Loaf 59 – 100% Whole Wheat, No Pics
Okay, let’s get this out of the way right up front:
I screwed up.
I got behind on my bread postings and forgot that I hadn’t dumped the images of loaves 59 to 62 off my camera. Then I went off on a short trip and reformatted the card to start fresh. Damn. No pictures for the next four loaves.
This loaf was my first attempt at making a 100% whole wheat loaf. I used Reinhart’s recipe from “Artisan Breads Every Day.” Whole wheat doesn’t behave the same as all purpose flour: it absorbs more water, and the rougher bran hinders the gluten from forming long strings. The recipe uses more water (78% hydration) than other regular loaves, and has oil and brown sugar added. The sugar (or honey if you want) helps with the flavor, I assume the oil helps the gluten form but I’m not sure about that.
The dough was mixed the night before and rose well overnight in the fridge. (I wish I could show you that!) Even with 78% hydration it made a much denser and dryer dough than I’m used to working with. Shaping was a challenge – the dough didn’t like to stick to itself as I was folding it upon itself to shape the loaves into batards.
I proofed them top down on a couche and they both split along the top as they rose. When I prepped them for baking I turned one over and scored the top and left the other one upside down with the split along the top to see if that would work the same as a scored line.
The properly prepared loaf came out pretty well, the experimental shape opened up in the oven and became flat and distorted. I don’t need to try that trick again.
The crumb was denser than white wheat based breads and a bit heavy, but the flavor was nice, especially when toasted.
I’m going to try this one again soon, and add a little more brown sugar to sweeten it up a bit.