Mebake's blog

Two 50% wholewheats i have baked from"BREAD", one is wild yeasted, and the other is commercial yeasted.

WHOLE WHEAT LEVAIN (50% wholewheat):

I baked this lovely light loaf on a stone under a pyrex bowl, but i failed to get the even color round the loaf (its tough when you have a gas oven).

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD (50% wholewheat):

This loaf was sweeter, than wholewheat levain, and somewhat lighter in texture. I managed to get an even browning on this one because i baked it on a stone in a poultry roaster with a lid, with a lava in a pan source of steam.

 The latter one is a keeper for me though, my family dont't appreciate the sourness of artisan breads. Oh well.

Khalid

This is a 50% Wholewheat Loaf, Which involves a BIGA (Preferment/sponge) around 30% of total Flour Weight.

I love the final taste of the bread, it was the best sandwich loaf i ever made so far! Soft, Airy, Light, Tastey, and Nutritious.

"Hey don't mind the background, my appartment is not bright enough"

My wife said: i could snack on toasted slices of this bread all day.

Mebake

This is a sourdough version of Peter Reinhart's 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf from his book: Whole grain breads. I spiked it by 2.25 Teaspoons of instant yeast.

The crust was soft due to the presence of Milk, and butter, but the crumb was light soft, and even textured.

I used only Waitrose Organic Strong bread flour with 13.9g of protein. I also baked this bread under a pyrex cover in a grill oven, 30 min. covered, and 15 minutes uncovered.

The taste, well, it was somewhat salty (I HAVE TO STOP USEING SEA SALT! i can't figure out how much is enough in a formula(in this bread it was somewhat salty coz i doubled the amount of salt, knowing that sea salt isn't as efficient as refined salt.) It had a faint acidic taste from the levain (50% of the total dough weight), but was pleasant overall.

I learned something very important here: Always increase hydration with PR's wholegrain breads recipes, from 70% to 75%, as peter apparently prefers tighter crumbed wholegrain breads.

Another thing: Never take shortcuts with wholegrains, as this will adversely effect the resulting flavor. I didn't prepare a soaker with a pinch of salt (spong), so no sweetness to there to counteract the excess salt or the sourdough acid.

Here is the bread:

Mebake

This is a late 50% Wholewheat loaf i made:

Happy Healthy Baking!

This is a Sandwitch bread i made (Not exactly Sandwich size) couple of days ago:

Recipe:

SOAKER:

500g Sifted Whole Wheat (high Extraction) Flour

350g Water

1/2 Tsp Sea Salt

BIGA :

500g All Purpose Flour

350g Water

1 Tsp Instant Yeast

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1) As usual de-chill the BIGA 2 hours prior to mixing into the SOAKER, add extra 1/Tsp of sea salt, and mix/ Knead for 5 minutes for 5 minutes, rest for 5 minutes and continue kneading for another 5 minutes until you acheive a successful windowpane.

2) Leave to ferment in an oiled bowl for 2 Hours until doubled.

3) Scrape into a floured bench, and cut into 2 (375g) Doughs.

4) Preshape into a Loaf, leave for 5 minutes and then shape into a loaf.

5) Grease your pans, and insert your loaves, seam side down.

6) Leave to ferment for 1 hour, and Pre-heat oven to 450F.

7) When ready, spritz your loaves with some water, and load them into your oven, with some steam(optional).\. Reduce Oven Temp. immediately to 370F.

8) Remove steam source after 15 minutes, and continue baking for 30 minutes .

9) Remove from Pan, and leave to cool on a Wire rack.

REGRETS:

1) Should have Added another 1/2 Tsp of Instant yeast to the final dough to boost the Final Rise.

2) Should have added more sea salt to the final dough. (1/2 Tsp is not nearly enough)

3) Should have increased the size of the loaf in the pan, as i loave a tall Loaf for toast.

Other than that, it was a good bread with soft and tender crumb, and medium crust.

This is a sourdough batard i baked using a TEFAL small grill oven that i found in my friend's house.

Recipe:

(BIGA):

65g Starter (85% Hydration)

50g "Sifted" white Whole wheat flour (25%)

50g Whole Barley Flour (25%)

50g Whole Spelt flour (25%)

50g All Purpose Flour (25%)

140g Water (70%)

After mixing and kneading for 5 minutes, rest and knead again after 5 minutes for another 5 minutes utill smooth and tacky, not sticky. Round, and store in a refrigerator for 24 hours and upto 3 days.

(SOAKER):

10g Fine sea salt

50g "Sifted" white Whole wheat flour (25%)

50g Whole Barley Flour (25%)

50g Whole Spelt flour (25%)

50g All Purpose Flour (25%)

140g Water (70%)

After mixing and kneading for 5 minutes, rest and knead again after 5 minutes for another 5 minutes utill smooth and tacky, not sticky. Round, and store at room temperature for 24 hours. If more, store in refrigerator for upto 3 days.

(MIXING):

I cut both BIGA and SOAKER into pieces and joined them together in a large bowl. As the BIGA dough is acidified from the levain, it held shape properly. I added 5 gram salt, and gently kneaded for 10 minutes until smooth, rounded into a ball and left to ferment.

(FERMENTATION):

Gentel stretch and fold in the bowl every 1/2 hour for 2 hours, followed by stretch and fold on a floured bench after another 1/2 hour.

(PRE-SHAPING, and SHAPING):

GEntly Spread the dough into a square (do not deflate). Preshape into a batard, leave for 5 minutes, and shape into a batard, and placing the dough seam side up in a Proofing basket for 45 minutes. Pre-heat the oven for 35 minutes with a stone, and River pebbles in an iron sheet as a steaming source.

(BAKING):

After 45 min. Invert the Dough on a peel and transfer the dough into the Oven, and pour hot water on the pebbles to create steam (mind your oven glass), reduce temperature from 500F to 450F.

Remove sheet containg pebbles after 15min. and continue to bake for another 30 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack, and cut after 2 hours.

Taste: I liked the tangy sour flavor of wholegrains. It made an excellent toast, with sliced emmental cheese as a topping. I could have had a fluffier more open crumb by using 10g commercial yeast in the final dough , but opted not to.

Will I Duplicate it another time? I may, but then i would like to include commercial yeast to boost it, as the starter was sluggish and more acidic due to only 1 refreshment from the fridge.

Mebake

This is the high extraction miche i made from Peter Reinhart's Whole grain breads.

For nearly a 100% wholewheat, it was surprisingly light. It benefited from a 3 days retardation in the dridge, talk about crazy schedule!

I havn't tasted it yet, but iam sure it should taste ok.

This is a batard i made last weekend:

Ingredients:

 - 400g freshly milled Hard White Wheat

 - 300g Water

 - 100g WholeWheat Sponge / levain / preferment (at 68% hydration)

 - 9g fine Sea Salt

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800 g Final Dough at 73% Hydration

Process:

1 - Flour ,Water, and salt mixed to form a dough (SOAKER), and left 8 Hours at room temperature.

2 - Preferment / levain was prepared 2 days before. (BIGA) and stored in the refrigerator after fermenting at room temperature for 8 hours.

3 - Day of Bake, BIGA and SOAKER where cut into pieces and mixed without tearing the dough until it passes windowpane.

4- Stretch and fold gently into an envelope shape, round into a ball every 1 hour for 3 hours.

5 - Preshape, and Shape intoa Batard and place in a rice-floured couche for 45 min, preheat the oven.

6 - Poke test, Slash the loaf at an angle, load into the oven with a peel on parchment, and covered by a preheated pyrex bowl.

7 - After 15 Minutes, the bowl is removed, the stone replace by a colder one and shifted upwards to pervent burning the bottom of the loaf.

8 - After 30 minutes, switch off the oven and let the loaf in to dry out for 10 min.

Result: Chewy crumb, not dense, and very slightly moist and slightly sour.

Recommendation: Yes, But the preferment was over ripen when mixed, which is evident from the lazy yeast activity, hence: tight crumb. Next time, i'll mix it when it is just ripe.

Khalid

I baked this boule last week end.

As always, i have learned few thing from this bake:

1 - Never Underestimate the significance of Weighing Salt.

2 - Handling Fermented dough as if a new born baby, during inverting onto the baking stone / surface

3- For my gas oven: always switch the top elements on after 10 minutes of covered baking, as the bottom gets charred way before the top is browned.

4 - Always give the natural yeats time to do their work, hasting them with commercial yeast will reduce flavor.

5 - Never forget to place a parchment, i had a near escape due to the proper gluten development.

Other than that, the loaf tasted good, soft and airy. It was 50% Whote bread flour, and 50% Hard White mixed with Red Winter. Overall hydration was 70%.

Though it may sound weird, but it is a mega Batard, more like Batard a la Miche.

Ingredients:

200g Whole Rye Flour

600g Whole Wheat Flour (Half of which is bread flour)

200g White Bread Flour

200g All Purp

2 tablespoons fine Sea salt

2 Tablespoons Thym

100g starter (85% hydr) 

1/2 teaspoon inst. yeast (in the final dough)

All in all, it is 75% hydration dough, with wholewheat flours as Soaker, and White flours as Biga.

However, baking was done under a new cover this time, a Poultry roaster, large enough to accomodate this large oblong shaped banetton dough.

Bottom line, i learned that Baking a successful WHolewheat Loaf has all to do with :

Proper Soaking, Proper Mixing, Proper Fermentation, skillful shaping, and tried Oven baking.

Practice is the keyword here, no magic.

Khalid