Wholehweat Miche, Take 2

Today I baked a wholewheat Miche. The formula was as follows:

50% hand-bolted hard white whole-wheat flour, 

25% Hard Red Whole Wheat

15% Soft White Whole-Wheat (next time I will use 15% Hard Red and 25% Soft White)

10% AP Flour (I got lazy because I didn't want to mill more flour on my mill!)

105% Water 

16% Fresh Firm Levain (WW with 60% hydration, 50% inoculant) - DDT 27C

2.25% salt

Autolyze 1.5 hour, holding back 5% water.

DDT 24C. Ferment for one hour at room temperature. Retard dough in bulk @7-8C for, in my case, 12 hours. It could have gone to 15 maybe. 17 if I drop the levain to 13 or 14%.

Divide. Preshape 2 hours. Ferment the final dough at 25-26C for 2 to 3 hours (I retarded again for 5 hours.)

Score. Bake at 450F with steam first 20 minutes, then vented at 420 for another 40 minutes. This bread requires a full bake.

I am pleased with the results, although not totally. Crumb could have been a bit more open, and flavor a bit sweeter and more robust. Next time I will autolyze for about 4 hours and use more soft wheat. All flour except the hard red will be hand bolted. Wish my wholewheats were like PiPs! Maybe his softer wheats help him out some?

-Walker

PS This bread convinced me that wholewheat bread could be quite enjoyable! I could probably do a good job with fully unsifted WW, too. Or use the bran to make "toadies" and add those in after 1 hour of bulk as a soaker!