May 13, 2015 - 10:33am
Whole Wheat Hydration
I own a bakery that produces one product and our customers are requesting whole wheat. I tried just swapping out whole wheat flour for white, but it came out pretty dry and didn't rise very much.
What's the typical hydration ratio for whole wheat flour as apposed to white?
Do I need to add more yeast?
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that's a tough call, Dan. For the sake of discussion, I'll assume it is a lean bread. In that case, you'll probably want to adjust the hydration upward by 5-10% from the hydration of your white bread. Then you might want to do some further fiddling with it to get exactly what you want. Just how much will depend on the amount of whole wheat in the product.
Let's say you are making a lean white bread now with a hydration of 65% in baker's percentage. To get a similar mouthfeel, you might want try a couple of loaves at 70% hydration and another couple of loaves at 75% hydration. That will give you a baseline for determining whether you want more or less water in the dough. Then you can adjust the hydration up or down to suit your customers' tastes.
The other thing to utilize, if you aren't already, is an autolyse of 30-60 minutes. This will allow the bran an opportunity to absorb water and soften.
Finally, whole wheat doughs benefit from extended mixing. It gives an improved loft and tenderness in the finished breads. If you presently mix for 10 minutes, try a 20 minute mix to see how it changes the product. Again, you can go longer or shorter, depending on the outcome you want.
Whole grain breads tend to be more dense and firmer than their all white counterparts, no matter how they are handled. With the adjustments noted above, you can nudge them closer to a white bread texture.
Paul
And whole grains really benefit from an autolyse.
But the hydration depends on individual taste.
and is modified from a Hamelman recipe by replacing honey with molasses. It's 50% WW. This recipe uses a preferment for added flavor. I'll echo Paul's comment on the texture of whole wheat breads vs their white counterparts.
Whole Wheat, sometimes with a little rye added in for more flavour. I autolyse for 2hrs at around 68 - 70F . My hydration is always at 80 - 85%. It gives me very good volume when i hit the oven floor and WW just needs more water, its the answer to a lighter loaf