With that said... Now that I do feel like I've got the hang of that particular recipe, I thought it would be nice to try something else. I get bored of doing the same recipe over and over again. Plus I figured the rest of the household might appreciate a little variety too. It'd also be good to get into making 100% whole grain breads. The Edmonds recipe is nice, but it uses a mix of whole wheat and white flour. Having that white flour in there is great for making a nice light loaf with a great rise. And I think it does contribute to how forgiving the dough is. But I have been trying to use whole grains as much as possible lately and being able to make a good whole wheat bread that doesn't need any white flour to support it would be great. For this I turn to my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book.
There are loads of bread books out there. I've seen a few wonderful ones that go into detail on all sorts of wonderful recipes and techniques. You've got everything from basic primers to advanced breadmaking tomes. I've owned a few and been tempted by several others. In the end though, the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book is the one I've kept. I've been trying to limit myself to one cookbook per topic/cuisine and Laurel's Kitchen is it for bread for me. It's detailed and approachable and, most importantly for me, deals specifically with using whole grains. No white flour to supplement or support here! It's also got a friendly hippie sort of vibe that I quite enjoy. So, Laurel's Kitchen has been the bread book that sticks with me as others make their way to book sales and donation bins.
The first recipe in the book, A Loaf for Learning, is actually an entire chapter. Everything is laid out in detail, with diagrams and drawings. There are detailed explanations for everything. And there's even a Q&A section after the main recipe. Their recommendation is to make the Loaf for Learning over and over again until you've mastered it. Which, despite my distaste for repetition, I'd actually planned to do. The only problem is -- well, two problems actually -- I'm all out of yogurt and the Loaf for Learning recipe only makes one loaf. We've been going through bread so fast lately that I definitely wanted to be making two at a time. And I suppose I could've just doubled the Learning recipe, but that at least partially defeats the point. The Learning recipe only makes one loaf because that means having a smaller more manageable amount of dough that you can more easily work and see changing. So, between not wanting to subvert the intentionally small batch recipe and not wanting to go out and get more yogurt, I decided to move on to the next recipe in the book instead and try their Basic Whole Wheat Bread.
This recipe may not be the Loaf for Learning, but it still certainly taught me a lot. I didn't realize how much that little bit of white flour in the Edmonds recipe changed everything. This recipe doesn't seem that much different from the Edmonds recipe and yet the dough and resulting bread were completely different! I also learned that I need a lot more practice working with 100% whole wheat dough. I didn't get nearly the rise I was hoping for out of this batch. The dough was a bit too wet and I don't think I kneaded it nearly enough. I also go a bit discombobulated when reading the recipe and accidentally mixed the oil in too soon, which probably didn't help.
All-in-all my loaves came out of the oven looking a little sad and disappointing. They ended up flatter and denser than I'd hoped. And I was in a hurry and didn't do a great job of pressing all the bubbles out of the dough after it had risen so the loaves ended up with some awkward bubbles and brittle bits of crust at the surface. Even with all that though, the flavour was amazing! These loaves were far from perfect and I definitely want to try to do better next time, but wow! Dat flavour! It completely blew the previous whole wheat-white blend out of the water. No contest. I don't know if it was the lack of white flour or the extra rise or a combination of both but this recipe turns out delicious bread even if you don't get the kneading/rising quite right!
Basic Whole Wheat Bread
Slightly adapted from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book
Ingredients
- 120mL warm water
- 2 tsp. active dry yeast
- 900g whole wheat bread flour
- 14g salt
- 535mL cold water
- 2 Tbsp. honey
- 2 Tbsp. butter or oil
Directions
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Set aside.
- Combine flour and salt.
- Dissolve honey in cold water.
- Make a well in the flour and pour in both measures of water (along with dissolved yeast and honey).
- Stir contents of the well (leaving flour at the sides of the bowl) to make a smooth batter.
- Gradually incorporate more flour, stirring to keep a smooth batter, incrementally transitioning toward dough.
- Work in the last of the flour to form your dough.
- Stir and/or knead for a few minutes to get a feel for the dough and to allow the flour to fully hydrate.
- If dough seems to wet and sticky1, add a bit more flour. (Start with just a Tbsp. or so. Don't add too much at once. If dough seems too dry, work in a bit more water.
- Knead the dough for at least 20 minutes. This may be done on a floured or unfloured surface. If flouring your surface, be very careful not to introduce too much extra flour or your dough will become very tight and dry.
- After 10-15 minutes of kneading, start working in the fat. (Pour a little oil or smear a little butter over your kneading surface then continue kneading on top of it to allow the fat to be worked in gradually after the gluten has begun to form.
- Place dough in a clean (unoiled) bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside for 1.5-2.5 hours (depending on temperature of room).
- Knock dough back, turn out onto lightly floured surface, press to remove CO2 bubbles that have formed, then shape back into a ball and place back in bowl.
- Second rise should take 45-75 minutes.
- Knock dough back, turn out onto lightly flour surface and, once again, press out any bubbles present.
- Divide dough in half.
- Shape each half into a ball. Stretch the top (pulling slack underneath) to create a smooth, continuous gluten sheet across the surface of each ball. Set aside for at least 10 minutes.
- Press each ball into a round. Fold the round into thirds to make a rectangle. Roll each rectangle into a cylinder and press (seam-side-down) into a greased loaf tin.
- Cover with a damp cloth and set aside for 30-45 minutes.
- Bake at 425°F (220°C) for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F (160°C) and bake for another 30-45 minutes.
1 My dough was definitely too wet. I have historically had a bad tendency to work in way too much extra flour during kneading though. And the book has dire warnings against this. So I decided to try kneading it for the full 20 minutes without adding any extra flour. This was a sticky, messy, and tiring process. The dough did get slightly less sticky and more manageable as I worked it. But it was still pretty unruly at the end of 20 minutes. (Due to the difficulties of working with such a wet dough it definitely didn't get a full 20 minutes worth of kneading in that time.) Since it was still pretty wet and sticky, I did end up adding a bit more flour. I think I worked in ~an extra 2 Tbsp. over the course of 15 minutes or so. Given how sticky it was after proofing and how difficult it was to work with, I'm thinking I probably should've added just a touch more flour. I think 1-2 more Tbsp. of flour and another 10 minutes of kneading probably would've given me much better results in the oven. Back
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