50% Milled Whole Wheat Bread

Milled whole wheat berries include Colorado Windy White from Grains from the Plains, Glenn & Warthog from Janies Mill.

Recipe:

  • 50% Whole Wheat
  • 50% Unbleached Bread Flour from Lindley Mills
  • .5% Diastatic Malt
  • 82.5% Water
  • 16% Levain
  • 2.1% Salt

The Levain build for this was 2:2:1 flour, water & starter. I set this up at about 6am and mixed the dough at noon.

Levain:
100g King Arthur AP flour
100g King Arthur whole wheat flour
200g water
100g Starter, peaking

I milled the wheat berries then mixed the flours, & malt with 1560g of the water at about 10:30am, and let it autolyse until noon. At noon I added Levain with 40g water, then 15 minutes later the salt, and another 50g water before dumping it into a tub for the bulk rise.

Bulk rise was 4.5 hours with stretch & folds every half hour except for the last hour. Three of these were coil folds–a technique I learned from [Full Proof Baking].(https://www.instagram.com/fullproofbaking/) Bench rest after pre-shaping was an hour, then I popped them into the fridge for a 12-hour rest before baking in the morning.

The bake was 20 minutes covered at 500, then 8 minutes uncovered before dropping the temp to 450 for 15 minutes. I tented the loaves with foil for that last 15 minutes to keep the char under control.

Overall I’m hapy with these. They are tender, and have a reasonably open crumb for a loaf with such a high percentage of whole grain. And they taste fantastic!

Quarantine Country Loaves 6April20

13% Type 85 wheat
6% organic medium white rye
.2% malted barley flour
79% King Arthur bread flour
81% hydration

These loaves are milder than the past several due to a smaller percentage of whole grain. I kept the hydration high (because I’m a showoff) and the result is a tender, and very open crumb.

I’ve been on a quest to get better at the basics for a while now. My focus is always on the flavor and texture that each change in grain mix brings. I’m working to build that knowledge into a reflex before I go back to the additions of some of my earlier breads.

I’ll get back to more freshly milled whole grains next week. I’ve got some kamut I’d like to try so look out for that.