100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

FAOL Community Sound Off
1

This was a new recipe I tried today with a bit of apprehension. I was concerned the bread would be heavy, but was pleasantly surprised when it was finally done. It’s actually a great, flavorful sandwich loaf.

		 			[CENTER][b]100% Whole Wheat Bread[/b]

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[CENTER]From the Kitchen of: Joe Valencic
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Ingredients:

29 oz Stone ground whole wheat flour (5-1/2 to 6 C)…100.0%
3 t Salt (1T + 1t Kosher salt) (.75 oz.) …2.5%
3T Dry Milk (.45 oz) … …1.5%
4t Vital wheat gluten (.60 oz.) …2.1%
3T Molasses (2.25 oz.) … 7.8%
3T Butter melted (3 oz.) …10.3%
2-1/2t Instant yeast (.42 oz.) …1.5%
18.6 oz Warm water (105-110 F) … 64.2%
54.82 oz. … …178.5%

Directions:

Combine flour, salt, yeast, vital gluten and dry milk in a large bowl and blend well. In a separate bowl, combine warm water, melted butter and molasses. Hollow out the flour mixture and pour liquid into the center. With a wooden spoon pull the flour into the liquid until you have shaggy mixture, then turn out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth & elastic, about 8-10 minutes. Remove dough to a well greased bowl (covering dough with oil on all surfaces), cover with plastic and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

If using a stand mixer with dough hook, put liquid into mixing bowl and slowly add flour mixture, reserving about 1/2 Cup. On speed 2, add flour until dough pulls cleanly away from the bowl, then continue to mix for 7 minutes to develop the gluten. Remove dough from bowl and shape into a tight ball, then place in a well greased bowl (covering dough with oil on all surfaces), cover with plastic and allow to rest until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

Punch down dough and divide into two portions. Fold dough letter style, press dough into a square, then roll into a log shape, pinching the seam closed and tucking the ends under. Place into two oiled 9"x5" bread pans, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place until doubled in size.

Bake in a pre heated 400 F oven for 30 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 200 F. Remove from pans to a cooling rack. Wait for one hour before cutting bread. Allow bread to reach room temperature (about 3 hours) before placing in plastic bags and place in the freezer. Will keep up to 30 days. Makes 2 loaves 27 oz. each.

2

Good afternoon Joe.
With the 3T of Molasses is there a strong taste of Molasses from this amount of Molasses ?

Kind regards
UB
Also with fingers in the dough, from way back.

3

Joe,

It smells wonderful!

Steve

4

UB,

No, the molasses does not dominate the flavor at all. If that’s a concern, you can substitute honey for the molasses, or even just 3T of granulated sugar. I frequently interchange these three ingredients based on availability in my pantry.

BTW, I’m having a lovely slice of this bread right now with butter and strawberry jam on it. Mmmmmmmmmmm…

5

Probably a dumb question, especially from one that has rattled around professional kitchens and bakeries for around 20 years.

How do you takethe internal temp of your loaves? Probe in place or instant read inserted when you think it is ready?

By the way that is one fine looking loaf of bread…

Also, I made a loaf of no-knead a couple weekends ago, aged for 24 hours and then final proofed for another 3, baked “naked” on a bread stone and it came out perfect! All crust, just like we like it…it was actually as close to New Jersey Italian bread as I have ever made!

6

lol, the only thing I understood there was New Jersey Italian bread!

But I will be making this whole wheat bread this weekend hopefully!!

Thanks Joe V.!!!

7

Nice looking loaf Joe.:smiley:

8

That’s a tasty looking loaf of bread.

I have tried wheat bread in the bread maker several times with minimal success, have followed the recipe exactly but it never seems to rise quite right. it tastes good but is “flat” and dense. I have been thinking of increasing the yeast content to help it rise better.

9

Wow Joe
That photo brings back fond memories of my Grandmothers house. Her next door neighbor was the “Janetti’s” and I loved smelling and tasting the bread she made every day. Especially when she put a bowl of pasta sauce on the table to dunk the bread in. MMMMMMMMMM…
Bernie

10

Did you try starting the yeast before adding it to the mix? Or some recipies say you can use seltzer water.

11

Yes I,m ready to order. I’ll have two eggs over easy, hash browns, and sausage links, with two toasted pieces of Joe V’s whole wheat bread, please.

Take a bow! Your good at what you do.

12

Joe;;;. we’re stealing this one. Going on the main site. Nice job!

13

Yes, I have a digital thermometer with a probe that I insert near the end of the baking period. It has a high temp alarm that I set to 200 F, which notifies me when the bread is done. I only do this the first couple of times with a new recipe to validate the actual time, then make note of the time on the recipe.

Congrats on the"Artisan" loaf using the no-knead method. Like skinning a cat, there certainly more than one way to do it. Sure beats the hell out of store bought bread with all the preservatives.

14

Not all bread machines are created equal. This recipe actually originated with the Panasonic SD-YD250 bread machine, and it takes a total of 5 hours (+/-) to make this bread in that machine. It has a program just for whole grain breads using coarse flour. Click on the link and download the user manual in PDF format with recipes for free. This recipe is on page 25. If you go to page 4 you can see the different program selections, and page 5 shows the various cycle times. The Panasonic recipe does not call for Vital Wheat Gluten, and I’ve been told by one of my foodies on another website that the crumb is fantastic and the bread is not at all heavy when using this machine and the printed recipe. Not all machines give you the all the options that the Panasonic does, especially the lengthy rise times.

Given enough time for the yeast to work (2 hr 20 min~ 2hr 50 min in this machine based on internal dough temperature), the machine can achieve the same results as my recipe variant with a mixer and added gluten. All bread machines also recommend using Instant Yeast (as do I) vs Active Dry Yeast because of the higher concentration of live yeast spores in Instant Yeast (two different processes for drying the yeast). Without sufficient live spores and sufficient rise times, all bread will come out flat and dense. Also, cool environments (55-65 F) retard the rise times, and warm environments (75-85F) increase rise times.

I hope this addresses the problem some might be having with their machines.

15

Thank you. Everyone should have availability to good recipes, and this one is even healthy as well as delicious. Now get in the kitchen and make a loaf for your sweetie!:stuck_out_tongue: