The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

busy boy

yozzause's picture
yozzause

busy boy

 This last weekend i  did a little trip into the countryside to an area known as the North Eastern Wheat belt here in Western Australia. It was a very good  harvest this year exceeding 20 million tonnes. The purpose of my trip wasn't to admire all the wide open empty spaces but to do a bit of bread baking tuition, Its fairly remote 236 km inland from Perth. I drove up one afternoon stayed at a great old Hotel and had a full days baking and stayed that  2nd night travelling home the following morning. It was a great weekend and a lot of fun for both parties but respecting privacy i wont be  reporting the events but i do have some pictures that i took  of the Hotel which will be celebrating its centenary in 2025 and also the grain silos across the road with the rail loading facilities

Just as the sun sank slowly in the west

and across the road is the grain terminal   

Anyway upon my return to civilisation, the following morning i was off early to the Big Loaf Bakery where the production Manager Peter and i were going to Mill some of the Red Wheat which we were kindly given to have a play with. we chose the winter variety ACCROC as it seemed harder than the spring variety BEAUFORT. the bigger mill did a great job with 4 chutes giving us a flour at one end and  bran at the other with intermediates in the middle. we were impressed with the aroma and the colour both of the bran and the flour. we milled enough to give us a dough for 9 loaves for our trial.

the bran end of the milling chutes

the flour end of the mill

Hydrating the flour

the s/d culture has been added

out of the oven

at home cooled and sliced

Quite amazed at the colour of the crumb  the taste was very good and the bread felt nice in the mouth and not at all chewy in fact it seemed to breakdown quite easily without much chewing effort required! 

The dough was made entirely from the Red Wheat with only salt and the S/D culture added I will need to get back to Peter to confirm the exact composition of the flour that we used as it came from the Mill as i did have to leave and pick up a bus for my Nephews work shop. we didnt do any measurements to get an extraction rate but did get a good indication of its character and behavior. Looking forward to finding out what Peter and Lachie think when they get to taste their loaves.

Comments

Debra Wink's picture
Debra Wink

I'm amazed at the openness of the crumb :)

Benito's picture
Benito

Beautiful crumb Derek.

Benny

Ming's picture
Ming

Oh, that is a very nice crumb indeed for a 100% WW. I did a test run of a 100% wholegrain loaf (50% WW, 25% red fife, and 25% Kamut) recently and wow to my surprise it was so bitter I had to slow down the eating a bit to finish it off. Not sure if I will do a 100% wholegrain again anytime soon. Perhaps with Benny's famous sugar daddy levain it might balance out the bitterness, might try it again if I ever have another levain buildup (I threw away my SD starter recently). :)

happycat's picture
happycat

You can tangzhong or yudane the sifted bran separately then add back to the dough. Should help with bitterness.

I did a second batch of Regent Buns this w/e with fresh milled spelt. I tangzhonged all the bran in milk and you'd never know there was 25% whole grain in the buns.

yozzause's picture
yozzause

There doesn't appear to be any bitterness, in fact there seems to be a slight sweetness that creeps in as the delightful soft crumb dissolves on the tongue. But yes those additional  steps would certainly help should that become a problem.  Cant wait to go and have another bake and possibly a side by side with the Spring and winter varieties. Id also like to  do another loaf using my kenwood on its finest setting an putting through a couple of times. i have to say this is a whole lot of fun.  

Ming's picture
Ming

Oh, I didn't know that a tangzhong would address that bitterness problem, thanks for the tip about that. I have used up to 80% wholegrain before without noticing the bitterness but I was using a lot of Kamut though which is kind of sweet. I think the bitterness must be coming from the WW (not sure which variety it is from KA WW). It is not likely that I would bake with a 100% wholegrain very often even without the bitterness but it is certainly good to know how to address it. 

yozzause's picture
yozzause

Bitterness might also be coming from the age of the milled whole wheat, where as i was using freshly milled for this bake trying to establish the wheat's characteristics   good or bad  and so far all good

Ming's picture
Ming

Good point. The KA WW might be on the shelf who knows for months so it was definitely not fresh. The wholegrain Kamut and red fife I bought from Breadtopia were milled fresh, I did notice the difference working with fresh vs. old flour, now that you mention it. Thanks.