Whole Wheat Bread

As was heralded by Katie, and mentioned by me to a few people, I am finally starting to contribute to our blog project. My first post will be about Whole Wheat Bread that Katie requested I make to accompany her Minestrone Soup recipe. I have tried several bread recipes out, but mainly focus on white bread as it seems to taste better for the efforts you put in.

In researching whole wheat bread, I came across this recipe by Peter Reinhart. I have previously read one of his cook books and find his explanations of the bread baking process to be some of the best and most informative especially if you have little baking experience. However, his recipes do tend to lean towards the more extensive and time consuming.

Starting out you must know that this recipe requires at least a day in advanced preparation. Pictured below is the start of day 1 where I prepared the soaker and poolish as listed below in the recipe. Peter Reinhart is a proponent of delayed fermentation, which requires that you leave dough in the fridge overnight to slow down the yeast and develop flavour.

Below is what the poolish looks like prior to being refrigerated. It is very basic, not enough flour to make a full dough.

My KitchenAid mixer is a very handy tool when making bread. It becomes more handy when you can judge the feel of the dough without actually having to knead it by hand. One thing I try if a recipe calls for 2 to 3 cups of flour is to always start with the minimum amount and make sure you knead it for a few minutes before adding any additional flour or water.

I found that this recipe made a very springy dough but that it did take a while to fully come together when kneading. Pictured below you can see the dough prior to its second rising.

I ended up cooking the bread for approximately 50 minutes. I found that this may have been a bit too long as the bread tasted a little dry. I also found that I could have used a bit more salt, but I also didn't properly measure the amount of salt I put in, I just guessed.

Overall, this is the best, and only, 100% whole wheat bread I have made, but I would gladly try it again with the few tweaks I suggested.

whole wheat bread
from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. makes 2 loaves.

soaker
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup water (at room temperature)

poolish
1 1/2 cups whole what flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
3/4 cup water (at room temperature)

dough
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/3 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
2 Tbsp honey
1 egg (optional)

1. the night before, make the soaker and the poolish. soaker: mix together the flour and water in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature until the next day. poolish: mix together the flour, yeast and water. cover with plastic wrap, let sit at room temperature for 2 hours, then move the refrigerator until the next day.

2. the next day, remove the poolish from the fridge an hour before making the dough. in a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt and yeast. mix in the soaker and poolish, then the honey and egg. you may need more flour if you add the egg. stir together until dough forms a ball.

3. turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 10 mintues until tacky but not sticky. transfer to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. let sit at room temperature for 2 hours.

4. divide the dough into 2 equal pieces, shape into loaves and place into lighly oiled loaf pans. cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for about 90 minutes.

5. remove the plastic wrap and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes. after the 30 minutes, rotate pans 180 degrees and continue baking for 15-30 minutes longer. the finished bread should be golden brown all around and firm on the sides and bottom. remove immediately from pans and cool on a cooling rack for a few hours before slicing.