Lionel's Epic Whole Wheat Loaf

My friend James got me into the whole-wheat bread craze a few years back, though I wasn't terribly impressed with the results. I was adding milk, honey, gluten and all sorts of things to my bread without an understanding of what was going on. After rediscovering a forgotten 10-kg bag of flour in our pantry ("if a thing is worth doing", they say), I decided to put it to use, and stumbled across the "no-knead bread" in Mark Bittman's book (credited to Sullivan Street Bakery) and with the help of some added gluten I was able to turn this white bread recipe into a palatable whole-wheat-only creation. I knew there was hope. At Kelley's request I started reading Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads", and made my way through the first two chapters which dealt with the science behind dough. When it became time to try one of the recipes, I found myself with a paradox of choice, and decided to wing it instead.

results my vary :)

The unifying theme behind these recipes is to let the enzymes present in the dough do their job and essentially digest the dough for us ("mmm...", I hear you say), allowing the gluten proteins to give strength and elasticity to the dough, eliminating the need for extensive kneading, and availing the sugars to be consumed by the you and your yeast. We also want to let the yeast grow slowly to develop more complex flavours (ok, this part is voodoo to me), but the yeast's activity tends to interfere with the gluten. The solution is to keep the two separate.

Ingredients like dairy, oil, nuts, or honey could certainly find their place in this bread, but I present a minimalist version here. Note: this recipe is currently in beta testing

Recipe

Pro-tip: I have a pitcher full of tap water sitting around which I use for baking. As long as it's been sitting for some time, most of the chlorine will have come out of solution, making it suitable for baking/serving to guests and pretending it's alpine.

Start this recipe the day before. We'll do the yeast-less part first, to avoid cross-contamination.

Soaker

This will contain the bulk of our flour and allow the enzymes to go to work.

3 cups ww flour

2 tsp salt

1â…› cups water

Extra virgin olive oil for coating (optional)

¼ cup brown sugar (entirely optional)

2 tbsp black strap molasses (entirely optional)

In a medium sized mixing bowl, mix dry, then add wet, and stir with a spoon. Adding water if necessary, work the dough with your hands until you end up with a tacky ball that is just sticky enough to be a nuisance.

nuisance

Drizzle and rub a some (extra virgin) olive oil over it and place it in the bowl, covering the bowl with lid or plastic wrap.

Biga

This will hold some (but not all) of our yeast.

1 cup ww flour

½ tsp active dry yeast

½ cup water

Repeat the same procedure as with the soaker, keeping in mind that the biga will me much wetter.

Mellowing

Set the bowls aside for about 12-18 hours (very flexible - 24 hours if you're feeling lucky) at around 23 C or 73 F. You might need to experiment if your house is significantly warmer/cooler. The biga will have turned into a bubbly goo, and the soaker might have darkened. Move the oven rack to a middle position, and turn on the oven lamp (I only have experience with electric ovens) for some warmth.

Mixing and bulk ferment

At this stage, you will need:

¼ cup of flour

2 tsps of active dry yeast

We now need to combine the two doughs. Mix the yeast together with ¼ cup of flour and keep extra flour handy for dusting. In a large bowl, make layers of small bits of soaker and biga, sprinkled with the yeast and flour. (Another method calls for dropping bits of soaker and biga into the flour which will prevent them from sticking, and then kneading them together. I have not tried this. Whatever the means, the goal is to homogenize the mixture and add more yeast.). Knead the lot together and dust with remaining flour if necessary, until the dough no longer sticks to anything but itself. Continue kneading, folding about 10 to 15 times, which improves the uniformity of the final loaf. The dough should be fairly pliable and kneading should not be too effortful.

Place the dough in the large bowl in the oven, covered with a wet tea towel, and allow to rise for about 30-45 minutes (it should slightly more than double), or longer.

Shaping and proofing

Remove bowl from oven. In the summer, pre-heat the oven to 450 F, since the dough will rise rather quickly. Punch dough down to de-gas. Using a circular motion as shown in the video below, shape the dough into an ball (called a boule), creating surface tension on the top that will help the loaf rise properly.

Then elongate the boule, still paying attention to surface tension, so that it becomes roughly the length of the loaf pan (I will try to make a video of this in the future). While the recipe itself is very forgiving, surface tension is the key to a good rise.

Place dough in a non-stick loaf pan or greased loaf pan (I sometimes sprinkle flour over the oil to prevent sticking). Place pan somewhere warm and undisturbed to rise. In the summer, I just put it on the countertop or the microwave. In the winter, I let it rise in the oven with the oven lamp on. Also, since it's generally drier in the winter, I coat the loaf with some oil before letting it rise. After about 30-45 minutes your dough should have risen significantly. Take care not to over-proof. It should indent and recover slowly but not collapse when poked. Here is a guideline:

not ready for the oven

ready for the oven

.

If you are rising in the oven, remove the loaf and pre-heat the oven to 450F. I have found timing to be the trickiest part. In the summer, that means getting my oven to 450 F by before the dough has proofed. If the dough starts to creep out of the pan, it's time for the oven, ready or not! In the winter this isn't as much of an issue.

Baking

Gently place pan in the oven and turn down to 350 F. Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until golden. The high initial heat will help your loaf rise as CO₂ and steam bubbles expand. (The lower temperature will allow the loaf to cook completely on the inside without burning the crust, since an undercooked loaf has a tendency to shrink and collapse.) Remove from oven and turn bread out onto a cooling rack. Allow to sit for half an hour or more to cool, otherwise moisture will escape as steam. Enjoy!

Notes

Since the bread has almost nothing in the way of preservatives in it, it won't keep as long as store-bought bread. I wrap it in a specially-assigned tea-towel or put it in a plastic bag and keep it on the counter, where it lasts for about 3 days (in theory). Adding 2 tbsp of olive-oil during the mixing stage will allow the bread to keep longer. Half a tablet of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), around 200 IU, ground up and added to the soaker mix will protect gluten from degradation and aid in preservation without altering taste, but I don't generally do this when my flour is fresh. Commercial flour already has ascorbic acid added but this too degrades with time. None of these additions are required for a successful loaf.

If you have problems with blow-out (you'll know it when you see it), you can gently slice into the dough along the long edges of the rim of the pan prior to baking.

Feel free to email me with questions!