Bitter bread
I have baked my first loaf of 100% home-milled wholewheat sourdough. I was initially delighted by the light texture of the crumb, although the crust was darker and thicker than I would have liked - slightly over cooked. The flavour, however, was very bitter. I autolysed the flour for 12 hours before the final mix which was at 90% hydration. Folded every 30 minutes for 3 hours at 84 f then shaped and proofed overnight in the fridge before baking this morning. have I done something wrong? Is home-milled grain bitter? I bought the grain from Dove's Farm in the UK which is a well known brand of imported high-protein flour. I'm puzzled and I don't want to give up on the 100% wholemeal idea especially since I bought a 25kg sack of grain! Could the overcooking have caused the bitterness?
From a newly created starter will tend to be overly bitter. Your starter will continue to develop becoming more flavoursome and less bitter as time goes by.
Now let's look at your recipe and give you some suggestions.
1. Autolyse for 30min. There's no benefit to these extra long Autolyse.
2. Bring your final hydration down to 75%. Why did you go as high as 90%? You can always slowly increase.
3. Make the starter percentage 30% of the flour. A higher percentage ratio of starter to flour with shorter fermentation time will result in a less bitter bread.
4. Retarding the final proof will increase the flavour. Until your starter matures this will only increase the bitterness.
5. Why not follow this recipe...
Flour 100%
Hydration 75%
Salt 2%
Starter 30%
Method:
1. Night before do first build
2. Morning of do second build
(two builds at room temperature should increase activity and yeast production, rather than bacterial, which will produce a more mellow flavour)
3. Late morning or early afternoon the starter should be ready.
4. Autolyse flour + water for 30min.
5. Add salt and starter on top. Combine and knead till moderate gluten formation.
6. Rest 20 min.
7. 4x Stretch and Folds every 20min
8. After last Stretch and Fold rest 20min.
9. Do first shaping and bench rest 20min
10. Second shape and final proof in banneton.
11. Final proof till ready and bake in pre-heated oven.
My starter is not new though. I have been using it for about 2 years. I did recently, however, start storing at 65% hydration instead of 100% hydration. could that have made a difference? The loaf started out at 80% hydration but I increased it to 90% during first fold as it felt too dry. A lot of the water must have been absorbed during the autolyse. I made the autolyse 12 hours because I read on this site that this was best for freshly-milled flour. Maybe that was wrong? The bitterness I didn't like was not "sourness" which I actually enjoy. It was mostly in the cust.
There is a marked difference in taste between store made whole wheat bread and home made wheat bread. Are you milling red wheat or white wheat? Red wheat has a more tanin flavor than white, which is a normal variant of wheat that lacks the red color(and hence lacks the tanin).I love the fresh milled wholemeal flour from red wheat because it almost tastes grassy but it can have the tannin taste, which may take some getting used to.
If it is the tannin taste, it can be mitigated a bit by using a small amount of sweetener, esp. honey. It does not have to be much but may be worth a try. The good news is that your palate will become accustomed and it will taste "normal" after a while.
Another way to mitigate it is to mix it with another flour (AP,bread,white WW,etc)and find a level you like. It can be another wholegrain flour, also.
If it is just the crust tasting a bit off, the crust can be brushed either with milk, butter or a slight sweetener either before or after baking.
Don't give up!
I will persevere in the hope that I will get used to it. After all I did manage to accustom myself to the tannin in red wine with a great deal of perseverance..... I will try brushing the top with milk as well to see what happens. Should that be before or after scoring? I will get some oats or barley and put in some of that as well to see if it helps.
i hope that's true!
If your grain is old, it may have developed an off flavor. Taste some of the grains.
Ford
One of my recent loaves, featuring a lot of coarsely ground whole grains, had a suprisingly bitter crust.
I attribute it to the whole grains ... the base recipe is the one I have been baking for over a year and I haven't noticed any bitter flavors.
-Dave
I tasted the grain - it was sweet. Today I am enjoying it more. Perhaps it is a matter of taste after all?
Dovesfarm wheat grain (and rye and spelt) in 25kg sacks and never had the issue you refer to. May I ask, how ar eyou storing your grain? I immediately transferred my grains into vaccum packed bags with oxygen sachets for long term storage. It's important to keep the oxygen away and any moisture. Kept this way the grains will last literally years and years.
There is no reason I know of why milling your own grains should produce a bitter flavour. So I suspect the bitterness was a result of your long processing times or your starter.
about the Dove's Farm thanks! I too vacuum sealed the grain on bags as soon as it arrived. I have another loaf in the middle of a bulk rise now. I have reduced the autolyse and will reduce the final proof and see what happens! Thanks for all the help!
100% whole wheat bread can taste a bitterness in the bread from the harder bits. Some put a bit of honey, agave or sugar into the mix to try to compensate. I used to do so too but now no longer do as I have grown accustomed to the taste and have toned it down by sifting out the hard bits and feeding them to the starter for the levain build. The bread turns out less bitter and has more spring and open crumb with these gluten cutting bits wetter for a longer period of time.
I also like to autolyse 100% whole grains from 2-4 hours minimum to give the starch breaking enzymes a head start in converting the starch to sugars that he LAB and yeast can eat. - and to properly hydrate the flour - it will soak up plenty of water Since it starts with more sugar, there is more left over sugar in the dough after it is properly fermented and proofed that the yeast and LAB can't or don't eat. The finished loaf is naturally sweeter, less bitter and it browns up better too - to that beautiful mahogany color we love so much.
I also am between 90% and 100% hydration for these 100% whole grain loaves. Less water just means a less well risen bread and a much more close crumb. 75% hydration would be for breads at the 20-25% whole grains mark. Fresh milled flour is very thirsty indeed.
I think with a long autolyse, feeding the sifted out hard bits to the levain and keeping the hydration high will give you a loaf that you will like very much taste wise and be a real good looker inside and out too.
Nothing daunted I baked another loaf today without roasting it too hard and I really liked the flavour despit the fact that I had to lever it off the bottom of my Pyrex in pieces - lesson learned! Maybe yesterday it was just erm.... burnt! The colour of the crumb is so amazingly dark it looks like chocolate bread! Shop bought wholemeal never looked like this! May I ask whether 12 hours is too long for 100% wholewheat fresh milled flour? It just fits in with my work schedule. If I had to shorten it to 4 hours I would either be up till well past bed-time or could only bake at the weekend. One hour I guess is feasible. So which would be best for the autolyse - one hour or 12 hours? And, room temp or chilled? Sorry for all the q's!
supposedly 100% whole wheat bread at the store and it doesn't look anything like my bread even at 50% whole wheat. I don't know what kind of wheat they are using to make that stuff - but she loves it :-(
Parchment will fi the sticking problem as will some non stick spray - been there too. Get a cheapo instant read thermometer to know exactly when the bread is done 96 C or 205 F in eh middle works for most SD breads.
I think you could start the autolyse right before you go to work in the morning and start a single stage levain build at the same time. They should both be ready to go when you get home 10 hours later. Then mix it all up, do the gluten development, shape and retard overnight to bake the next morning before work. You also have some flexibility with the levain build. Once it is built you can retard it for 12 - 36 hours too to meet your schedule.
I sort of have a rule, not based on anything worth knowing, that if the autolyse is longer than 4 hours, I put it in the fridge. But that would slow you down when you came home from work. The autolyse would be too cold and would take 2 hours to warm up. So am 8-10 hour autolyse instead of a 12 hour one would be fine.
I don.t know how you handle your starter and levain builds but if you can get the levain peaking when you get home then all should be well.
Happy baking
i'll do part one of levain build tonight then 2nd build in the morning along with the autolyse, then mix it up tomorrow night. Thank you so much!
and having one helps a lot......even if it doesn't workout as planned :-) At least next time it will. Not that your plan will fail, it sounds like something I would do too, but I am always amazed at how failure almost always leads to success. It's like a prerequisite for success. I can't tell you how many times I have heard myself say "1 wish would have done that instead!" after failing miserably. It took a lot longer to realize that if I actually did that something else - it would actually work out a lot better. Nothing like failing your way to the top.
Happy baking