The Fresh Loaf

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whole wheat

dmsnyder's picture

Dutch/Flemish whole wheat bread: Recipe wanted.

November 5, 2007 - 12:45pm -- dmsnyder

When visiting Holland and Belgium, we were served an extraorinarily delicious whole wheat bread for breakfast, either sliced loaves or rolls. It was not sourdough. It seemed to be consistant from city to city and between the two countries, so I assume it is "traditional" in the region. I would love to be able to bake it at home, but I've not been able to find a recipe.

 Does anyone know what this bread is called, and does anyone have a recipe for it?

Thanks.

David

KipperCat's picture

Want softest WW dinner rolls

November 3, 2007 - 9:26pm -- KipperCat
Forums: 

I want to make the softest possible whole wheat dinner rolls for Thanksgiving.  I'm looking at "Dinner Rolls for Aunt Agatha", on page 252 of Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, possibly making a soaker and biga as preferments a la Peter Reinhardt's new whole grain book.  I've also considered adding some potato flakes for a bit of extra softness.

What has been your experience with dinner rolls?  I want the soft buttery roll I remember from childhood, just whole wheat.  That's not too much to ask, is it? ;~) 

subfuscpersona's picture

major wheat growing regions in the US - reference maps

October 29, 2007 - 12:17pm -- subfuscpersona

Maps of the US showing the major wheat growing regions. For those of us who must mail order, at least it can explain those shipping costs.

Every map has a link immediately below if you need to see it in a larger size.

As I am geographically challenged, I start with a basic US map that shows the states with their names.

mse1152's picture
mse1152

Well, now that the World Series is over, I can post...

This weekend, I made the Power Bread from PR's new book. It's the third bread I've made from that book, and I think I like it best. It's dense and heavy, with a definite sweetness and lots of crunchy bits, thanks to sunflower seeds and sesame seeds. It's like a trip back to the whole wheat 70s, if you remember that time...and if you don't, I don't want to hear about it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's a choice of milk, buttermilk, yogurt, soy or rice milk for the biga. I used nonfat yogurt. The sweetener in the final dough was brown sugar. Just reading the list of ingredients makes you feel nutritionally virtuous. I really liked the idea of a puree of raisins and flaxseeds. The loaf is literally heavy, but not like a doorstop...there's just so much good stuff in there! I baked it a full 50 minutes before it reached 195 degrees, and I think it could have gone a bit longer. The crumb looked just a bit moist in the middle when I cut into it more than an hour later. You can see the sunflower seeds in the crumb, and a looser section through the middle.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I added around 2/3 to a full cup of extra flour during mixing and kneading. It was still pretty sticky in keeping with the 'no fun to knead' nature of the three breads I've made from this book. The dough rose very well in the bulk and pan proofs, but got no oven spring. Overall, I really like this bread.

Sue

wholegrainOH's picture
wholegrainOH

Finally had a chance to do one of Peter Reinhart's recipes, from Whole Grain Breads.  Did the multi-grain struan, since that's his signature bread.  Here's the result, lightly dusted with black sesame seeds.  Tastes as good as it looks! 

Alan 

here's the recipe I followed:

Whole grains:

            Barley

            Millet

            Quinoa

            Oat flakes

            Wheat flakes

King Arthur Whole Wheat

Saranac Pale Ale

Soy Milk

Skim Milk

Kosher Salt

Sorghum

Organic canola oil

King Arthur “New England” starter

 

more photos, etc., at my blog, http://alan-ohio-bread.blogspot.com

 

dmsnyder's picture

Leader's Pain au Levain Complet (a la Poilane)

October 20, 2007 - 10:49pm -- dmsnyder

I have made Peter Reinhart's Poilane-style miche many times, but this was my first attempt at Daniel Leader's version. The formulas are different in a number of ways. Leader uses autolyse, which Reinhart does not, and does not use cold retardation of either the starter or the formed miche, which Reinhart does. Leader uses a higher hydration dough and folding an hour into bulk fermentation.

bwraith's picture
bwraith

Whole Wheat Mash Bread Crust and Crumb

Whole Wheat Mash Bread Just Baked

The Whole Wheat Mash Bread, as described in Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads, had a wonderful aroma as it baked. Based on the photos in the book, it came out about as it was intended. The bread was dense and slightly sweet, just as described, and the crumb texture was creamier with the mash.

I included some photos of the bread and a spreadsheet in html and xls formats that breaks out some of the details.

A preferment and a mash are mixed with some additional flour and other ingredients to form the final dough. Instant yeast is used in the final dough to speed up the rise. The idea is that the flavor is already in the preferment and the mash, so the final dough just needs to be raised, which can be done effectively and expediently with instant yeast.

I used a 50/50 mix of Wheat Montana Bronze Chief and Wheat Montana Prairie Gold. The Bronze Chief is a high protein hard red spring wheat. The prairie gold is a high protein hard white spring wheat. I may have needed more water, given my flour choice. Maybe the crumb would have been a little less dense and more tender if hydrated more, which might have suited my bread tastes a little better. However, the results look much like in the photo in Whole Grain Breads and dense was a word used in the description of the crumb in the book.

Mash

  • 60 grams (2 oz) Wheat Montana Bronze Chief (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 60 grams (2 oz) Wheat Montana Prairie Gold (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 1/2 tsp diastatic malt powder
  • 300 grams water

The idea is to raise the temperature to something slightly below 170F for 3 hours. I heated the water in a metal sauce pan and preheated my oven to 165F, which meant putting it at the lowest setting. The water in the sauce pan got to about 180F fairly quickly. It was taken off the burner and allowed to cool down to 165F, which only took about a minute with a bit of stirring. I then dropped in the flour and stirred it, using a wet spatula to clean the sides of the pan. The lid was placed on the pan (be careful the pan and lid is OK to put in oven, although the temperatures are fairly low) and the pan placed in the oven for 3 hours, then removed and allowed to cool for the rest of the evening. The change in flavor of the mash from when it was first mixed until put in the refrigerator was dramatic. It was much sweeter and also quite a bit darker in color. It seemed much like gravy, and I was lucky it wasn't thrown out, as my wife thought it was just some gravy that had been left out sitting in a pan. Fortunately, she decided there was enough gravy there to warrant placing it in a plastic container and putting it in the refrigerator.

Levain

  • 30g (1oz) 90% hydration white flour starter (use any starter, white, whole wheat, rye, etc.)
  • 110g (4 oz) Wheat MT Bronze Chief (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 110g (4 oz) Wheat MT Prairie Gold (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 150g (5 oz) water

Mix all ingredients and knead into a dough for a few minutes. Place in container large enough for at least a triple in volume. Allow to rise by double or a little more, which should take about 5-8 hours at 76F or maybe 7-10 hours at 70F. You can let it ripen more if you want stronger flavors, but the inoculation is high in this case, about 40% fermented flour in the final dough, so you may find that letting it ripen too much affects the texture adversely or makes it more sour than you'd like. I found the bread to be mild flavored, and my levain was allowed to rise to about 2.5x the original volume over about 6 hours.

Final Dough

  • 122g (4oz) Wheat MT Bronze Chief (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 122g (4oz) Wheat MT Prairie Gold (use any whole wheat bread flour)
  • 15g (0.5 oz, 1 tbsp) malt syrup (or honey, agave nectar, sugar, brown sugar, molasses, or don't use any sweeteners)
  • 15g (0.5 oz, 1tbsp) olive oil (or use another fat such as butter, or don't use any fat at all)
  • 9g salt (I thought this could have used a touch more salt than was specified)
  • 7g (.25 oz, 2.5 tsp) instant yeast
  • all of the levain
  • all of the mash

I have a new DLX mixer, which was used for the first time to mix the dough. It took a while to get all the ingredients to fully homogenize but was only using the roller attachment. I wonder if it would have worked better to use the dough hook. The dough seemed very stiff, and I ended up adding some water. The Wheat Montana flours are high in protein and so may need more water than the typical flour assumed in this recipe. Only about 1 ounce of water was added, as I didn't want to get too far from the recipe on the first try. However, in the future, I'll try adding more water to this recipe. It would be more difficult to work with, but I've generally preferred whole grain breads when the dough was at the higher end of the hydration spectrum.

Fermentation

The ingredients were mixed directly out of the refrigerator. After mixing, the dough was at about 70F. I let it rise for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to a little more than double, then shaped the loaf into a batard and placed on couche fabric dusted with a mix of rice flour and whole wheat flour. The shaped loaf rose another hour, was placed on a peel and slashed, and finally baked.

Bake

The loaf was baked for 20 minutes in a steamed brick oven preheated to about 450F, then turned off and sealed with towel covered wooden door. The oven door was opened after 20 minutes and the loaf baked in the open cooling oven, dropping from 425F to about 350F (air temperature) for another 30 minutes. The aroma as this bread baked was about as good as I've experienced. I don't know what accounts for the especially good aroma, but the one big difference is the mash.

Results

The bread is a little dense and would be great with any sort of spread. I had put some honey and tahini on it this morning, which was delicious. The flavor is mild, but the sourdough and the mash give it a slightly sweet, slightly sour flavor that is different from other whole grain breads I've made so far. The crumb is creamy and dense at the same time. I would like to try this recipe again but with a little more water, maybe in a pan, and see what happens.

KipperCat's picture

NYT/Lahey no-knead sourdough question

October 2, 2007 - 10:35am -- KipperCat

When you make this, how much starter do you use, at what hydration? How vigorous is your starter? The first time I tried this, I used way too much starter, I think 80 grams.   In the morning my dough had obviously risen and tanked.  Last night I used 6 grams of 60% hydration starter.  AFter 13 hours it had done very little. Since I don't want to go another day without bread, I just added a bunch more starter and will watch it like a hawk.  At 180 grams I probably used too much!

wholegrainOH's picture
wholegrainOH

This is a concocted loaf of whole wheat with fresh basil from the garden, chopped green olives, and leavened with San Francisco Sourdough starter from Sourdoughs International

basil olive whole wheat loaf

Whole Wheat Basil Olive 

King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour

Amish Cornmeal

Quinoa Flour

Oat Flour

Ground Flax seed

Hemp seed

Org. Barley Malt

Org. Canola Oil

Kosher salt

Chopped fresh basil

Chopped green olives w/garlic

 

Mixed 9/21/07

Baked 9/23/07

more photos and details at http://alan-ohio-bread.blogspot.com

Alan

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