The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

CRACKED WHEAT BREAD

greems's picture
greems

CRACKED WHEAT BREAD

I have just finished my second try at cracked wheat bread, both with the same results............fell flat on top while baking.  Dissapointment to say the very least.

I am determined to conquer this quest for a nice light cracked wheat bread!

Would anyone have a tried and true recipe.  I am using a Bosch Universal Plus if that makes any difference.

The recipe I tried called for 1 cup of milk, 2 1/2 c each of whole wheat and AP flours.  Also, 1/4 cup of cracked wheat and 1 1/4 c of  boiling water which cooks for 10 minutes then cools.  I also used gluten and enhancer and 1 tbsp yeast, 2 tbsp each of honey and molasses and 1 tbsp salt.

I couldn't use the total amount of flour called for or the dough would have been as hard as rock.  I used all the w/w and only about 1 1/2 cups AP.

The first rise was great and the second looked good also but then fell on top.  To say my frustration level is fast rising would be an understatement.

HELP!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

a word or two, maybe even 1,000 :-)

greems's picture
greems

So, how do I go about posting a  photo here?
BTW it is delicious!

breadforfun's picture
breadforfun

Here's a cracked wheat (bulghur) bread based on Hamelman's 5-grain levain: http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2011/02/jeffrey-hamelmans-five-grains-sourdough.html

The recipe is for a levain or sourdough bread, but a yeast version should be quite tasty.  It is one of my favorites.

-Brad

 

suzyr's picture
suzyr

I have been thinking about a "Cracked" wheat bread.  There is nothing like being so excited to have a beautiful crust and crumb...and then the un mentionable takes place.  I will post this weekend and tell you what happens. 

Thanks to all.

Suzy

I am going with the hamelmans version.

 

mrfrost's picture
mrfrost

Where did you get the recipe? Just curious.

I suspect over proofing(2nd rise) may be a "suspect". Too wet dough may also be a possibility.

I have not made it in a while, but I used to get fantastic results adding 1.5 oz(before soaking) rehydrated cracked wheat to the Light Wheat loaf recipe at smittenkitchen.com , which is an "adaptation" of BBA Light Wheat. It doesn't use quite as much whole wheat; only about 38%, but I used maybe a slightly higher % of cracked wheat than your recipe. I suspect you could successfully increase the ww % a bit, after becoming proficient with the original recipe. Be advised that the recipe as written may produce a dough that is a little too dry(for me), but you want to end up with a prototypical, nice bouncy, dough ball(by adding a little more water). Also, the recipe as written makes about 2 lbs of dough, but calls for only an 8.5 x 4.5" pan. For some, that may be a little too much dough for that size pan, especially with the added cracked wheat. I also used a 9 x 5" pan, but don't remember if I scaled to make a slightly larger dough ball.

8.5 x 4.5" "Light cracked wheat" loaf:

9 x 5" loaf:

Although I did not like "my results" too much, people seem to get good results with Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cracked Wheat loaf recipe. For me, it didn't turn out quite "light" enough.

ps: click on the "FAQs" tab at the top of the page for photo posting faqs. Good luck.