look like??
The other big question is always taste. The lean bread was good after warming/crisping in oven before eating with pasta. The rolls were OK, a little chewy for tuna sandwhiches.
The whole wheat has a nice flavor. My wife even liked it and she doesn't like much WW. It is heavier than the white, but I assume that is to be expected. Maybe will try a variation with seeds and multigrain.
Any and all comments welcome, especially suggestions to improve.
wayne
