White (golden) Wholemeal bread

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I've read here about White Wholemeal flour - and been confused by it, however I've recently obtained some, although the stuff I have is called "Golden Wholegrain". (Wholemeal and Wholegrain mean the same in the UK).

So what I gather is that it's the colour of the bran which is normally a reddish brown in most wheat, but some varieties have a whiter/golden coloured bran - and this is the white, or golden wholemeal in this case.

I've done a few trial bakes - sold a few loaves and it's gone down well - it won't be a regular of mine though as it's not an organic flour, however it was interesting. I applied my usual 100% wholemeal recipe to it which worked out well.

For a large tin loaf (or 2 small ones)

  • 530g wholemeal flour (100%)
  • 425g water (80%)
  • 1.5g dried yeast (0.3%)
  • 9g salt (1.7%)

Mix flour & water and leave for up to 2 hours (autolyze). I then use a stand mixer with a dough spiral (or my A200 when making 3+) to knead it at a low speed. Add the yeast, continue to knead for a moment more then add the salt and knead for 5 minutes. (all at low speed).

Turn out, leave for a few minutes, then shape into a boulle and leave to slowly ferment overnight.

In the morning, gently tip out, shape into a boulle, bench-rest for 5-10 minutes, then re-shape into a log and place in a tin to prove which should take about an hour or so in a warm kitchen. Do check after an hour and don't let it over-prove.

into a hot oven (250°C) for 12 minutes with some steam to help keep the crust soft as the loaf gets a final push, then down to 210°C for a further 23 minutes.

It's quite a soft crumb, but it holds together very well. The smell is very nice. The one in the picture was baked in my Rofco which produces a slightly darker crust than my fan ovens do - it's very reminiscent of the Scottish plain loaves I grew up on (the taste/smell of the crust that is)

-Gordon

I upped the hydration on my normal 100% WW loaves to 80% after some comments you'd made a while back. It certainly seems to have made a difference, and the comments I've had from customers have been positive, but it really needs the autoloyze before even thinking about kneading.

Cheers,

-Gordon

That's usually called white whole wheat flour here in North America. It is exactly the same as whole wheat (wholemeal) flour, but milled from a softer white wheat rather than hard red spring wheat. And the same cautions apply - check to make sure it is whole milled flour and not reconstituted (with bran and germ added back in after processing).

It looks like a very nice sandwich loaf with a nice moist crumb - yum!

Toast

Some strains of hard white wheat produce a golden colored flour. "Prairie Gold", marketed by Wheat Montana, is one such white whole wheat and more than a few TFL posters can attest to its quality. The link I've included leads to a site maintained by an association made up of farmers who grow hard white wheat. They're just up Hwy 7 in Atchison, KS, Amelia Earhart's hometown. The page does a far better job of informing bakers than I ever could so please enjoy it.

http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/whole-white-wheat-faq