I'll admit I haven't made many Whole Wheat breads that I thought were full of flavor. Most of them taste like they are good for you but lack that deep flavor that makes you want to have another piece. Floyd posted a loaf he did a couple weeks ago along with a sourdough starter that sat in the cooler for 2 weeks that caught my attention. I have been wanting to learn about making good WW breads for a while and this is my entry into what I hope will be a good learning experience. I'm a decent rye baker and a little better with light combination's and even better with various bread flour mixes but, I need some help in this area.

I own Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread and the BBA and Hamelmans Bread that I would like to use for a base to start from. So if any of you would like to speak up with a favorite from one of these books or even something else, I would appreciate it greatly.

I have decided to purchase some fresh stone ground flour from the milling operation that sent floyd a package and it arrived today. I opened the bag and it smells wonderful. By comparison the store bought has little aroma. So my hopes are high.

BTW the flour is from flourgirl51's operation in Northern Minnesota. The cost to purchase 10 Lbs of fresh whole grain flour was competitive with our local store, delivered no less. Here is the link.

Eric

i did my first recipe from peter reinharts whole grain bread book and i'm very pleased with it. this is the most oven spring i've gotten on a free form bread to date.  i am not allowing anyone to cut into it until completely cool....this could take a while.

Well, after a bit of a break from baking I'm trying to get the hang of it all over again. I had a few loaves I wasn't happy with so I went back to the first recipes I used, namely the 1984 version of Laurel's. I came up with these, they're the best ones I've made, so obviously I could use some tips! I pretty much make only WW bread, this time with KA.

The 2nd time's a charm!

Partially Proofed Rolls - they started out 1/2 inch apart.

A few extras. These are baked in a 6 1/2" x 10 1/4" sheet.

Interior Crumb

I generally follow guide lines from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and Tassahara. I make the sponge ala Tassahara, and shape according to Laurel's desem instructions.

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!