Baking bricks
A long time ago, before I had ever baked so much as a crumb I had a sudden urge to make a loaf of bread, so equipped with the unshakeable confidence of the totally inexperienced, I bought a pack of whole-wheat flour. I read the instructions on the paper bag and followed them meticulously and baked a .................brick!
It wasn't a total failure though. As members of this community know, in baking there can be many disappointments but very few truly inedible disasters.. This brick could, in polite company be called a hearty eat and it was certainly tasty and my family actually loved it and asked for more. So for a while I carried on producing what became affectionately known as "Al's bricks". By this time the bug had bitten and I started on the long process of learning more about bread making and developing some skills and knowledge.
I did though miss the flavour of 100% wholewheat bread as did my family so I was really pleased to come across Maurizio's "100% wholewheat sourdough" in his "Perfect Loaf" website https://www.theperfectloaf.com/100-whole-wheat-sourdough/ in which amongst other things he tackles the main problem of using 100% wholewheat, that of the bran damaging the gluten structure. He separates the bran from the flour and softens it with boiling water followed by a lengthy autolyse before adding it back again at a later stage. So thought I would have a go and this is the result.
I am quite pleased with this first attempt and hope to be able to get a slightly more open crumb next time. So thank you Maurizio for opening this door for me although I would guess that my family will still prefer the "bricks".
By the way, in order to get a bit more rise and less width in my bread I often use this useful trick, placing an appropriately sized cake tin without its base inside the dutch oven. It probably only works if the dough is proofed in and stays in a baking parchment lining when it is lifted into the dutch oven.
Comments
Thanks for sharing!
all-time favourites - even as a brick! This blog has had me grinning since I read it, and I am right with you and your family in missing the flavour of the 100% whole wheat when I spend all of my baking time on other projects. Kudos on finding a method to try, and for having such great success with your first attempt at it! What did your family say about the flavour / texture of this one vs the brick?
I haven't tried the recipe that you used, and am not equipped for the sifting needed to create high-extraction flours, although dabrownman has had wonderful results with sifting out the bran and using that as the feed to build-up the levain from his NMNF starter. I keep it a bit more simple by using Trevor Wilson's technique from Breadwerx and just soak all of the non-leaven flour with the salt and enough water to achieve 75% hydration (after mixed with starter) for at least 12 - 16 hours (refrigerated first for 6-8 hours, then allowed to gradually warm to room temp). I also do a double-hydration mix, where I start with the combined starter / flour / salt / water at about 75% hydration and develop the gluten at that level, and then add in more water in a second round of kneading (up to 78-83%, depending on how it feels). It gives me a soft and extensible dough, which is lovely to work with (but a fun challenge to shape).
I like your idea of the pan in a pan to get the expansion going up instead of out. I personally prefer a "loaf" shape, so use a roaster instead of a dutch oven, and shape them as batards. The nice thing is that a regular loaf tin fits in to the roaster, too, if I want to make a smaller loaf and have it hold the shape - pretty much the same idea that you use, but a different shape.
I actually did a 100% whole wheat loaf this week - with a mix of soft white, hard red, red fife, durum, and spelt. I deliberately did a vigorous de-gassing when shaping (since we're using it as a sandwich loaf, and I really prefer to not wear my mustard) but it still ended up with great oven-spring and a light and airy crumb. It is not a ciabatta, by any means, but it isn't a brick, either!
Again - nice job on working through that recipe and getting such a great crumb and rise for 100% WW! Thanks so much for sharing (and leaving me grinning)!
Thanks for that and also for reminding me about Trevor Wilson's technique of an overnight autolyse which I had noted for possible future use and of course forgotten, as I do nowadays! I will attempt a mix of the two techniques for my next 100% wholewheat loaf.
As for sifting the flour I have no special equipment but we have a couple of sieves hanging up in the kitchen so I loaded them up with a couple of tablespoons each of whole wheat flour and shook them. One was hopeless and almost nothing passed through but the other seemed to extract most of the bran which when weighed was about 12% of the total weight of the flour. Not quite as good as Maurizio's 13% but certainly good enough to use.
Oh and the family say they still prefer my bricks but I suspect that it is just nostalgia or more likely a wind up!