Using whole wheat flour in recipes from The Italian Baker by Carol Field? Which whole wheat flour?

I do not see the point of looking for a breadmaking wholewheat flour that approxomates the protein of all purpose flour. Yes, there is but that is a soft wholewheat flour much more of whole wheat pastry flour w hich is unsuitable for breadmaking. Consider the fact that hard wholewheat flour is definitely higher in protein than all purpose or even bread flour due to the fact that whole grain has more protein content than the white flour milled from the same grain. The bottom line is: you want to enjoy the goodness of 100% wholewheat flour then by anymeans use any strong wholewheat flour available and you will get the result that you want. BTW, do not be misled by the belief that Carol field had a good baking skill; first and foremost she was only a tourist who got caught the baking bug visiting Italian bakeries and by charming Italian bakers to give her a simplified version of their commerciali recipes. Use any recipe from a good baking book and before you try to embark on some real baking be sure you know the basics so that you will have less likelihood of failure. Using wholegrain flour for breadbaking can be tricky for beginners. Do not dream on things that following some author you will be transformed into a good baker. It is by constant practice that makes you succeed in your baking hobby.

Roy

Roy,

Thanks for the response. I am following Laurel's Bread Book because it is supposed to "the guide" regarding using whole wheat flour. However most of the loaves in this book seem to be "sandwich" style which is not what I want.

So I'm feeling kind of lost. I don't know how to look at recipe and know if I will get the holey kind of texture I am looking for rather than the dense sandwich kind of loaf.

I thought maybe find a book that concentrated on a "genre" might help me out.

I agree I need to keep baking. In fact I'm obsessed - there are only two of us in the house and I've made 5 loaves in the past 2 weeks. But I don't have a clue how to get the bread I'm looking for.

Thanks. Vicki

Looking at a few recipes in Carol Field's book, I see a few recipes there which include whole wheat in the making of the recipe. Why not try to do one of her recipes that call for whole wheat instead of revamping another recipe and then worrying about whether what you did was because of your revamping it.

Pane Toscano Scuro - Dark Tuscan Bread - pp. 112-115 calls for 3-3/4 cups stone-ground whole-wheat flour to 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour int he dough. The starter calls for 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour. So this might be a good introduction to making whole-wheat bread; not too much, too soon.

In this recipe she also uses enough yeast that won't be a detriment to the fermentation. I have found her recipes which use so little yeast very challenging. Dee

However

A sandwich load is indeed dense due to the firmer doughs, optimum mixing/dough development and tight molding process. Many of those holey breads usually have softer doughs and because of that texture there is a tendency for it to become more open grained.Artisanal loaves are usually moulded into boules, batards and blooomers not in pullman loaves. The degree of mixing can also influence the crumb grain, a more developed dough tend to result into even grain lighter crumb and bigger volume . In comparison a less developed dough results in uneven grain, slightly darker crumb with slightly less volume and I think that is what you are looking for.A bread with more substance not gas. Therefore.... Mix the dough to half or just a maximum of two thirds developed but give it more fermentation time and knockdowns, don't degass it much ( just like in sandwich breads preparation)but just fold the dough gently in every knockdowns so that you will maintain the unevenness in grain. Whether you mold it tighthy or a bit less doesnt matter the bread will be uneven grained( a bit holey) when baked.

I am not in the position to agree or disagree as I am never obsessed with any book yet occasionally do read some interesting text that caught my fancy. It is not any book that will really help you achieve your goals; It should be looked only as a guide (not looked as a holy bible or somtthing similar). Sometimes if you have to read books you will be focused on that particular authors technique and you will become a fanatic of it an would stunt your intellectual growth and baking skill and that should not be the way.Never try to shower admiration to the author but rather see if his technique is sensible or it make sense to you and you can ably apply( if not duplicate it). The wisdom of reading any baking book that incidentally caught your interest is to extract its essence and not the rote memorization of recipes and and step by step procedure.Try to understand the recipe and technique from the bigger picture , and see how you can apply that in your particular case and do not forget to apply a big dose of plain commonsense. And that what makes a good baker, and not the one who is just a purveyor of recipes or a collector of baking books but had not gained any wisdom .Instead of becoming a good baker he or she become instead a book collector or a librarian who can qoute any passage of his/her collection but barely understood what is all about;yet unable to do it in practice, .

I am pleased to hear that, as there is no royal road to the attainment of good baking skill that can replace deligent practice; whether you are bakery tradesman or just a hobbyist baker.

Roy

For the benefit of at least one beginner, how do you tell (without a rheometer), when a dough is half to two thirds developed.

Felix Karpfen

Felix the degree of dough development( even in the absence of rheological instruments like the farinograph and mixograph can be noticed by the degree of dough coherence. This can be determined simply by inspection and feeling of the dough texture which gradually changes during the dough mixing process. .Any baker who has considerable experience in dough preparation be he a hobbyist or a professional can recognize at what level of dough development has been attained It is not easy to explain this to a beginner for easier understanding other than by actual experience and observation. However there are some baking books that covers this aspect in some detail. For detailed explanation about this, you can check with E.J Pyler. BAking Science and Technology ( two volume edition dedicated to the practical and theoritical explanation of what happens in many aspects of baking.).The explanation is more focused on commercial bread production but can be applicable also to small scale dough preparation. For a varied explanation but dedicated to artsanal baking using a specimen of a french bread 'The Taste of Bread by Raymond Calvel. Here calvel have a different idea how a bread dough should be mixed . He is partial that the dough should be only be mixed nearly half developed and no more. It would provide you with more details in this area that is easily understandable to any reader; be a bakery tradesman or a baking enthusiast Roy

I am aware that there are baking enthusiasts who are able to derive therapeutic benefits from _feeling_ a sticky mess turn into an elastic dough. Regrettably, I do not have what it takes. So I have to make do with a dough hook and appearances.

Also, I am suspicious of advice based on experience with manipulating large quantities of dough (and its predecessors). The material handling problems of large quantities of dough are irrelevant in a kitchen and the needed temperature controls are different.

So I start to sit up when I read of:

giving 1000 rotations with a dough hook; the first third at low speed and the other two thirds at a higher speed.

That information would be even more interesting if it related to a Kenwood Chef and not a Kitchen Aid mixer - since I own one of the former and the latter is probably not available in Australia.

I suspect that I have already been following his advice routinely.

And not from choice. I may have taken too seriously the possibility of irreversible degradation of the dough caused by overmixing.

Thank you for the prompt response to my query.

Felix Karpfen

There is one easy way to see if the glutten in your dough is ready. I'll try to explain it. Get a small piece of dough, about the size of your thumb, from middle knuckle to end. Roll it around the palms of your hand to make a ball. Now with your two thumbs and index fingers, slowly start pulling the ball as if you were making taffy, on every angle, slowly and gently. You will make a thin "window" in the middle. If the "window" breaks, your dough needs to be worked further. When you have your glutten ready, you should find the window will be almost see though, not lumpy, very thin and somewhat elastic. It's a very good method. It also allows you to feel the dough and get used to the elasticity . Hope this helps, it's so much easier to show this method than describe it. Cheers, Lore

Howdy,

"Working" or kneading is not the only way to develop gluten. It will also develop through hydration if the dough is just put aside. Time will do the deed.

All the best,