100% Wholemeal Bread

I have never liked white bread and I find it amazing that the majority of bread sold in the UK is plastic wrapped white sliced bread. I find it bland and boring, both in taste and texture. I prefer wholemeal bread but even these are pretty bland when bought as a plastic wrapped loaf from the supermarket. Unfortunately all my attempts at making 100% wholemeal bread have resulted in bricks. As I have developed my bread making skills I have increased the proportion of wholemeal flour from 50% to about 70 or 80% now (the rest being strong white bread flour). I am pleased to say that I have finally managed to make a very good 100% wholemeal loaf with a nice soft crumb that isn't at all heavy.

Excellent oven spring

I have to admit that the fantastic oven spring in the photo is actually only on one side making the loaf slightly lopsided. However the taste and texture are great and it certainly isn't heavy. Next time I will slash the top with a razor blade before baking for a more even rise in the oven.
So what is the secret? As reported on my previous post I am now using a Kenwood Chef stand mixer for kneading and am being very careful not to overproof.

700g Waitrose Organic Stoneground Strong Wholemeal Bread Flour
5g Doves Farm Quick Yeast
11g light brown sugar
10g sea salt (coarse but ground in a pestle and mortar)
11g unsalted butter
455g water (temperature calculated for a DDT of 27C)

With a Desired Dough Temperature (DDT) of 27C I subtracted 3C for the heat generated by the mixer to get 24C. With a room temperature of 21C this gave a water temperature of 27C (21 + 27 = 2 * 24).
I first used the K beater to mix the dry ingredients and then used it to rub in the butter. Then I switched to the dough hook and slowly added the warm water. Once the dough was formed into a ball on the hook I scraped the dough off the hook and removed the bowl from the mixer. I put it into a large plastic bag for about 20 minutes to autolyse. Strictly speaking this should be done before adding the yeast and salt but I just combine everything for ease.
The next step is to return the bowl to the mixer and knead with the dough hook for 10 minutes at slow speed. Every now and again I increased the speed a bit for a few seconds or stopped the mixer and used a spatula to scrape the dough from the hook. I'm not sure this is necessary but it isn't always obvious that any kneading is actually happening.
After kneading I put the dough into an oiled plastic food storage box, put on the lid and put it into the fridge until the next evening (about 20 hours).
I took the box out of the fridge for about an hour and then shaped it for a greased and floured large 2lb loaf tin, covered with a shower cap and left it to rise.

This is after about 40 minutes of final proof

Just before going in the oven

After about 2 or 3 hours it was ready for the oven. I sprayed the top of the loaf with water and sprinkled with rye flour.

I preheated the oven to 260C (non fan setting) but turned it down to 240C as soon as the loaf went in. After 10 minutes I lowered the oven to 220C for another 25 minutes.

Fresh from the oven showing the nice oven spring

Kenwood Chef

When I started this blog I intended contributing to it on a regular basis. Recently I have not written much although I have been very busy baking bread, with various experiments. I hope to update more frequently.

A few weeks ago I bought an old Kenwood Chef A701A off eBay and it has made a big difference to my bread baking.

According to Kenwood Chef Restore this would have been manufactured between 1962 and 1976 so it is at least 35 years old. It has all the scratches and paintwork chips that are to be expected on an appliance of this age but it has the original glass bowl and 3 tools (K beater, whisk and dough hook). The motor sounds and feels as powerful as ever. These UK made machines certainly have a reputation for their quality unlike the modern Chinese made versions. There were no instructions but I downloaded these from Kenwood Chef Restore for 50p.
The main purpose for the machine is for kneading dough. I use the K beater if there is any fat or butter to rub in but once this is done I switch to the dough hook. On minimum speed I slowly add the liquid until the dough has formed into one lump (perhaps stopping and using a spatula to ensure all the flour is combined) and then I scrape the dough off the hook and remove the bowl putting it into a large plastic bag for between 10 and 20 minutes. This autolyse step is to ensure all the liquid is absorbed by the flour and to let the enzymes in the flour start work to help make the kneading as effective as possible. I could, of course, do exactly the same if hand kneading and I will probably do so as an experiment in the future to see if the Chef really has made a big difference. I then put the bowl back in the mixer with the dough hook and knead on speed 1 for 10 minutes. Occasionally I have increased the speed to 2 for a few seconds and I have also usually stopped the machine, lifted the hook and used a spatula to redistribute the dough. It's not always obvious that anything is happening as the dough ball appears to be just stuck to the hook but I am pretty sure that the dough is actually touching the bowl and so is being stretched and hence properly kneaded.
So what improvements have I seen? The main one is the enormous improvement in oven spring that I am now getting even on wholemeal loaves. I have to admit that I have made a number of changes to my method at the same time as starting to use the Kenwood Chef so these may also be very important. The main one is being very careful to not let the dough over prove during the final rise. In my next entry I will fully describe my latest recipe and method.
As the Chef was very old its feet had squashed over the years to end up very flat. While kneading, the Chef would walk around the worktop and I wouldn't dare leave the kitchen or even turn my back in case it walked on to the floor. I have now bought a genuine replacement set of 5 feet off eBay and now the mixer does not move very much while kneading. The feet are slightly tricky to remove - having worked out the old rubber there is a pin to remove. This has to pulled and twisted out. The new foot is pushed in and then the pin has to be replaced. I just pushed it in as far as I could with a screwdriver - this seems to have worked. This was £4.50 very well spent.

Gilchester Success

I've previously tried Gilchester wholemeal flour but have been disappointed. This time I made 12 rolls:

500g Gilchester Organics 100% whole wheat strong flour
300g Marriage's Organic Strong white flour
200g Marriage's Organic Strong stoneground wholemeal flour
2g Dove's Farm Quick Yeast
14g table salt
16g unsalted butter
16g soft brown sugar
635g warm water

The water was heated in the microwave for 1 minute at 1000W taking it to about 30C. This was all mixed and then kneaded for about 5 minutes. Then into a plastic container, covered and left in the kitchen at room temperature overnight - this is why so little yeast is needed. The dough more than doubled in size in this time. The next morning I divided the dough into 12 rolls, put on greased and floured baking sheets and left to prove at 30C for one and a half hours. In this time they rose and started touching one another. Then baked for 15 minutes at 220C (fan).

The result has been a success with nicely shaped rolls. Mixing the Gilchester flour with some stronger flour has worked nicely.

British Flour

Ideally I'd like to make bread with flour that's 100% organic stoneground wholemeal and British. There are a number of small mills producing flour that fits the bill but when I tried Gilchester Organics I didn't have much success. I've become more experienced since then and I have now tried a more local flour - Sunflours from near Ripon in North Yorkshire. I've tried the organic stoneground wholemeal - this isn't described as strong but on the packet it does says it is suitable for bread making. It gives the protein as 12g which is the same as Gilchester but lower than other strong wholemeal flours. To give it a good chance I made a loaf with 50% white flour.

350g Sunflours organic stoneground wholemeal flour
350g Marriages organic strong white flour
3g dried yeast
10g salt
11g butter
11g brown sugar
440g water (at about 30C)

I mixed the ingredients, kneaded for 10 minutes and put the dough in a 10 litre plastic box with lid. I left this at room temperature until the following evening (about 20 hours). I then tipped it out onto a floured worktop, pressed it down into a rectangle and rolled it up tightly to go in my large 2lb loaf tin. Covered with oiled cling film it went into the oven at 30C for 2 hours to prove. It crested the top of the tin so I took it out of the oven which I then set to its highest setting of 300C top and bottom heat (without fan). Once it was up to temperature (I check this with an oven thermometer now as I don't think the oven is fully hot when it says it is) I sprayed the top of the loaf with water and sprinkled with rye flour. Into the oven and the temperature down to 240C. It was in for a total of 30 minutes with the last 5 or 10 out of the tin.

This gave a nice amount of oven spring which I wasn't expecting - it seems this only happens when I'm not trying. I think the really hot oven helps this - trying to introduce steam seems to be a waste of time.

After the loaf had cooled I tried a slice - I was very impressed. Lovely flavour and nice texture. The only other flour that has tasted this good is the Marriages organic wholemeal although I need to do a comparison with the Waitrose organic using the exact same recipe. Despite the high white content the taste was superb.

So, a British flour that has worked well for me. The real test will be if I replace the Marriages white with the Sunflour white and if I increase the percentage of wholemeal. I shall also try the Gilchester again as I think the overnight bulk fermentation helps develop the gluten. In fact, I suspect there is no need to knead so much. As always there are lots of things to try.

More experimentation

Firstly, I'm pleased to say that the loaf I baked in the previous post didn't have any flying crust. The crust did shrink a little but it was still attached to the crumb and nice and soft, just not very even.

Over the last couple of weeks since my last post I have continued to bake bread trying out different ideas. I have managed some success and one failure. Three ideas I have been trying are to use potato water (that's just water used to boil potatoes), proving with less yeast at room temperature instead of the fridge and kneading in a different way. This is the use of three very short kneads over half an hour instead of a continuous 10 minute knead. It's the technique championed by Dan Lepard and used in his sour cream sandwich loaf (see my earlier post):

• After mixing the dough in the bowl, cover and leave for 10 minutes.
• Turn the dough out on to an oiled work surface and knead for 10 seconds. I think in practice I do it for longer.
• Cover and leave for 10 minutes.
• Knead for another 10s, cover and leave for 10 minutes.
• Do one more knead. So that's three kneads over 30 minutes.
• Clean out the bowl and put the dough back in and cover. (I use oiled clingfilm but you can also use a plastic bag or a floured cloth).
• Leave for at least an hour. I usually leave overnight or till the next evening (about 20 hours).

The failure was a 100% wholemeal brick. I used potato water and half the flour to make a sponge which was left for about 24 hours. I then added the flour and salt and left it for another 20 hours before shaping for the tin. It didn't rise in the tin and didn't spring in the oven. Although a nice taste it is just too heavy and so it will be blitzed in the food processor and given to the birds. I didn't add any sugar and I suspect the yeast ran out of food over the very long proving time. I thought the potato water would provide food but that's starch and not sugar.

The great success was 100% white bread. For the liquid I mixed a small amount of fat-free Greek yogurt (just what was left in the pot) and potato water and then made it up to the full amount with full-fat milk. I made two large loaves with 1200g flour and 720g liquid - about 500g of this was the potato water. I used about 4g of dry yeast and kneaded as described above. I left it overnight. Over this period I had to knock the dough down in the bowl a couple of times - the milk probably provided enough sugar for the yeast. I divided the dough in two and shaped each piece just by flattening it and then tightly rolling. I cooked the loaves for about 30 minutes at 200C. One loaf had risen by more than the other and it also sprang up in the oven quite well. So high temperatures and steam don't seem to be necessary for oven spring.

Last night's bread was for two large loaves as follows:

• 900g wholemeal bread flour
• 500g white bread flour
• 930g liquid (about half and half potato water and tap water)
• 15g salt
• 20g light brown sugar
• 4g yeast

Three quick kneads and in the bowl at room temperature until the next evening. The dough rose very well and had to be knocked down several times. Divided into two tins and left to prove. Baked at 200C for 35 minutes with the last 5 out of the tin. Reasonably successful but I would change a few things:

• Less liquid. The dough was a bit slack and so when it rose in the tin it spilled down the side instead of going up. This is a similar amount of liquid I have used before so perhaps the potato water affects this.
• More salt. I decreased the salt but probably by too much as it tastes a bit bland. Probably should have used 20g.
• Less yeast. Having to knock the dough down in the bowl several times shows there was plenty. Another option would be to put the dough in the fridge overnight but then leave it at room temperature during the day before baking in the evening.
• Knead the traditional way. I want to see if this makes a difference but I would need to compare two identical recipes for this to be valid.
• Bake at a higher temperature. The loaves are a bit pale and the crust is a bit thick. This may change after a day or two but I think going back to a higher temperature and cooking for less time would help this. At high temperatures I find the loaf looks burnt but isn't.

Variations

I have repeated my previous recipe a couple of times but with some variations. The first was to bake it at 200C for 40 minutes with the last 10 of those out of the tin. This was very similar to the previous except the crust was not as brown.

The other was to omit the sour cream and to increase the water to 465g. This rose a bit more in the fridge overnight and then again during the day. However, the rise in the tin, while OK, was not nearly as spectacular as with the sour cream. It seems as if the sour cream is not doing so much in the fridge and then putting in lots of effort in the tin. This was also baked at 200C. You can't tell from the photo but I am concerned that this may have a flying crust.

More sour cream

I added sour cream to one of my normal recipes:

400g wholemeal strong flour
300g white strong flour
125g sour cream
340g (approx) warm water
10g light brown sugar
7g dry yeast
10g salt

I mixed the sour cream, water, sugar, yeast and salt together first and then added the flour. I adjusted the exact amount of water to get the dough to the right consistency. I kneaded it in the normal way for 10 minutes or so.

The overnight rise was ok but not amazing, although the fridge does seem to be colder at the moment (2C instead of 4C). I knocked it down and put it back. The following evening it didn't seem to have risen much so I was not too hopeful.

I left the bread to rise in the loaf tin for longer than normal - about 2 hours at 30C followed by 1 hour at room temperature. The bread rose spectacularly in this time. I was worried it may have over proved.

In the oven at 260C with steam for 10 minutes there was no oven spring - in fact it shrank a little. The top was quite brown so it was down to 200C for 15 minutes plus 5 more out of the tin.

The loaf is a day old and the crust has shrunk a little. It is now much softer than when baked - it is not burnt

No flying crust, despite my fears

A lovely crumb - very soft