My tale with whole wheat

[BryanMaloney]

I am playing at making 100% whole wheat loaves with 1 kg flour. The flour is grocery store brand whole wheat. I will not change this, nor am I interested in any other fancy-pants ingredients. I'm wanting to make as basic a loaf as I can. My mixing and kneading tools are whisks, spoons, and hands. I don't want to buy a stand mixer. However, I'm sure that I can improve what I've got.

Try #1:
Poolish: 300g flour, 0.5g fast rise yeast, 300g water. Let it rise overnight.
Autolyse: 700g flour, 340g water. 2 hours.
Stuff: Add 20g salt, 30g cooking oil, 25g honey, rest of yeast package (6.5g), 1 egg to poolish, mix. Then mix into autolyse.
Knead gently for 5 minutes, rest in fridge 10 minutes. Knead aggressively for 10 minutes.
Rise 1 hour.
Stretch and fold dough
Rise 1 hour
Cut into 3 equal portions (by weight). Shape into balls. Rest on counter 20 minutes, covered.
Shape, put into pans and proof 2.5 hours.
Bake at 230C with steam, 15 min. Release steam, continue to bake 20 min, then check internal temperature. If at 95C, bread is done. I use a remote probe thermometer, so I can just leave it in a loaf at this stage until I get to that point.
Pull from oven, cool to RT.

So, that try gave me bricks--at least they were soft and tasty bricks. I consulted online forums and was told too little hydration, so I did round two:
Same as above, but water for autolyse was increased to 600g (yes, that much, that is what the people on the various forums told me was absolutely necessary if I dared to tread upon the Voodoo Burial Ground of 100% whole wheat. Well, that was a special experience. Kneading just didn't happen. I pretty much flopped and stretched the "dough"--it was almost a batter. Shaping? No, there was pouring. So, again, brick-ish, but a bit softer.

Round three: I changed the water in the autolyse to 470g. This seemed to handle a bit more sensibly. I saw better signs of gluten formation in the dough. Upon baking, the overall rise was better than the last two attempts, but it was still not where I'd like it to be.

Where do I go from here? I want to stick to grocery store ingredients. I would like to avoid adding dairy if possible.

I rise and proof in the oven, which I keep around 24-26C.

Thanks.

 

[retired baker]

just replace 25% of the whole wheat with bread flour.
The flour you bought might be heavy on bran.
keep it simple.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

I am playing at making 100% whole wheat loaves with 1 kg flour. The flour is grocery store brand whole wheat. I will not change this, nor am I interested in any other fancy-pants ingredients. I'm wanting to make as basic a loaf as I can. My mixing and kneading tools are whisks, spoons, and hands. I don't want to buy a stand mixer. However, I'm sure that I can improve what I've got.

Try #1:
Poolish: 300g flour, 0.5g fast rise yeast, 300g water. Let it rise overnight.
Autolyse: 700g flour, 340g water. 2 hours.
Stuff: Add 20g salt, 30g cooking oil, 25g honey, rest of yeast package (6.5g), 1 egg to poolish, mix. Then mix into autolyse.
Knead gently for 5 minutes, rest in fridge 10 minutes. Knead aggressively for 10 minutes.
Rise 1 hour.
Stretch and fold dough
Rise 1 hour
Cut into 3 equal portions (by weight). Shape into balls. Rest on counter 20 minutes, covered.
Shape, put into pans and proof 2.5 hours.
Bake at 230C with steam, 15 min. Release steam, continue to bake 20 min, then check internal temperature. If at 95C, bread is done. I use a remote probe thermometer, so I can just leave it in a loaf at this stage until I get to that point.
Pull from oven, cool to RT.

So, that try gave me bricks--at least they were soft and tasty bricks. I consulted online forums and was told too little hydration, so I did round two:
Same as above, but water for autolyse was increased to 600g (yes, that much, that is what the people on the various forums told me was absolutely necessary if I dared to tread upon the Voodoo Burial Ground of 100% whole wheat. Well, that was a special experience. Kneading just didn't happen. I pretty much flopped and stretched the "dough"--it was almost a batter. Shaping? No, there was pouring. So, again, brick-ish, but a bit softer.

Round three: I changed the water in the autolyse to 470g. This seemed to handle a bit more sensibly. I saw better signs of gluten formation in the dough. Upon baking, the overall rise was better than the last two attempts, but it was still not where I'd like it to be.

Where do I go from here? I want to stick to grocery store ingredients. I would like to avoid adding dairy if possible.

I rise and proof in the oven, which I keep around 24-26C.

Thanks.

1. It’s important to understand that 100% whole wheat bread will naturally be lower rising and denser. This is because whole wheat flour is milled from the entire wheat kernel (100% extraction flour) which includes the bran and germ. These components interfere with gluten development: the bran physically cuts the gluten network during mixing, kneading, and shaping, while both bran and germ large particle size disrupts formation of the gluten network.


2. The higher the flour extraction, the more water the dough typically requires. Whole wheat flour often needs close to 100% hydration, and some bakers even go beyond that to achieve better dough handling and crumb texture.

I recommend following a recipe from a well-regarded home bread baker like Maurizio Leo. His website, The Perfect Loaf, is one of the most thorough and well-respected resources for sourdough baking online:

100% Whole Wheat Sourdough