August 14, 2015 - 7:39pm
Whole Wheat Levain: Round Two
So, my first loaf turned out really well. But I thought maybe I would tweak it a bit and see if I could adjust the flavor a bit. The original recipe for the levain was 35% in the final build. I decided to up it to 50% so that more of the whole wheat flour would be in the preferment. Certainly made for a very active dough. I only bulk fermented for a little over 2 hours and the final rise was a little over an hour.
I also added butter (actually, I had added butter in the first loaf too), diastatic malt, and a little honey. I have to say, I think the malt and honey added just a touch of sweetness that worked really well with the whole wheat flour. I liked it a lot.
Here is a crumb shot:
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Comments
you have there lately, Kathy. Good looking loaf as usual. Well done and happy baking.
Regards,
Sandy
Thank you Sandy. I have to say I have been envious of your crumb! I have been working on getting mine to open up a bit more.
beautiful.
alan
is like adding a 1/8 C of sugar to the mix so no wonder it was sweet on top of the honey. Honey WW is a classic. You really got some bloom and spring with this one and that crumb is spot on too. Just think how nice the 3rd one will be:-),
Well done and happy baking Kathy
Honey whole wheat is what I had in mind when I added the honey. It seems that for me, a touch of sweetness balances the flavor of the whole wheat.
Some thoughts: The honey and malt both add sweetness. Why use both? The enzymes in the diastatic malt are probably unnecessary. It's likely your flour has added malt, and, even if it doesn't, the enzymes are sufficient in the WW flour.
In general, if you want a more complex flavor, using less pre-fermented dough and a longer bulk fermentation is the way to go. In my experience, this usually results in a sweeter flavor too, even without any added sweetener, because more of the starch is converted to simple sugars.
Do you have a "target" flavor you are trying to achieve? More whole wheat? More or less sour?
David
Well, the KA bread flour has malt in it, but their white whole wheat doesn't. So I thought a little malt would help with the rise. I only used 1/2 teaspoon. The honey was for the honey flavor like in a honey whole wheat loaf, but I only used a tablespoon of honey. So the bread wasn't very sweet, but it did seem to balance well with the flavor of the whole wheat.
For some reason, using a larger pre-ferment seemed to increase the sourness. I'm not sure why. I don't think I'm trying to make a sweeter bread, just affect the flavor of the whole wheat, which even with the white whole wheat, the crust seemed a touch bitter. Adding the small amounts of malt and honey seemed to counteract that flavor.
Saying all that... now I wonder if wanting a more sour (complex flavor?) and adding honey is counter productive?
Well, the malt won't hurt anything. And I like honey whole wheat a lot, myself.
That bitter whole wheat flavor: I know what you mean. I just haven't gotten it for a long, long time. I'm not completely sure why. I think it's getting more free sugars in the dough through enzyme (amylase) action during bulk fermentation.
I think the sweet/sour balance is a matter of personal taste. If you want less sour, you can use more levain, but use it when it is "young."
David
Sounds like a Chinese takeout!
I actually wanted more sour. I found with the original formula, which uses 15% of the whole wheat flour in the pre-ferment, that it was not sour at all. But when I bumped up the amount of whole wheat flour used in the pre-ferment to 20%, it definitely was more sour. I know that goes against what is usually done.
In going back and reading Hamelman's formula again, I see that he says:
So, in a sense, the pre-ferment is really a portion of the recipe being fermented slowly over a long time... 12 hours. By increasing the amount of the pre-ferment I then increased the amount of the dough being fermented slowly thereby increasing the amount of sour in the dough. Anyways, that's how my brain reasons it out. Does that sound logical?
David