The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

100% Soudrdough Whole Wheat Batard

Mebake's picture
Mebake

100% Soudrdough Whole Wheat Batard

This is a batard i made last weekend:

Ingredients:

 - 400g freshly milled Hard White Wheat

 - 300g Water

 - 100g WholeWheat Sponge / levain / preferment (at 68% hydration)

 - 9g fine Sea Salt

-----------

800 g Final Dough at 73% Hydration

Process:

1 - Flour ,Water, and salt mixed to form a dough (SOAKER), and left 8 Hours at room temperature.

2 - Preferment / levain was prepared 2 days before. (BIGA) and stored in the refrigerator after fermenting at room temperature for 8 hours.

3 - Day of Bake, BIGA and SOAKER where cut into pieces and mixed without tearing the dough until it passes windowpane.

4- Stretch and fold gently into an envelope shape, round into a ball every 1 hour for 3 hours.

5 - Preshape, and Shape intoa Batard and place in a rice-floured couche for 45 min, preheat the oven.

6 - Poke test, Slash the loaf at an angle, load into the oven with a peel on parchment, and covered by a preheated pyrex bowl.

7 - After 15 Minutes, the bowl is removed, the stone replace by a colder one and shifted upwards to pervent burning the bottom of the loaf.

8 - After 30 minutes, switch off the oven and let the loaf in to dry out for 10 min.

Result: Chewy crumb, not dense, and very slightly moist and slightly sour.

Recommendation: Yes, But the preferment was over ripen when mixed, which is evident from the lazy yeast activity, hence: tight crumb. Next time, i'll mix it when it is just ripe.

Khalid

Comments

swtgran's picture
swtgran

Very nice, it looks delicious and I think I will give your recipe a go.  Thanks.  Terry

inlovewbread's picture
inlovewbread

Very nice Khalid- I have been playing around with a similar formula, and it looks like it's a little bit hit and miss- one of those formulas that every step needs to have the right timing. 

Beautiful color that you got on this loaf- the rice flour really highlights the nice grigne. 

Well done- inspires me to do another whole wheat levain this week. Thanks!

hutchndi's picture
hutchndi

beautiful....

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Thanks Terry, it was delicious, albeit tight crumbed. Try it, I bet you can get the right crumb, and show us the results.

Thank you inlovewbread! you're right, its an easy formula, yet tricky for whole wheat. The color is from proper steaming, obviously. My latest reliable steaming improvision is now a deep dish poultry roaster with a deep dish lid. the roaster is small enough to fit in my gas oven , yet large enough to accomodate two (2lb) loaves.

Thanks Hutchndi! i love your stenciled bread!

ZD's picture
ZD

You seem to do a lot of whole wheat baking and get good results. I an looking to get better with lean whole wheat bread. I am not baking much that spring is here as I have much to do in my yard and Mom's yard. The little baking I have been doing is whole wheat. I know it is healthier but I still don't always enjoy it. I will keep trying. Keep up the good posts. Did you ever try tempering your wheat?

Greg R.

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Hi Greg,

Yes, i try to always bake close to 100% whole grain bread, mostly because i enjoy them. I always bake with australian imported Hard white wheat (i couldn't source other wheat here in Dubai!) which happens to be sweeter than red wheat varieties, and my family enjoy it with any food.

As for tempering, i did try it with hard red winter and it did mellow the endosperm. I did'nt notice any favourable result when milling them, so i quit doing that. I read your post about home tempering, it very informative, but i need to know whether to add 5% gradually for 3 days (1.6% daily), or 5% dily for 5 days?

Thanks

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi Mebake,

All the modern millers temper their wheat.   This is to allow them to separate off the bran fraction more easily, and thereby achieve an overall higher extraction rate from the wholegrain when milling to white flour.   For wholemeal flour, the bran is then simply added back to the white flour.

So, if you don't notice any mellowing in flavour for your white wheat, and you are using your flour as wholemeal anyway, there may be little point in tempering the grain at all.

As always, I enjoy reading about the excellent breads you make

Best wishes

Andy

ZD's picture
ZD

I add the water all at once unless it is more then 5%. For example take 1000g of  wheat that is at 10% moisture, then pour in 30g of water, shake well on and off for 5 minutes. Then store at 26C for 36 to 72 hours. This would give you 13% moisture wheat to mill. 13% is a good starting point for powered mills. It will give you finner flour and lower the strain on your mill. It will also make the bran a little larger. I some times mill by hand and the difference can be felt allot. If I remember right you had some very hard wheat and it would be helpful if you ever have that issues again. Also if you want to try a high extraction flour at home tempering works great for that.

I will try some of the HWSW I have in the freezer and see if I like the flavor better.

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Hi, Andy

I do understand the virtues of tempering grains, but i rarely need to do so, as my hard white wheat has enough moisure, and is easily milled into fine flour without much damage. I'am only concerened about a batch of red winter i tried to mill, which had a very hard translucent endosperm, and resluted in starch damage when milled.

and Thanks! i appreciate the encouragement from a competing baker such as yourself.

 

 

 

 

ananda's picture
ananda

Hi,

Yes I remember you posting on starch damage.   Amylase content is critical to good bread flour.

I never advise students to experiment with adding amylase, as I take it the millers have already done this in the first place.   Maybe there might be the odd exception such as bagels, but, generally it's not something I'd be adding to a bread improver.   Your batch of red wheat was testament to that.

Best wishes

Andy

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the info, i shall temper my wheat as you said. Why do you freeze your wheat? Does it impact milling temperature?

ZD's picture
ZD

I was on sale for 10% off so I bought 25 pounds of HRSW and HWSW and put it in the freezer so I didn't have to worry about insects. I haven't been milling it cold. Cold milling will make the bran break up more. You could do that if wanted smaller bran. I would be careful in high humidity milling cold grain as it could condense a lot of moisture and glaze the stones on the mill.  

I have been out of bread for a week and I don't even have any pizza dough made. My weekend looks to be busy again. I am going to have to make time to bake soon. At least I get to read about good bread. =D

Greg R

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Noted, thanks.