June 9, 2020 - 7:37am
Whole Wheat vs. Bread flour/All Purpose
If I used the exact same recipe and the same process at the same temperature, BUT replaced the bread flour (or AP) with whole wheat flour - how much faster would it ferment?
Let's say for example 100% flour, 65% water, 25% starter, 2% salt would take 4 h bulk fermentation when using normal bread or all purpose flour, how long would it take if I used 100% whole wheat flour? 2 hours? 2,5? 3?
Doesn't need to be exact, just rough timeframes. Maybe there is even a conversion rate?
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The reality is whole grain baking is not as simple as switching out the flour and proceeding as you would otherwise. It's not just the fermentation time you have to adjust for, it's the water (65% H2O is going to make one tough loaf with whole wheat), temperature, how much starter/levain you put in...basically I don't think you can expect to switch out your white flour for whole grain, but otherwise treat it as if it the same, and make as good a loaf as if it were white flour. If you're curious about whole grain baking, seek out recipes developed for whole grains instead of using whole grain flour in recipes meant for white flour. Or to blends of white and whole grain flour to get an idea for how whole wheat behaves.
I'm am currently testing with low-ish whole wheat percentages (10-30%), so far 15-20% yielded the best results. I know I have to adjust hydration, it's more fragile, shorter mixing times etc.
I was now wondering specifically about the fermentation times, what to expect. My most recent loaf was 32% whole wheat with about 67% hydration and it was done in about 3 hours (when using all purpose its around 4 h) plus 1,5 h instead of 2 h final proof.
Very nice, sweet-ish sour flavor, great to handle, though a bit dense (but to be expected, and very similar to commercial sourdough breads here in Germany).
So that's where my question came from, if there is maybe some approximate conversion rate. I can imagine a lot of things I will just learn by doing.
I just wanna have some whole wheat in my breads because other commercially available flours here are very low in nutrients (high extraction, good for pastry and yeasted breads, bad for sourdough bread).