The best 100% Whole Wheat Bread (My quest is over)

Some of you may remember my original mission in starting this blog: I discovered I didn't feel well after eating store-bought bread and decided to start making my own bread.  And I really wanted a nice whole wheat bread.  But it was hard.  The recipes were either sort of dry and lifeless or not all whole wheat.  Plus I had to add powdered milk to them (it helped the texture! I said), which is no good for people who are dairy free.  Other things can be substituted: butter, buttermilk, yogurt, maybe even milk, but not powdered milk.  But I've learned a few things through this journey.

Potassium bromate often "enriches" the flour from which shelved bread at the store is made.  (By the way, I put a lot of effort into that sentence to make sure it did not end with a preposition).  Brominated flour is banned in Canada, the UK, and Europe because studies suggest it might be carcinogenic.  The flour you buy at the store is not brominated.  The flour in the bread you buy at the store probably is.  I find it likely that this is what bothers my stomach.

White whole wheat flour is my new favorite ingredient.  Regular flour is made from red wheat, so whole (red) wheat is dark and dense.  Another species of wheat is white, and the whole white wheat is a lighter flavor and texture.  White whole wheat flour can easily be snuck into most recipes without anyone noticing.  I still wouldn't use more than half the flour as white whole wheat flour, unless you make other changes.

Finally, I've learned a lot about gluten.  Going gluten free seems trendy, and I've suddenly met dozens of people who can't eat gluten.  Some people can't, which is unfortunate, but it happens.  But then some people give it up for (seemingly to me, at least) no reason.  But gluten is a protein.  Some people can't eat certain proteins, I know people whose bodies can't break down (or who have allergic reactions to): soy, whey, peanuts, tree nuts, poultry, fish, and chickpeas (one of whom can't eat 4 of them).  The same goes for gluten.  So if neighbor swore that giving up gluten made him/her feel better, sure it's possible.  But every body is different and that doesn't mean that giving up gluten is right for everyone.  And if you are considering giving up gluten because your cousin's dentist swore it worked for him/her, I might first recommend what I did: give up PROCESSED gluten.  Make your own bread!  It's fun!

When I first started I remember mumbling something about needing the powdered milk because it's a "dough conditioner."  This is sort of true; powdered milk improves the texture of bread.  But the reason for this is that it adds protein to the bread.  This is why bread flour exists (it has extra protein i.e. gluten).  But as I discovered, adding actual gluten is what really helps whole wheat flour.  I was hesitant to buy it because I found it on a laundry list of "dough conditioners" and because there were so many whole wheat bread recipes that DIDN'T call for it, it couldn't be that much better, right?  Wrong. If you want to make whole wheat bread that isn't dense and dry, go out and buy Vital Wheat Gluten.  Right now.  It makes sense when you think about it: you need more gluten in whole wheat flour, so what do you add?  Gluten!

Okay, enough about gluten.  I found this recipe and the author was so in love with it that I knew I had to try it.  Not only did it turn out well, I'm pretty sure it's the easiest yeast bread I've ever made.  There's only one rise and it's in the pan.  I only used one bowl and the pan I baked it in.  It was great.  I noticed that the texture of the dough was very different than a lot of breads that I've made, but perhaps I was just more patient and didn't add too much flour this time (maybe that's why all my bread is dense and dry).  I don't think it was my fault.  Many doughs go from wet to dry with only a few tablespoons of extra flour.  This was sticky but not wet before I kneaded it and drier, but still light when I was done.  I also like to knead by hand because it makes your more in tune with the dough (plus it's stress relieving).

I just linked to the recipe, there is no kneed for me to copy and paste it since I didn't (and wouldn't) change a thing.  Well, except that I used canola oil rather than coconut (it's better for you and cheaper).

Baguettes

So for those of you who don't know the reason why this is the first time I'm posting in all of May, it's because I was traveling for the first 17 days.  First I was in Columbus, OH for a conference (and I am leaving tomorrow for a related conference).  Then I went to Europe.  I stayed with a friend in southern Germany and visited several German and French cities as well as Luxembourg.  We finished off the trip with a Paris visit.  The whole trip was a lot of fun, but unfortunately, I don't have a camera so the only pictures are those she took in Paris.  The unfortunate part about returning to the States is that the bread there was so amazing, I don't think I'll ever be able to eat store bought bread in the U.S. again, even from the bakery.  This isn't a huge problem since I bake about 80% of the bread that I eat, it's just cutting out that remaining 20%.  It does mean that I need to expand my repertoire, however.  Since I've been working from home, and will continue to at least 4 days a week (this is of course, including weekends), I have the opportunity to do things like attempt baguettes, which require longer proofing time than other breads.  I started with a fairly simple recipe and liked the outcome except the crust did not brown as much as in their pictures.  I left it in the oven for about 45-50 minutes, which was definitely too much, the crust was thicker and the inside drier than the baguette should have been, but I was waiting for it to turn "dark golden brown."  In retrospect, I should have baked them at a higher temperature.  My oven claims to go up to 500F.  That being said, I made the baguettes on Thursday morning and they were gone by Saturday afternoon... and I didn't share with anyone.

Apricot Walnut Bread

Hello all,

Whoops, I didn't get a picture before some of it disappeared

I didn't post in March!  I haven't really been making much food due to the fact that I have free food Tuesday and Wednesday (and sometimes more) nights and I've been out of town or finding more free food, so I've just kind of been throwing together things I've already made.  Even for Pi Day, I made Caramelized Pear Tart.  I've neglected Daring Bakers and Daring Cooks (I haven't been around on weekends).

But one thing I've still been trying to make is bread.  And I made a few different kinds, none worth mentioning.  But this one was quite good.  I found the recipe on Serious Eats.  It's not sweet (it's the first bread I've ever made without adding sugar or honey), but it's soft and tasty.  The crumb is much nicer than other kinds of bread I've made.

Walnut-Apricot Bread

Ingredients

1 cup lukewarm water
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) yeast
2 1/2 cups bread flour, divided
1 cup raw walnuts
14 dried pitted apricots (I used Turkish)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Procedure

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, yeast, and one cup of the bread flour.
2. Put the walnuts, apricots and olive oil into your food processor, blender, or other capable device, and process it until it is a mostly smooth homogeneous mixture. This should make about a cup, but a little more or less is fine.
3. By the time the walnut mixture is smooth, the flour mixture should be bubbly. Add the rest of the bread flour and the salt to the flour mixture, and knead with the dough hook until it begins to come together.
4. Add the walnut mixture to the dough, including all the liquid that may be separating from the walnuts. Knead until the mixture has incorporated fully into the dough and it starts becoming smooth.
5. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes before continuing.
6. After the rest, continue kneading with the dough hook until the dough is smooth, shiny and elastic.
7. Remove the bowl from the mixer, form the dough into a ball. It shouldn't be sticky at all at this point. Put the dough ball back into he mixer bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest until doubled in size, about an hour and a half.
8. Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
9. Take the dough out of the bowl, knead it briefly, and form into a tight ball. Place it, seam-side down, on the baking sheet. Cover the dough loosely with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise until doubled, about 30 to 45 minutes.
10. When the dough has doubled, slash the top. Be decorative if you want, or just slash an "X" in the top or make parallel lines or a square - whatever you prefer. To recreate the slashes I made, first make the large X in the top of the bread going almost to the base of the dough, then make short slashes in-between the long ones. Use small, sharp scissors to make tiny snips around the short slashes.
11. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes. If it seems to be browning too fast, turn the oven temperature down to 325°F.

Challah

I found a challah recipe that doesn't make 2-3 loaves!  I am excited.  I love challah, but am not a huge fan of freezing and thawing my bread.  So I was excited when I found a recipe for 1 challah loaf.  And braiding bread is fun!  I would have taken a picture, but before I ate it a chunk before I had a chance and it was no longer photogenic.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll try again.

Something seemed a little off about it.  The texture wasn't quite right.  The instructions did confuse me a little.  You start out with a stiff blend of dough, then you knead until its soft?  The dough was never soft for me.  That is probably the problem.  Also, the taste was slightly off, but I expect that is because I used half honey that had crystalized (which I don't think was a problem or maybe that's what affected the texture, anyone know?) and half raw wildflower honey, which has a bit of a taste that is different from other honeys.

This might be a pointless entry with no picture and no recommendations and just a link to the recipe.  However, I'll try it again and we can compare, and then it will be more of a base of learning post.

However, I will take this opportunity to mention my new favorite website http://www.tastespotting.com/.  I'm trying to reduce my pointless time online, and this is actually good for that because 1) it's slightly less pointless than facebook.  I did after all get a challah recipe there. 2) It takes less time to look at pretty pictures and bookmark some of my favorites than I will invariably spend on any other site to get the same amount of "break" quality.  After all, sometimes I just feel like killing a few minutes online and reading through one page of that website is satisfies that craving sufficiently.

Swedish Cardamom Bread

I've heard of cardamom as a major spice used around Christmas time for Scandinavian baked goods.  And since I acquired Fancy White Cardamom pods this summer, I've been looking forward to making a good authentic Swedish Cardamom bread.  I found one online that was passed to a guy by his grandparents and I thought that sounded reasonable.  I tried it and somehow it reminds me of Christmas morning even though no on in my family cooks with cardamom or is Swedish.  But the cardamom and bread right out of the oven are warming, which is something all Christmas breakfasts aim to be.  And Christmas is the time of the sweet spices (probably because they are warming), which is also familiar even if the specific spice isn't.  Then again, cardamom is in apple pie spice and that comes up a lot.

So clearly it's a braided bread.  This isn't hard though.  Just separate the bread into 3 sections and make sure they are thin enough to work with, I think mine were about 1 inch diameter, then braid in the regular way, closing the ends together at the end.  Also note, I found it weird that there was only one rise for the bread, and it didn't rise much during it.  It did however puff up once it was in the oven.

I would however, recommend cutting back on the cardamom is you use pods and grind them yourself like I did.  It had a pretty intense flavor, which somewhat overpowered the bready goodness, which is something I greatly appreciate.  I also baked it for significantly longer than the recipe called for, I think around 32 minutes.

Also, since I'm in Atlanta and not, say Sweden, I had to add about half a cup of extra flour to be able to work with the dough.  Even in cold weather, there's a lot of moisture in the air.

Here's the recipe.  There is no point in me recopying it, the story and my adjustments are what count.  But my adjustments are not adjustments everyone should make, just people who grind their own cardamom and live in humid climates.  However, the baking extra time is recommended, most likely.  Also, I used an oven, not a bread machine, and hence the traditional recipe.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread

So I know at least one of you readers is allergic to milk and has commented on how all my bread recipes have milk (but let's be honest, most bread recipes have some form of milk whether powdered or liquid or in butter).  This one doesn't, then again, I'm not sure how great of a sandwich bread it would make (or it could possibly be an awesome peanut butter and something sandwich bread in its ideal form, I'm not sure). After a few bites from the end (which are certainly not completely indicative of how this bread will taste, seeing as there is less jam at the ends), I'd say the taste is good, but this recipe has a few issues.  First, bread does not roll well when you can't seal it together because of jam, which means the middle is pretty loose (which makes it a not very good sandwich bread).

*Also I saw it had to rise for 12 hours and was shocked.  Twelve hours?  And it uses quick rise yeast?  Really.  I checked it when I went to bed, which was 3 hours after mixed the dough and it had barely done anything.  This morning though, (which for the record was only 10 hours later) it was perfect.  So yes, blend this the night before you want it, and it does make a nice morning bread.

**It's extremely sticky which might be exaggerated by the Atlanta humidity, but I really don't think there is enough flour in it, or at very least, when rolling it out, you should make sure EVERYTHING is floured thoroughly.  It says to lightly sprinkle flour on the dough before rolling it out, but I was too shy about this and it was a sticky mess that was hard to work with and hence make into a solid loaf.  But again, being in Atlanta might be part of the problem.

***Another issue: the baking time.  It says about 75 minutes at 450.  Seriously?  I can't think of anything that should cook that long at 450.  Granted, I'm still kind of a newbie.   I baked it for about half an hour, turned off the oven and let it sit for another 15 minutes and it came out a little brown in places.  So I would say 35-40 minutes is probably sufficient.  The 450 means that the crust will be pretty hard even though the bread is soft (right?).  So (I think) if you want a less crusty crust you should bake it on a lower temperature (but even then I think 75 minutes is way too long).  Someone more experienced than me can correct me if I'm wrong on the statement of making a softer crust.  Oh, also if you want a less crusty crust you might want to avoid the egg wash.  But it does make it pretty.

Here is the recipe in it's original form, with my comments above starred.  If I ever make it again, I'll let you know what modifications I actually make.  I think it's likely I will make it again.  It's not too hard and requires less time where you have to keep an eye on it (by this I mean during the first rise you can sleep or do something productive which is usually not true of bread) and it tastes good.  But like I said, it needs improvements.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread

- One 8-inch loaf; 1 1/3 pounds -
Adapted from My Bread by Jim Lahey.

Ingredients

1 large (about 60 grams) egg, beaten
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (280 grams) bread flour
2 tablespoons (20 grams) whole wheat flour
3/4 teaspoon (4 grams) table salt
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) instant or other active dry yeast
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (260 grams) cool (55 to 65 degrees F) water
3 tablespoons (50 grams) unsalted smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup (35 grams) unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, whole
1/4 cup (35 grams) unsalted dry-roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
1/3 cup (100 grams) seedless fruit jam of choice
nonstick cooking spray
additional flour for dusting

Procedure

1. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the beaten egg for glazing the bread. In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, salt, yeast, and the remaining egg. Blend the water and peanut butter in a blender until smooth (some settling will occur if this is left to stand, so blend just before using). Add mixture to the flour mixture and, using a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough without any lumps, about 30 seconds. Stir in the whole peanuts until evenly distributed. Cover the bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, about 12 hours**.
2. When the first rise is complete, sprinkle the surface of the dough with flour*. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Lightly flour your hands and gently pat and pull the dough into a rough rectangle about 8 by 12 inches.
3. Now you're going to make a sort of jelly roll: Position the dough so a long side is in front of you. Spread the jam evenly over the surface of the dough, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Lift up the far side of the rectangle and fold one third of it over toward the center, then continue rolling up the remainder into a cylinder. With the seam on the bottom, tuck the ends of the roll under to seal them, so the jam doesn't ooze out during baking.
4. Lightly coat the loaf pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle half of the chopped peanuts into the bottom of the pan. Gently transfer the dough, seam side down, to the loaf pan. Sprinkle the remaining chopped peanuts onto the dough. Cover the dough with a towel and place it in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 hour. The dough is ready when it has doubled. If you gently poke it with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for another 15 minutes.
5. About 15 minutes before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 450°F, with a rack in the center.
6. Brush the top of the dough with the reserved beaten egg. Bake until golden, about 1 hour and 15 minutes***. If the peanuts start to darken, loosely cover the loaf with foil. Use pot holders to invert the pan onto a rack, remove the pan, and turn the bread right side up to cool thoroughly. (Don't dawdle--the bread will get soggy if it cools in the pan.)

The Winning Bread

So I've been baking bread for some time, and this was certainly one of my favorites. It made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches FANTASTIC. I just wanted to eat them all the time. It was also an easier bread and it turned out really well. I cut it in half because the blog I found it in said she double it. That and I can only handle one loaf at a time and didn't have room for it in the freezer. I found the recipe here. I guess it was from the King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour bag. I ran out of whole wheat flour at about 3 cups, so I substituted a cup of all purpose flour (I guess I could have used bread flour but this was shortly before I moved and it was packed already). This was definitely my favorite and I will make it again. I'll let you know if something bad happens next time.

Success!

I know it's been a while, but I haven't really made anything worth noting. I went home for break, which meant I planned to make meals without going to the grocery store. The next couple weeks will probably be similar. But on to new business: I found a bread recipe that actually rose right. It's not whole wheat, and it's a little bit bland, but it's still quite good (it is homemade bread after all). I found the recipe here. It's a relatively fool-proof recipe and I wish I had started with it. One of the most useful tidbits was the windowpane test to see if you've kneaded your bread enough:

1. After about 5 minutes of kneading, especially when dough feels stretchy, pinch off a small piece and stretch it slowly apart
2. Pulling and rotating it gently to stretch this piece of dough into a thin, translucent membrane
3. If it tears easily, continue kneading a few more minutes and try the test again

It's not too sweet to go with meat, and it certainly isn't super hearty or dense, making peanut butter seem to stick more, plus like I said, it's the first bread that has actually turned out, so I'm a huge fan.

The Easiest bread (so far)

So this week I made whole wheat bread with brown sugar, rather than honey from this website. I cut it in half, which I doubt caused any problems, but the bread did not turn out well, despite the straightforward directions. It did not rise as much as it should have. It does however, taste fantastic and I would definitely be willing to try this bread until I get it right. It is probably the only whole wheat bread I've loved eating without jam. But it probably won't work for sandwiches this time. I know I posted the link, but to help you cut it in half (or to help me cut it in half next time), since I can never remember how many tablespoons are in a cup (though it shouldn't be that hard).

Whole Grain Wheat Sandwich Bread

Ingredients:
2 1/2 tablespoon, 1/2 teaspoon plus 1/2 Tablespoon brown sugar, divided
1 cups warm water (105F-114F)
1 packages active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoon)
2 1/2 to 3 cups whole wheat flour
3/8 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tbsp and 1/2 teaspoon oil

Directions:

1. Dissolve 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar in warm water in a small bowl or measuring cup. Add yeast and let mixture stand.

2. Place 2 cups flour, powdered milk, remaining brown sugar and salt into mixer bowl. Attach bowl and with dough hook, mix on Speed 2 (low speed) for about 15 seconds, until ingredients are combined. On the same speed, gradually add yeast mixture and oil to flour mixture and mix about 1 1/2 minutes longer. Stop and scrape bowl as necessary. (Note that I just stirred this with a spoon, which might be my problem. I usually knead dough with my hands)

3. Continuing on same speed, add remaining flour, 1/4 cup at the time and mix until dough clings to hook (it will be very sticky and thick). Knead dough on speed 2 until sides of the bowl are clean.

4. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with a dish towel (note, use a damp towel or plastic wrap). Let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

5. Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf* and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk.

6. Bake at 400F for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake 30 minutes longer. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks. (Note: I think this might be a problem, next time I'm going to try baking it on 350 for the full 45 minutes)

*To shape dough into a loaf, roll into a large rectangle, about 9×14 inches. Starting at the short end, roll dough tightly and pinch to seal the seam. Pinch ends down and turn them under, placing the dough seam side down in a loaf pan.

I finally learned what this meant, thanks to this video on youtube. I should really start watching food network more...

Bread Number 3

I made this week's recipe because I bought powdered milk and wanted to get use out of it. That was a poor choice. The bread may be the tastiest that I've made, but the texture is weird, kind of chewy, and it was very complicated: lots of shaping and changing bowls and weird things like spraying with water. But the recipe is here. I didn't do most of the shaping, mostly because I couldn't understand what it was telling me to do. I'm a math grad student, I don't understand funny wording and there were no pictures. I also didn't have a baking stone, and I figured once I put it in the oven, I couldn't screw it up too badly, so I just put it in and baked it like any other loaf, without all the pans at the bottom of the oven. This turned out fine, but I only baked it for a half hour at 400 and it got a little darker than I like it. This might be why the texture is bad, I'm not sure.

Final opinion: it's pretty good bread, but not worth the hassle.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

So after the previous bread which was too sweet, I tried to find a whole wheat bread with less sugar and honey, and this Peter Reinhart bread was recommended by multiple sites online. This is how mine turned out:

I kind of liked the flexibility of making everything ahead of time, but I still had to knead it and wait, put it in a pan, and wait, which meant it took even more time than making everything at once. Also worth noting, I didn't have whole milk, so I used skim (which is probably horrible to people know how to bake bread, but this is one of the challenges of being a grad student: there is not room in my fridge for both whole milk and skim milk).
It tastes pretty good, definitely like whole wheat bread, and it is great with jam. I'm sure it will make great sandwiches, plus it is whole wheat, so it has the added plus of being hearty.

I'm still new to using yeast, so I'm not very good at it yet. I don't think either loaf I've made so far has risen as much as it ideally should, to the size of a normal slice of bread used in a sandwich, but this one was closer.

The Quest for Perfect Bread

So I've recently realized that store bought bread bothers my stomach. Simple solution: make my own. However, as a graduate student, I have limited space and money, which means I do not have and cannot obtain a bread maker (or a stand mixer for that matter). So I've searched recipes online and I'm going to try one each week until I find the perfect wheat bread for sandwiches. Last week I tried this:

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees F)
1 tablespoon milk
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (see additional notes for a 100% whole wheat version)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons instant active dry yeast

Instructions:

1. *Combine first 6 ingredients in a large mixing bowl; stir.

2. Add flours and yeast, and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.

3. Punch dough down; knead for a few minutes until smooth and then form into a loaf. Place in greased loaf pan and cover. Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. If loaf starts browning too soon, lightly lay a piece of foil on top of the loaf to prevent too much darkening.

5. Remove bread from oven and allow to rest in pan for a few minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cover with a cloth. Slice and enjoy while still warm! Leftover bread can be stored in an airtight bag or frozen until needed.

from http://www.tammysrecipes.com/homemade_wheat_bread.

I'm sorry for not taking a picture, I wasn't planning on do this until I searched for a good student food blog and couldn't find one. But the summary of the bread: it was delicous, but very sweet. It would be fine for a peanut butter sandwich, but I bought turkey this week and it didn't work very well because of the sweetness. So it is not the best sandwich bread out there, but it is great to just snack on (I love anything sweet). So I'm going to try another bread, a Peter Reinhardt bread I found, it's a little more complicated, but you make a starter and soaker a day ahead of time, which is more convienient with my unpredictable schedule. I'll probably post later today, actually.