100% Whole Wheat by PR's new method
I have been slowly absorbing Peter's Whole Grain Breads and reached the point where I had to try a recipe. I have been wanting a whole wheat bread my family would help me eat so I started with the first recipe in the book. I tried to diligently follow each detail carefully. It was easy to do, as Peter says it would be, once you get a hang of the process. The one significant change I made is instead of making a whole wheat starter from scratch, I used my regular Otis white starter which has a relatively mild taste and good vigor. The development of the dough progressed as expected, it was fun to make. Here is the crumb:
WW loaf
It looks really good to me, it is soft and has great mouth feel. But alas, I don't care for the combination of sweet wheat tastes and sourdough taste; the two are just not compatible on my tongue. I will eat it all, but it really needs a serious slathering of PB&J... oh, well, I guess there have been worse problems in my life.
Next time I will try it with the biga choice to see if is less sour, and after that try the 50/50 ww/white recipe which is closer to what i grew up on. I will confess that this 100% ww has the look and feel of lesser percentage ww. The courseness usually associated with 100% is gone, which testifies to how good the new method is. I will confess also that I am really taken by the book and will buy it soon, having to take this copy back to the library by Thursday.
That's my story,
Lee