WetLeather Recipe Database - food for bikers

Name:	Whole Wheat Bread (Unsuccessful)	Contributor:	Matt "Cyber" Schreiner
Description:	100% whole wheat bread trials and travails	Posted:	2001-12-30
Key words:	bread	Category:	Other
ID:	582	Updated:	2006-04-11 22:15:56
Ingredients:	Loaf #1: 1-1/8 c of water 3 c whole wheat flour 1-1/2 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp gluten 1-1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp dry yeast Loaf #2: 1-1/8 c of water 3 c whole wheat flour 1-1/2 Tbsp sugar 1 Tbsp gluten 1-1/2 tsp salt 2 tsp dry yeast
Preparation:	Loaf #1: Turned out an extreme hockey puck, also used butter. Loaf #2: Rose a bit better, cooked in the over instead of breadmaker (large Oster) and just made the dough in the maker on the dough setting. Only used 1 Tbs gluten and no butter as per the origional recipie I found online but seems to not have helped. This recipe rose a bit better, but that could also be attributed to my doing it by hand instead of in the machine anyway... dunno. So, anybody got any that'll work or am I gonna be forced to stick with a mix of 2 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat like I've always done?
Notes:	So Jodi is on YAD (Yet Another Diet) and wants me to bake her 100% whole wheat bread. No white flour allowed. So I've tried two loaves so far today that while they are not hockey pucks, just are not rising nearly as much as I'd like. Yes, I'm using gluten as well. :( She also would like it to be non-fat. Fat (near as I know) is for flavor, texture, and having it last longer, but should not contribute to rising other than moisture far as I can see. Also I'd rather use white sugar instead of molasses and/or brown sugar but if there is one recipie that works and none others that do I'll start from that and try to adapt it back to white sugar. So, anybody got any helpful ideas? So, anybody got any that'll work or am I gonna be forced to stick with a mix of 2 cups white flour and 1 cup whole wheat like I've always done? Diana Lee Tracy replied: Hi there, Having been through the 60's and 70's passion for "whole foods", I've approached this problem before (Whole wheat piecrust that my neighbors made one time ... sorta like trying to eat corrugated paper!) Here are a few solutions: 1. Grind your own out of high quality winter wheat. Fresh REEEEEly helps, plus yours won't have so much chaff in it. Make sure it is high protein (like winter red wheat.) 2. Try "batter bread' and mix the hell out of it. It's hard to develop gluten (as you've probably noticed). Also, the flour tends to be coarser, and absorbs water more slowly, so it is very easy to end up with dry, saw dusty bread, simply by starting with too little water. 3. A friend of Bill's (Betty and Eric .... can't remember their last name but they live in pullman) own a mill that produces flour by the "Unifine" process. It tends to be finer than the usual whole wheat, and has been the one flour that behaves most like white flour. 4. Add some lecithin (1 tsp/loaf.) This helps the dough emulse. Add non-fat dry milk pwdr (1/4 cup per loaf). This helps condition the dough, too. Use honey for sweetener (it is hgyroscopic, and will help the loaf stay moist after out of the oven.) (So does the NFDM.) 5. Fat issues: Find some fruit paste (look maybe under fat substitutes ..... usually made of apricots/dates or whatever didn't make the dried fruit cut. I made some non fat whole wheat breads in a taste test at my lab using this type of product. It helps mouth feel, and also helps preserve moisture ..... I did need to use a bit of extra H20.) And remember that a TBSP of veggie oil is plenty for a whole loaf of bread .... broken down into slices, it amounts to about 10 calories per slice, and it sure helps the quality, especially of wheat bread. 6. Find a copy of the Tassajara (Tassahara?) Bread Book. It is truly great for dealing with difficult and unusual ingredients. 7. Try to persuade her that unbleached is more virtuous (it is!) than bleached white flour, and throw in just enough (about 1/4 of flour volume) to make it easier. 8. Use a sourdough starter; it changes the flour chemically and makes it "gooier (scientific term)", and easier to work.
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