Yields one 8-1/2x4-1/2 loaf
3 1/2 cups KAF traditional whole wheat flour
1/4 cup KAF special dry milk powder
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/4 cup honey, molasses or maple syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon diastatic malt powder
1 1/3 cups warm water (95-100 deg.F.)
1 tablespoon melted butter -- optional
In a mixing bowl,mix together the flour, special dry milk powder, salt and yeast. Add the sweetener of choice, the oil and the water. Mix (by hand or with the paddattachment of a stand mixer) until well-mixed and the dough is a shaggy mass. Turn dough our onto a lightly greased surface, oil your hands, and knead it 6-8 minutes (or 3-4 minutes with the dough hook of the mixer and finish kneading by hand), or until it begins to become smooth and supple. Transfer dough to a lightlygreased bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to rise until puffy but not necessarily doubled in bulk, about 60 minutes, depending on the warmth of your kitchen.
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled surface and shape into an 8-inch log. Place the log in a lightly greased 8-1/2" x 4-1/2" loaf pan. Cover loosely with lightly oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise for about 1 hour or until it's crowned about 1 inch above the edge of the pan.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake about 40 minutes, tenting it with oifl after 20 minutes. When done, it should register 190 degrees F. on an instant-read thermometer. Remove bread from the pan and cool on a rack. If desired, brush the top with melted butter.
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NOTES FROM BOOKBAG:
#1) 'm all for dough enhancers when it comes to whole wheat bread and you picked good ones. I love maple syrup - it's a great nutritional boost. I would have also added 1/4 t. of ascorbic acid powder. That's an addition I make with wholemeal flour, as well as celtic salt that is full of minerals that feeds the yeast. I usually add 1 t. of vital wheat gluten for every cup of wholemeal flour - especially if it's hard winter wheat. Hard winter wheat has more bran than hard spring wheat and the more bran, the less gluten, as well as bran cutting the gluten strands. I sift out the large chunks of bran from my wholemeal flour because of that. If I was a betting woman, I'd bet the next try at this bread you will come up with a great loaf. I've had my share of whole wheat bricks.
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#2 Lora Brody's Dough Enhancer has the all-in-one combination - including a few extra items, like ginger, that I don't normally add. Just a note, Laurel Robertson in "The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book" doesn't see the need for natural dough conditioners according to their research, when using whole wheat flour. She also kneads her whole wheat breads for long periods of time. Laurel's favorite dough enhancer is potatoes and occasional additions of rose hip tea (which is a natural form of vitamin C - aka ascorbic acid).
I also purchase malted rye berries from King Arthur and mill them into flour and add some of that to a lot of breads which will have the same action as diastatic malt. It's the malted grain (barley, wheat, or rye) that is the benefit to yeast action.
I think once a person is using whole wheat a lot, they get used to breads not being like the puffy, lofty, white versions. Using winter wheat will almost guarantee a smaller loaf. I tend to use such a wide variety of grain flours, as well as some garbonzo bean flour, that most combinations seem to work to improve the loaf. I rarely make just a 100% wholemeal loaf of bread anymore. There's just too much fun to be had incorporating other grains ;-) ~Bookbag
Yields two 8-1/2x4-1/2 loaves
SOAKER:
1 cup coarse-ground whole wheat flour (4.25 oz.) -- or oats, corn, rye
3/4 cup water (6 oz.) -- at room temperature
WHOLE-WHEAT POOLISH:
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (6.75 oz.)
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 cup water (6 oz.) -- at room temperature
DOUGH:
2 cups whole wheat flour (9 oz.)
1/4 cup potato flour (2 oz.)
1/4 cup dry milk powder (2 oz.)
4 teaspoons Lora Brody's Dough Enhancer
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons fine sea salt
1 teaspoon instant yeast
All of the soaker
All of the poolish
2 tablespoons butter -- melted and cooled
1 egg -- slightly beaten
1/4 cup warm water (2 oz.)
The day befrore baking, make the soaker and the poolish.
SOAKER: In a small bowl, mix the flour and water until thoroughly combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature overnight.
POOLISH: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour and yeast. Make a well in the center and pour in the water. Mix until the flour is hydrated, until the mixture resembles a thick paste. The mixture will be very thick. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave out at room temperature overnight.
DOUGH: The next day, in a mixing bowl, whisk together the whole wheat flour, potato flour, dry milk powder, dough enhancer, sugar, salt and yeast. Scrape the poolish and soaker into the bowl. Add the melted butter and the egg, and begin mixing with a large metal spoon (or on low speed with the paddle attachment), adding only enough warm water until the dough forms a ball.
Turn dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead 10-15 minutes by hand (or on medium speed with the dough hook 9-10 minutes---finishing by hand) The dough should be tacky byt not sticky and should pass the windowpane test. Lightly oil a large biowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature about 2 hours or until dough doubles in size.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 2 equal pieces. Shape them into sandwich loaves. Place lopaves into two lightly oiled 8-1/2 x 4-1/2 loaf pans. Mist the tops with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for about 90 minutes or until the dough nearly doubles in size and is cresting above the lip of the pans.
About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. with the oven rack in the middle of the oven. If desired, garnish the tops of the loaves by misting with water and sprinkling on sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc.
Bake the loaves 30 minutes, rotate the pans and continue baking 15-30 minutes lonver. The finished bread should register between 185-190 degrees F. at the center and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom. The loaves should be golden brown all around and firm on the sides. If they are soft and squishy on the sides, return them to the oven and continue baking until done. Remove immediately from the pans, [place on a rack, and lightly rub a little melted butter on the tops if desired. Let cool on a rack at least 1 hour before slicing.
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