A natural upgrade from white bread is to try baking with whole wheat. Whole wheat breads have a richer flavor and color than white breads and are more filling due to their fiber content. The fiber also makes whole wheat more nutritious, as does higher levels of vitamins and minerals.
What is Whole Wheat?
In understanding the difference between white flour and whole wheat, it helps to know a little botany. Wheat, and other cereal crops, are part of the botanical family of grasses (Poaceae). This means they have more in common, at least genetically, with your front lawn than with any other plant consumed as food. Grasses flower and bear fruit in vertical groupings called spikelets. In wheat, each spikelet contains a single wheat grain or berry.
Each whole wheat berry consists of three main regions that play important roles in the development of a new wheat plant:
- Bran: this is the firm outer layer of the berry, protecting the soft insides from mechanical damage while allowing moisture and nutrients in.
- Endosperm: this is a starchy mass in the interior of the berry that also contains the wheat storage proteins glutelin and gliadin. The starch and protein store energy and raw building materials for the embryonic wheat plant.
- Germ: this is the part of the berry that actually turns into a new wheat plant.
When millers make whole wheat flour, all three parts of the berry are ground together. This preserves the protein-and-mineral-rich bran and the fatty germ, both of which contribute considerable flavor and nutrition to the flour. The tradeoff is reduced shelf life, as the polyunsaturated oils in the germ can oxidize and turn rancid. White flour, on the other hand, discards the bran and germ in favor of the starchy endosperm, trading nutrition and flavor for increased shelf stability.
Baking with whole wheat flour introduces a few nuances compared with white flour, which affect both the process and the end result.
- The bran contains fiber, which is more absorbent than starch. So we increase the hydration to compensate.
- The tiny shards of bran in the flour literally slice through the gluten strands that are developing during mixing and bulk fermentation, resulting in shorter strands. This affects our end product in a few ways. First, instead of trapping relatively few larger pockets of gas, the dough traps several smaller pockets instead. Think of large versus small balloons. This tends to make the dough flatter and denser.
- There is less free starch in whole wheat flour, and unlike the white flour used for The Reference Loaf, it does not contain malt powder (more on that in a moment). This means the yeast have less food available to eat, which means less gas development, even if they are in a more mineral-rich environment. Below, we add 1/2 tsp of diastatic malt powder to give the dough a bit more rise.
Dia-What Now?
Diastatic malt powder is a baking industry term for sprouted barley flour. Sprouted barley, or malt, is rich in enzymes that break down starch into easily fermentable sugars. Only a small amount is needed – adding too much can turn the dough into mush as the structural integrity of the starch melts away.
The Ingredients
| Ingredient | Weight (g) | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Whole Wheat Flour | 50 | 100 |
| Water | 50 | 100 |
| Instant Yeast | 0.75 (~1/4 tsp) | 1.5 |
| Ingredient | Weight (g) | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Poolish (everything above) | ||
| Water | 190 (165+25) | 76 |
| Whole Wheat Flour | 250 | 100 |
| Salt | 7 | 2.8 |
| Diastatic Malt | 1/2 tsp | ~ |
| Ingredient | Weight (g) | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Whole Wheat Flour | 300 | 100 |
| Water | 240 | 80 |
| Salt | 7 | 2.3 |
The Recipe
Step 1 – The night before you plan to bake The Whole Wheat Loaf, mix 1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast in a large mixing bowl (this will be the dough bowl you use the next day) with 50 g of lukewarm water. Let stand for a few minutes. Add 50 g of whole wheat flour and mix with a spoon until you have a wet sludge. Cover tightly and leave out at room temperature.
Step 2 – By the morning, the poolish should look bubbly and smell sweet. Add 165 g water into the mixing bowl and use your fingertips to disperse the poolish. Add all 250 g of the flour and 1/2 tsp of diastatic malt and hand mix until there is no dry flour left, about 3-5 minutes. Pinch out and disperse any clumps. Cover and let rest for 20-30 minutes to let the flour fully hydrate.
Step 3 – Dissolve 7 g salt in 25 g of water. Pour it over the dough and mix it in. Alternately, sprinkle the salt over the dough and then drizzle the water over. Knead by either folding in the bowl or by slap-and-folding on the counter until dough feels tangibly bouncy and is no longer “loose.” This step could take up to 5 minutes depending on the age, quality, and protein content of your flour.
Step 4 – Cover the dough and bulk ferment for 3.5 more hours. Execute one four-corner fold every hour after the first hour, then let rest for the final half hour. Remember to cover the dough container after each fold.
Step 5 – Lightly dust your counter with flour. Roll the dough out of the bowl onto the dusted countertop. With lightly floured hands, preshape the dough into a loose packet. Pinch the seam and roll the dough over so that the seam is down. Cover with the upturned mixing bowl and let rest for about 20 minutes.
Step 6 – Dust a banneton with rice flour. Give the rested dough its final shaping. It may not be as springy as white flour dough and I needed to give it several extra turns before I was comfortable with its tightness. Using a dough scraper, lift and flip the shaped dough into the banneton. Dust the now upturned seam side of the dough with some more rice flour, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and leave out for proofing. This will take anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours depending on the ambient temperature (proofing will complete sooner at warmer temperatures). Proofing is done when the dough is pushing up against the plastic wrap.
Step 7 – Pre-heat oven to 475F. Invert banneton into your Dutch oven, score, then place the lid on. Place in oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 425F. Bake for a further 10 minutes, then remove the lid and bake for a further 15-20 minutes, or until well-browned on top.
Step 8 – Remove from oven; let rest on a wire rack for up to 1 hour before slicing and tasting.
Analysis
- Total dough weight: 548g
- Total hydration: 80% (240g water / 300g flour)
- Poolish content: 18%
- Flour Protein content: 13%
- Flour Starch content: 57%
- Crumb: Tight
- Crust: Thin, soft
- Flavor: strongly wheaty, nutty
[…] you can, if you’re willing to toy with tradition a bit. Which we’ve already done with The Whole Wheat Loaf (adding malt powder), but we’re taking it to the next level – adding the missing gluten […]