The Fresh Loaf

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Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat question

French Foodie's picture
French Foodie

Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat question

This past weekend I had my first go at baking with whole wheat (granted I don't have too much baking experience to begin with).  I decided to start with Flloyd's honey whole wheat bread with a few minor changes.  First, I combined all of the whole wheat flour and water with 1/2 tsp of yeast as a pre-ferment the night before.  It fermented about 1.5 hours at room temp, went into the refrigerator and was removed an hour or so before being added to the rest of the dough.  My second alteration was in the use of skin milk instead of evaporated milk and adding an extra 2 tablespoons of honey to balance out the sweetness.

 

Now onto my real question.  I followed the rest of the recipe to the "tee"  but my loaf ended up with a significantly dense crumb and was slightly flat (it sunk a bit from the proofing height).  Overall the taste was excellent including the crust.  I am hoping to make this bread again this weekend and am wondering what may be the root causes of my results.  Would increasing the hydration slightly to about 73% or so prove helpful?  Might the dough have been overproofed?  Thank you for your help in assisting a green baker find his bearings.

Floydm's picture
Floydm

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe.

If it sunk from the proofing height then, yeah, I suspect you overproofed.  When you time it right it pops at least another 20% or 30% when it hits the oven.  Nailing the timing though, is more of an art than a science, so I'd encourage you to try it again and put it in the oven when it is slighty under, rather than over, risen.

Changing the hydration?  I tend to have a tough time with extremely moist whole wheat doughs, so I'd be inclined to caution against it, but some of the folks who have a better grasp on whole grain baking might be able to provide a more informed opinion of whether that is a good idea or not.

Good luck next time.

-Floyd

French Foodie's picture
French Foodie

Floyd, thank you for your thoughts.  I will try a shorter proofing time, or perhaps proof at a lower temperature (original was about 83*-in oven with light on).  I will also be able to weigh all of my ingredients this go around (just got my scale the other day) so hopefully that will prove handy as well.