Fresh milled wheat bread not rising well
I am new here, but i have a very frustrating problem. I have been making bread for prolly 30 yrs and decided to buy a mill so i could keep the nutrients in the wheat. A stone mill and that didn’t grind the wheat small enough and I thought that was the problem. So i bought a Windermill like my friend had. I use half hard red wheat and half hard white wheat. Got the berries from a very reputable company. Good fresh SAF yeast and even vital wheat gluten. My bread has a good flavor, but does not raise like the store bought flour does even in the bowl. I have used my same recipe and new ones. Some frome the Sue Becker “Home Ground Flour Book”. Still my bread is embarressingly flat! We eat a lot of toast with it. :)
My husband, feeling sorry for me, ordered me a Bosh mixer, thinking it needed to be a heavier duty mixer. Still the same results.
Love to have some answers, tired of looking like I can’t make bread!!!
but are you using any all purpose flour in your recipe or are you using 100% home Milled grain? All whole grain loaves by nature tend to be heavy and not rise much. It has a lot to do with the bran cutting gluten strands.
A more detailed write up on your recipe and method would also be helpful in determining what is going on.
Would it help to sift the flour from the mill before using it? I think I read that Dab does that and then puts the bran into the starter to soften it a bit before using it.
Recipe I have been using out of the Becker book: 2C hot water, 1/2 c oil, 1/2 honey, 2t salt, 1 egg, 1t vital wheat gluten, 5-51/2C fresh milled hard wheat, 4 t quick rising yeast.
recipe that isn't mentioned. What are you dong with those ingredients is the problem so tell us what you are doing and maybe the problem will be spootted by the eagle eyes here?
but I want to assure you that you can make nice bread from freshly milled flour. Here are some of my recent bakes with freshly milled flour:
80% whole spelt SD
80% wheat walnut SD
100% whole wheat 50% sprouted SD
Please don't give up on freshly milled flour :)
sifting whole wheat is a very helpful step- the sifted flour is called boltedflour.
i sift out about 1/6 of ground flour as the bran and some wheat germ.
i soak this in equal amount of water for 6-8 hours.then I start the recipe.
it made a big improvement in the softness and responsiveness of the dough.
Some things to try. Let your freshly milled flour spend some time alone with whatever liquid you're using in the recipe. A 45minute to one-hour-long autolyze will make a big difference. Up the hydration, try for 70%. You don't have to select commercial bread for a model. I much prefer a substantial bread full of flavor and nutrition to the 'synthetic' product that sits on store shelves. Hang in there. If it was easy everybody would do it. When it 'clicks' for you you'll be amazed how easy it is and wonder why everybody isn't doing it.
so u r saying to grind the flour then add the warm water to the flour, not the yeast and let sit for an hour. Then do I just pour all the other ingredients in the bowl and mix?
thanks for your feed back
Lynn
Lynn, I have been baking with 100% home milled wheat for several years now. First, it will not rise like AP or bread four, though it will definitely rise and can have a fairly open crumb. The main challenge, for me, is timing. With AP flour, the window for proofing it's pretty wide, for 100 percent whole wheat, just a tiny bit early and it will be under proofed, and a few minutes late, and it will be overproofed. I suggest you stick with a very basic recipe, and use straight sided container for bulk ferment, and watch BF and final proof very closely and it will take you several tries, but you should get some great results. If you have the time and the patience, it would be great to make a large batch, BF, then divide into several loaves, and then final proof, then bake the first when you think it is underproofed, bake the best one 20 minutes later, then the third 20 minutes later to get a feel for how the dough proofs. The good news is that the taste is so much better than store bought flour.
That's what I'm saying. Because my Mockmill attaches to my KA mixer I mill my wheat directly into the mixer bowl. I blend into the flour 1/4 tsp of Ascorbic Acid (optional - but it does seem to help gluten development). Using the paddle I mix in the warmed water, cover the bowl and walk away for at least 45 minutes - an hour is better. That's it; flour, water, the AsA if you're going to use it and then a healthy dose of time for the flour to fully hydrate. When I come back I switch out the paddle for the dough hook and begin adding in the rest of my ingredients in this order, honey or sorghum molasses, yeast and finally salt and then mix with the hook until a good dough is formed. When everything is integrated I then knead the dough for 6-8 minutes. After that I give the dough about 10 minutes to rest. When I begin the final knead I add ghee (my alternative to oil or butter) and knead again for 4-6 minutes. I let the dough bench ferment in the bowl covered. When it's just a little less than doubled I'll take it out and shape it, put it in the pan and let it proof covered. That's the drill. I like baking the pan loaf from a cold start at 350f for 45-47 minutes.
Hi,
I always mill berries for whole grain baking and pasta. A significant improvement comes by grinding twice and then sifting out the larger particles. I try to remove 10-13%. The removed bran and some germ are then soaked in an equal weight of water (100% hydration) for at least 6 hrs.
The larger portion of flour (87-90%) is called bolted flour.
When you assemble a bread dough (after 6 hrs) add the soaked bran to the remaining water of main dough. It will loosen the bran so that it is evenly spread throughout the dough.
Use the bolted flour almost like a white flour. Adjust the water to account for water used to do the 6hr soak and more water needed for whole grain flour .
Add water in small amounts as you knead through wetted hands.
For 100% ww pasta, use about 59-60% water but presoak the sifted bran first.
This way, you won’t lose any of that good fiber and germ gained through having whole wheat to begin with.
ok, not sure who asked, but they wanted to know exactly what I do in making bread. I do know one thing is there is a hundred different ways to put the ingredients together and everyone swears by their method. That being said, I preheat the oven to 250, put hot water (100 degrees or so) in a bowl, sprinkle yeast over it, pour oil along the side, put honey on top.
2) grind wheat while yeast is bubbling
3) add 1/2 the flour, mix in for 10 mins
4) put in pans and put in oven, turn oven off, turn on oven light
5) let raise 30mins
6) turn oven on to 350 and baked 35”
Ingredients:
1.5 TB quick rise yeast
23/4 c hot water
1/3 c oil
1/3 honey
1TB salt
6c hard red wheat and hard white wheat 1/2 and 1/2
I think that about does it
Lynn
oops, I just realized I forgot to add the rest of the flour and THEN mix for 10 minutes?
I’m also new to home milled flour but not to bread, and having the same problem. I found the recipe below which produces wonderful, light sandwich type whole wheat bread. Some things to note:
-the recipe already calls for home milled flour, so no guesswork or adjustments are needed
-only one rise in the pan you bake in; reality convenient & a surprisingly nice crumb
-longer kneading than I normally do; maybe that’s the secret. I used my bread machine for the kneading part.
-she makes a sponge with part of the flour & lets it sit a bit. Maybe that’s the other secret.
-I didn’t have gluten available so added an egg instead. It worked fine but I now need to buy some gluten for the future.
I’m going to try this with manual kneading to see what results I get but so far I’m very pleased. HTH
Denise
Here's the link: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/small-batch-whole-wheat-bread/