The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Help - what's wrong?!

Ilse's picture
Ilse

Help - what's wrong?!

Good morning I got a recipe from a baker from the Netherlands. It makes about 8 loaves. I started this exactly according to the recipe. 4000g wholemeal flour 400g white bread flour 2% salt = 88g 1.5% sugar = 66g 2% oil = 88g 3% yeast - 132g ( It seems an awful lot!) .4% maltflour (I left this out) 60% water = 2640g (This again seems far too little?) THe dough was very stiff - I could hardly knead it. Is it the recipe or the flour that we use in South Africa? Your comments will be much appreciated. Thanks Ilse My recipe takes much more water, but I never weigh it and use water more or less until the dough feels good. This is the 1st time I'm using the baker's percentages for a wholewheat bread. :-)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

7g instant yeast per 500g flour is enough  (63g)  decrease further for a longer slow fermentation.  This might be a recipe for fresh yeast at 3%

Water 60% hydration is low for whole flour and bread flour, you can easily add another 5%  

I love malt flour and can taste the difference in white breads.   You will also slow fermentation leaving it out.  Whole wheat and slow fermentation go well together.  The flour combination also lends itself to long fermentation and retarding of dough.

Doc.Dough's picture
Doc.Dough

I can't tell from your description whether the weights came from the recipe or if they are your calculations, but it would be easy to miss a decimal point in the yeast. Mini's guidance sounds right to me.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

90% whole grain wheat bread like this can easily take another 5% hydration and probably can take another 5% no problem at all to 70% hydration -  and it still might be a stiff blob tough to work.  Personally I would want to be at least 75% hydration to get some decent lift and make the work easier. 

Ilse's picture
Ilse

Thank you all!  The bread was actually wonderful!!! Lovely crust and crumb.  But personally I would take it to 70/75% hydration.  The yeast  was not for instant yeast (as I saw only afterwards :-), but fortunately I did cheat on that and put in less.  If I want to make a seedloaf, can I use the same recipe and just add my seeds?  

Thanks once again!!

Blessings

Ilse