Wholewheat bread containing intact wholewheat berries; like a Duens Dumpy for any South Africans from Cape Town

I've used whole and cracked grains, sometimes soaked and sometimes scalded, and they were always perceptible in the finished bread.  I generally steer away from using the grains in a dry state for fear they'll be tooth-cracking birdshot after baking, plus drying the bread. 

Is it possible that the grains in the bread of your youth had been toasted or parched before going into the bread dough?

Paul

Never had that problem either but my pre-cooked or steamed berries are (now that I think about it) cooled down first or made the day before and chilled.  I suppose direct from my rice cooker and a little over mixing might blend them to mush.  I would suggest letting the starches in the grains cool and gel first before adding to the dough.  Or add after developing the dough, like one would add nuts and raisins.

... it may or may not be what you're looking for, but it's a hell of a coincidence that I tucked this one away for safekeeping right before I read your post. The formula calls for bulgur wheat specifically, which makes sense to me because bulgur is usually mostly cracked durum wheat. Durum has the second greatest protein content of any wheat - it might hold up better during your bake and give you the toothsome wheat kernels you're looking for. If it doesn't, go for hard red spring wheat, which has a little more protein

hi, I bake a Granary-like bread using millet, flax and sesame seeds with malted wheat and rye flakes, plus some sunflower and pumpkin seeds.  I read that whole wheat berries provide a good texture/flavor and, I have just managed to source some hard red Spring wheat berries.  I was originally planning to add a small amount of the wheat berries directly to the dough mix along with these other flakes and seeds, but from reading some of the comments on this site I am wondering if I need to do any pre-cooking of the berries?  I am looking for this ingredient to add more chewy texture to the baked bread and am concerned that I will diminish the texture if I pre-cook and then bake (but on the other hand I don’t want to damage my family’s teeth ?).  I would greatly appreciate any help that you may have if you have experience with using whole wheat berries. Thank you.