The Quest For The Holy 100 Whole Wheat Loaf Recipes

EASY 100% WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Steps:

• Mix the warm water, honey, and yeast in a stand-mixer bowl until mixture becomes foamy, about 5 minutes.
• Add half the whole wheat flour, olive oil, and salt to the mixture. Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until incorporated. Let sit for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Mix with a dough hook attachment on low speed, slowly adding the remaining whole wheat flour, increasing the speed to high. Mix on high until the batter is combined and not sticking to the sides of the bowl, about 7 minutes. Cover the bowl with a towel and let rest for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper. Flour a surface to work the dough.
• Place the dough onto the floured work surface and shape into a loaf. Use more flour if necessary. Place into the prepared loaf pan.
• Let shaped dough sit in a warm place until it has risen over the top of the pan, about 1 hour.
• Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Bake in the preheated oven until top of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped, about 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing from the pan and transferring to a wire rack. Let cool an additional hour before slicing; otherwise it will feel doughy.

100 % WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Steps:

• In saucepan, heat milk not to boiling.
• Remove from heat and add sugar, salt and 1/4 cup butter, stir until blended.
• Cool to lukewarm.
• Sprinkle yeast over water in large bowl.
• Stir to dissolve yeast- stir in lukewarm milk mixture.
• Add 4 cups whole wheat flour, beat vigorously with wooden spoon until smooth.
• Gradually add remainder of whole wheat flour.
• Mix in last of it with hands until dough is stiff Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface.
• Knead dough for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth and has some elasticity.
• Place in greased large bowl.
• Turn dough so greased side is up.
• Cover with towel; let rise in warm place (85F is good), until it doubles in size, about an hour.
• Turn dough again on floured surface.
• Divide into halves.
• Cover about 10 minutes.
• Cut each of the two halves into two pieces.
• Roll each piece into about a 12 inch strip.
• Twist two strips together.
• Repeat the process.
• Roll into a ball to fit into a 9x5x2-3/4 greased pan.
• Mold evenly into pan.
• Repeat process with remaining two pieces.
• Brush tops of two loaves with a little butter, margarine or oil.
• Let the two loaves rise in a warm place until dough rises to tops of pans- about an hour.
• Preheat oven 400F.
• Bake in middle of oven for 35- 40 minutes.
• Turn out pans onto racks, brush top with melted butter.
• Makes 2 loaves.

THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY 100% WHOLE WHEAT LOAF

Steps:

• (STARTER 24-48 hours ahead of time) Dissolve 1/4 tsp yeast with the 1/2 cup of warm water.
• In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.
• Add 3 more cups warm water, and stir until blended; dough will be almost runny, I'd say a bowl of mush.
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 24 hours, preferably about 48, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.
• (DAY OF DOUGH after starter has fermented) Scald milk and cool to lukewarm (use an ice bath in a big pot).
• Stir in honey while cooling milk (start this right after you place pan of milk in ice bath so honey will dissolve better in the warmth).
• Dissolve 2tsp yeast in 1/2 cup warm water.
• Measure flour and salt into a large bowl and stir together lightly.
• When milk is cooled down to same temperature as warm water mix the two liquids together. Make a well in the flour and pour liquids into it. Stir from center outward, until all the flour is mixed in, making a stiff dough.
• *Here's where things get interesting* Add the 48 hour preferment to the new dough and knead for about 15 minutes without adding more flour. (The dough is going to be very wet and sticky so keep a bowl of water handy for your hands, and I even used it to keep the dough from sticking too bad to the counter I was working on).
• After 15 minutes knead in the butter in bits, continuing to work the dough until it is silky.
• I put the dough glob into an ungreased bowl (the larger the better this makes 3 loaves) and covered with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise for 1.5 hours, but be careful, my bowl was a little too small and the runny dough started to expand over the sides.
• After 1.5 hours I gently punched it down and took a shortcut by skipping a second rise and went ahead and split the dough into three pieces and plopped them into my pans. (I found by accident it didn't make much of a difference if these were greased or not, 2 were, 1 was not).
• I proofed these for another hour but probably could have gone with 45 minutes because one loaf began to pour over the sides of the pan. I gently nudged the doughs back within the sides of their pans and put them into a preheated 325 degree oven for 1 hour.
• These turned out wonderful, high rise, flavor like I have never tasted, a well structured crumb (at least according to my likes), and a decent caramelized crust. I think that skipping the second rise made the open air pockets in the bread a little bigger than they would have been otherwise, but they were still rather uniform and didn't affect the breads ability to hold together, but I think next time it would be worth investing the extra time in a second rise before proofing in the pans.