I had a sizable amount of each kind of wholemeal flour, so I thought I'd find out if there was any noticeable difference. I used exactly the same process for all of them.
They all looked pretty much identical, same oven spring, same crumb, same crust and ear. The only difference was a slightly better taste from the Canadian flour. Somehow a little more tangy, and a little less like eating a high-fiber breakfast cereal.
Does anyone have any tips for getting a more open crumb for wholemeal? They're all lovely, but a little dense.
Process (done twice)
600g wholemeal flour.
275g levain (fed twice)
360g water, with a few extra splashes to prevent a dry dough.
8g salt.
Mix everything into a dough, fermentolyse for 1h, then 3 stretch and folds 30m apart. Bulk ferment until expanded and jiggly, then turn out and cut in 2. Shape gently into boules, leave for 30m under a cloth, then shape and place in bannetons.
Cold ferment, then cut, decorate and bake at 220c for 15m then a lower temperature until then reach your desired colour. I take them out after a few minutes to reinforce the main cut and promote an ear.
by UglyBagOfMostlyBeer
11 Comments
As a Canadian, I’d like to know what the expensive Canadian flour was. Was it a particular brand, or was it just expensive because it was shipped across the Atlantic?
Looks good either way!
Interesting – tell us more about the flour – what brand and how much protein content?
I’m in the UK and cycle between Shipton Mill, Marriages, Mathews Cotswold, they all have imported Canadian flour as well as UK flour.
The best video I’ve seen on wholemeal loaves is the Bread Code [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImVvQMvGZKE&pp=ygUdYnJlYWRjb2RlIHdob2xlbWVhbCBzb3VyZG91Z2g%3D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImVvQMvGZKE&pp=ygUdYnJlYWRjb2RlIHdob2xlbWVhbCBzb3VyZG91Z2g%3D) – he uses some specialist Italian flour.
For a more open crumb, try a 2-3 hour Autolyse with just flour and water before you add the rest of your ingredients and begin your process. I’m not normally an Autolyser (life’s too short) but wholemeal flour really does benefit from it, because it can’t absorb water as easily as white. Personally I’d up the salt content too, to around 12g with 600g of flour, it will help both the taste and the gluten development/crumb.
I see some people here that sift their flour and boil the fibrous material and let that cool down and add later to the dough
I have to say, these ears are enviable!
Are you intent on keeping the recipe 100% wholemeal, or would you like to get a more open crumb?
I usually only use 10% wholemeal flour in my loaves, but you could experiment with incorporating more white flour in your recipe, see if that opens up the crumb a bit?
how do they taste though? how they look is for social media. I don’t care how my bread looks as long as taste and texture are good.
How long is the cold ferment, please?
They look good ! 100% whole meal will always be denser than a white flour bread.
Here I think you can increase the water, whole meal is usually thirsty and a longer autolyse will also be beneficial as already suggested.
I usually use between 20 and 50%.
Here is a recipe with 50% https://www.theperfectloaf.com/fifty-fifty-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/
One of my favorite method is to scald part of the wholemeal flour. Taking 20% and adding boiling water , let it cool and incorporate to the rest of the flours when mixing. I use a stand mixer to mix all together which helps .
Did this sort of comparison last year in both white and wholemeal. The only difference that I found was that the Canadian extra strong white would hold more water than lower protein (and lower price) flours .
I was hand kneading so this was significant. But not significant enough to justify the extra expense.
Edit: At the time the highest protein non-specialist wholemeal was also the lest expensive; Asda’s own brand.
I think these look absolutely tempting! The slices look hearty and moist, and you got a great rise for 100% wholemeal. About how much did the dough rise once you cutoff bulk ferment? And what was the temp for bulk ferment?
I always add a bit of vital wheat gluten in my wholemeal/whole wheat loaves. I find the added gluten content helps aerate the loaf