100% Whole Wheat Bread: BBA

The 41st bread in the BBA Challenge is 100% Whole Wheat Bread. Some of the other bakers in the challenge commented that this bread was not one of their favorites, but I still had high hopes for it because I really like to make whole wheat bread and I thought using freshly milled grains would make a difference.

The book states that the best way to evoke flavor in whole grain breads is to give the enzymes enough time to break out the sugars trapped in the starches. This can be done by using a large amount of pre-ferment, such as a poolish or soaker. This formula utilizes both types of pre-ferments so I thought certainly this combination would produce a good loaf of whole wheat bread.

 

So, I set out to make a loaf of 100% whole wheat bread.

 

Making the Soaker and Poolish

For the soaker, I used fresh coarsely-milled whole wheat flour from hard red spring wheat and mixed it with spring water. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature overnight until you’re ready to bake the bread.

 

For the poolish, I used freshly milled whole wheat bread flour milled from hard red spring wheat and mixed it with some yeast and water. 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours, until it bubbled.  Then put it in the refrigerator overnight.

 

Making the Dough

The next day, remove the poolish from the refrigerator 1 hour before you plan to bake the bread to take of the chill.

Stir together the dry ingredients. Add the poolish and the soaker, and the liquid ingredients and mix the dough until it forms a ball, adding more water or flour as needed. 

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with whole-wheat flour and knead the dough until it forms a firm, supple dough.  This will take about 10 to 15 minutes by hand.  The dough should be tacky not sticky.

Fermenting the Dough

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around in it to coat it with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Ferment at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Shaping the Loaves

Divide the dough into 2 pieces and shape them into sandwich loaves as shown. Flatten the dough with your hand and fold in the edges to make a rectangle about 5 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches long.

 

Roll up the dough one section at a time, pinching the crease with each rotation to strengthen the surface tension.

 

Pinch the final seam closed with the back of your hand and rock the loaf to even it out.

Keep the surface of the loaf even across the top. 

Place the loaf in a lightly oiled 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. The ends of the loaf should touch the ends of the pan to ensure an even rise.

 

Proofing the Loaves

Mist the tops with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for about 90 minutes, or until the dough nearly doubles in size and is cresting above the lip of the pans.

Baking the Loaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with the oven rack in the middle of the oven.  Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes.

 

Then rotate them 180 degrees for even baking.  Continue baking for 15 to 30 minutes longer. The finished bread should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom and be golden brown all around and firm on the sides as well as on the top and bottom.

When the loaves are finished baking, remove them immediately from the pans and cool on a rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving.  I brushed the loaves with melted butter, then let them cool.

Then I sliced the loaf and tried a piece with peanut butter because that’s one of my favorite taste tests.

I thought this bread was ok, but it’s not one of my favorites from the book. The bread seemed rather dry to me even with the soaker and the poolish. I used freshly milled grains so I thought it would improve the flavor and the texture, but it didn’t seem to make a difference.

I’ve been wowed by several of the other breads in the book so this was a bit of a let down.  However, I guess they can’t all be keepers. I don’t think I’ll be making this one again since there are other whole wheat bread recipes that I like a lot.

Hopefully, we’ll have better luck with the next bread: #42 Potato, Cheddar and Chive Torpedos.

 

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Classic White Bread: BBA

The 40th bread in the BBA Challenge is Classic White Bread. White Bread is made from wheat flour in which the bran and often the germ have been removed. It is known under many names, including pullman, milk dough, pain de mie (bread of the crumb), and plain ole white bread. 

“There is no excuse for putting up with bad bread, particularly when a loaf prepared by hand and baked in one’s own oven is so little trouble and is likely to be so much better than most commercial products on the market.”  James Beard

This version is an enriched bread. It is a basic white bread that is good for sandwich bread, dinner rolls and buns.

White Bread (Variation 3) made with an overnight Sponge

You can view the recipe here.

Making the Sponge

To make the sponge, mix together the flour and yeast in a 4-quart bowl. Stir in the milk until all the flour is hydrated.

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the sponge becomes aerated and frothy and swells noticeably.

Making the Dough

To make the dough, add the flour, salt, and sugar to the sponge.  Then add the egg yolk and butter or other fat. Mix with a large metal spoon or using a mixer until all of the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball.  I used my Danish dough whisk.

Kneading the Dough

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter.  Knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes and add extra flour if necessary to create a soft, supple, and tacky not sticky dough.

 

Fermenting the Dough

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap.  Ferment the dough at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into two pieces.

Shape the dough into boules.  Mist the boules lightly with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for about 20 minutes.

Then shape the boules into loaves as show below:

Flatten the dough with your hand and fold in the edges to make a rectangle about 5 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches long.

Roll up the dough one section at a time, pinching the crease with each rotation to strengthen the surface tension.

 

   

Pinch the final seam closed with the back of your hand and rock the loaf to even it out.

Keep the surface of the loaf even across the top.  Place the loaf in a lightly oiled loaf pan. The ends of the loaf should touch the ends of the pan to ensure an even rise.

 

Proofing the Loaves

Lightly oil two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans and place the loaves in them.

Mist the tops of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it nearly doubles in size.

 

Baking the Loaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Brush the loaves with egg wash if desired and score down the center.  I brushed the loaves with egg wash but opted not to make the slash down the center.

Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating them 180 degrees halfway through for even baking, if necessary.  I usually just do this to ensure it bakes evenly.

The tops should be golden brown and the sides, when removed form the pan, should also be golden.  The loaves should sound hollow when thumped.

 

 

When the loaves are finished baking, remove them immediately from the pans and cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving.

I thought this bread tasted good with peanut butter & jelly and as a grilled cheese sandwich.  However, I like the light wheat bread better. I prefer a little more flavor and at least some whole wheat in my sandwich breads.  My youngest son really liked it.  He ate most of the first loaf. 

I sliced the other loaf, placed it in a plastic bread bag, and froze it for future use. Now it looks like a loaf from the store.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

I enjoyed this bread even though it is pretty basic. Will I make this one again?  Possibly, but probably not because there are too many other breads that I loved.  It’s still pretty good for a basic white loaf.

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Whole Wheat Bread. (page 270 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Vienna Bread: BBA

I had high hopes for the 39th bread in the BBA Challenge.  Most of the other bakers had good things to say about it.  Plus, the Dutch Crunch topping, made with a mixture of rice flour, a little bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and water sounded so good.  So, I set out to make the Vienna Bread.

I began the process of making this bread about 6 days before I planned to bake the bread. I wasn’t able to find diastatic barley malt powder locally and I didn’t want to order it online, so I decided to sprout some wheat grains and make my own malt powder. 

Making Diastatic Malt Powder using Sprouted Wheat Grains

It took about 3 days for the wheat to sprout, then another day to dry the sprouted grains so I could grind them in my bread mill without clogging it up. 

If you’re interested in learning how to sprout wheat grains, refer to my post on sprouted wheat bread.

Just for kicks, here is a comparison of the dried sprouted grains versus regular grains that haven’t been sprouted. The dried sprouted wheat is on the left.

After I dried the sprouted grains, I ground them in my bread mill.  Here is the freshly ground diastatic malt powder.

Making the Pre Ferment

Now, it was time to make the Pâte Fermentée, but there was a slight problem.  The formula for the Pâte Fermentée makes 18 ounces and this bread only uses 13 ounces. So right off the bat, this bread was making me work. 

In order to get the right percentages, I had to scale the amounts.  Fortunately, Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes provided an easy breakdown of how to use baker’s math to do this step.  Thanks Phyl!

So, I made the Pâte Fermentée, let it rest for 2 hours, then put it in the refrigerator overnight. For a step-by-step breakdown of how to make Pâte Fermentée, check out my post on French Baguettes.

The next day, I took the Pâte Fermentée out of the refrigerator, cut it into pieces, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour to take off the chill.

Making the Dough

Stir together the dry ingredients. Add the Pâte Fermentée pieces and the liquid ingredients.

Then stir everything with a Danish dough whisk (or your mixer if you must) until the dough comes together to form a ball.

 

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and knead it for about 10 minutes to make a firm but supple dough.  It should be slightly tacky but not sticky.  Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around to coat it with oil. 

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 hours.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 pieces.

 

Shape the pieces, into boules.  Spray them with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap and let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Shape the pieces into batards, then transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with semolina or corn meal.

For step-by-step instructions on shaping batards, refer to the Tuscan Bread post.

Proofing the Loaves

Brush the Dutch Crunch on the loaves.  Brushing the crunch topping on before proofing is supposed to provide greater separation and mottling; whereas if you brush it on right before baking, the coating is more even.

Mist the dough lightly, cover with plastic wrap, then let the batards proof at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until about 1 3/4 their original size.

 

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place.   Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Right before baking the loaves, mist the loaves with water and dust lightly with bread flour by topping some flour through a sieve.

I was so proud of myself when I did this part because I thought it looked really cool with the dusted flour.  Little did I realize that I had just made a mistake.  More about that later…

Moving right along… I scored the loaves down the center.

Then put them in the oven to bake. I rotated the loaves about halfway through for even baking.

I let them continue baking until they reached a medium brown color. About 30 minutes total baking time.

Then I transferred the loaves to a cooling rack to cool for about an hour before I got to taste them.

Here are the finished loaves.  I was so proud of the way they looked, I just couldn’t wait to cut a slice and taste it. 

So, I sliced a loaf and took a bite!

Boy was I ever disappointed!  I couldn’t taste anything but flour.  My taste tester tried it and said it tasted dusty.  I thought it was the Dutch Crunch Topping that we didn’t like and I was wishing I had made one without it so we could compare, but I finally realized it was the flour I had dusted on the loaves just before baking them. Remember, I said I made a mistake.  Well, I shouldn’t have dusted the flour since I was using the Dutch Crunch.  Oh well!  That’s what I get for trying to do too many things at once.  I’m sure you never do that, right?

I had another slice warm with butter and it tasted better, but I just really wasn’t thrilled with it. My taste tester liked the bread and said I was being too hard on it. Since he liked it, I sent the rest of the loaf home with him and froze the other one.

 

It’s a beautiful bread and I worked really hard on it so I’m sending it over to be YeastSpotted.  Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

I do plan on make the Vienna Bread again sometime because I don’t think I gave it a fair shot. Next time, I’ll make one loaf with and one without the Dutch Crunch and reduce the amount of Dutch Crunch made.  As some of the other bakers have mentioned, it makes more than you need for these loaves.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy