Can you share your favorite 100% whole wheat recipe with fewest ingredients?
Hi! I want to be able to make a good 100% whole wheat bread using the fewest ingredients possible - whole wheat flour, a sugar source, salt, yeast and water. I am currently using molasses as the sugar source. I know it's not that easy to do it well, but if local bakeries can do it, I can too! :-) I used to make all my bread by hand "manually" in the oven, but these days I have so much less time available, I got a good bread machine that I can customize recipes with, so that really helps to be able to solve problems if I need to as I work on my recipes. I am making a 1-1/2 lb loaf (3 cups of flour, measured by weight) and will be alternating between whole wheat that I grind and sprouted whole wheat as well. I have made my current favorite recipe a few times now and it has turned out pretty well, but I am having trouble with it sinking when it hits room temperature after it has baked. So I will be tweaking it some.
Anyway, could any of you share your simple 5-6 ingredient whole wheat recipes (no bread flour or gluten added) so I can try them for better results? Thank you!
If you want the simplest, then flour, water, yeast & salt. No sugar needed.
(And what do you mean by sinking? I've never known a bread to sink before - hollow crust yes - that's over proofing, but not actually sinking - got any photos?)
Mix 550g flour with 420g water. Leave for 2 hours or overnight in the fridge. Add in 7g salt and 7g dried yeast. Mix and knead. Leave to rise, knead it again and transfer to a tin - let it prove, but do not do the "double in size" thing. At best, one and a half times bigger. Stick in a hot 250°C oven for 12 minutes, turn the tin round then turn the oven down to 210°C for another 25 minutes. Add more water when you get used to handling it - it can be quite sticky.
A variant of that (which I bake 3 times a week in batches of 6) is to mix everything but only use 1.5g of dried yeast (per 550g of flour) and leave the lot in a big tub overnight, then tip-out, stretch & fold, scale into however many loaves I'm making, prove (takes under 1.5 hours - watch it like a hawk, if it over proofs you'll get that hollow crust) then into the oven as before.
If you want even simpler then look up the Doris Grant recipe... (Although that has some lard in it)
-Gordon
Just wanted to say thanks for the recipe! I just made it using 50% whole wheat 50% bread flour and 430g h2o and it's very good (and quick). I also added a good sprinkling of wheat germ so I can call it healthy.
I'll try it as 100% whole wheat next time but I was somewhat chicken to try tonight as I needed some fresh sandwich bread.:-)
... I'm not personally a fan of 100% wholemeal (or wholegrain) breads myself - I made them because my customers want them - thinking of the "health" benefits (there now appears to be some controversy over this though - I've read some claims that the bran does more harm than good as it passes through!) However.. I also make a 50/50 - half stoneground wholemeal and half white. I make that at 73% hydration with commercial yeast and like the 100% wholemeal, it's an overnight process too with the same 1.8g of dried yeast per 550g of flour (which is a big loaf)
my own experiences suggest that an autolyze period of 2 (or more) hours or a long, slow ferment brings out the best in 100% wholemeal breads, however the long overnight changes it (for the better) too. The dough I tipped out of the tub earlier was a very different beast from the dough I put in it last night.
I don't (yet) make a wholemeal sourdough. I've had a few tries, but they always come out too sour (which my customers hate) so I need to spend some time refining the process...
-Gordon
When I took it out the top had a nice smooth dome shape, but upon cooling, this is what happened
IMG_4472.JPG
sweetener is needed. The autolyse will naturally sweeten the bread.
Formula
15% Pre-fermented wheat bran and high extraction wheat flour from below..
100% Whole Wheat - half sprouted
85% Hydration
2% salt
Method
Sprout half the whole grains - 24 hours
Dry the sprouts in the dehydrator 3.5 hours at 110 F. Grind the dried and the other non sprouted half of grains. Sift out the bran from both.
Make a 100% hydration, 3 stage bran levain using: 10 g of No Muss No Fuss Rye starter, the sifted whole wheat bran for the first stage the sifted sprouted bran for the 2nd stage and high extraction, non sprouted wheat for the 3rd stage. 2 hours for the first stage 3 hours for the 2nd stage and 7 hours max for the 3rd stage - until the 3rd stage doubles. Then retard the levain for 24 hours.
While the stirred down cold levain is warming on the counter the next day for, autolyse the high extraction dough flour with the dough water for 2 hours . Sprinkle the salt over the top but do not mix in. The levain will rise 25% over that time.
Mix in the salt and then add the levain and mix with a spoon. Do 30-40 slap and folds to get the levain thoroughly mixed into the autolyse. Adjust the water to get the dough hydrated properly. I usually get the eatet up to 90% total hydration for ths bread. Let rest 30 minutes.
Do 2 more sets of 6 slap and folds on 30 minute intervals and the 3 sets of 4 stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals. Let rest 30 minutes
Pre-shape and then 10 minutes later final shape into a loaf pan shape and place into a PAM sprayed loaf pan or Pullman pan.
Bag pan in a trash can liner and place in the fridge overnight. If it proofs fully, bake straight out of the fridge or let it warm up on the counter to finish proofing. Proof to 85% and no more than 90%
Preheat your oven to 500 F with the steaming method you prefer. Bake with steam at 450 F for 15 minutes and then take out the steam and continue baking at 425 F convection until the bread reads 202 F in the middle. Take the bread out of the an and bake directly on the oven rack until it reads 205 F in the middle the crust is brown.
You can bake as a boule using baskets to proof and DO or stone to cook in or on.
Happy baking
Double post