Whole Wheat Reproduction

Last week's whole wheat loaf was perfect.  The only problem was that it took a lot of adjustments along the way to get there.  This weeks goal is to reproduce that success in a more hands-off manner.  Last week's beginning recipe was

Whole Wheat, Take 5
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6-8 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	5 oz.
Whole wheat flour	2 cups
White flour	½ cup
Vital Gluten	1 Tbl
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

I forgot to add the vital gluten, then I added ¼ cup of whole wheat flour and ¼ cup of white flour twice plus some more white flour to get the dough to the right consistency.

This week, I am eliminating the vital gluten on purpose, adding more flour and slightly less water to start.  My new recipe is

Whole Wheat, Take 6
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6-8 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	4 oz.
Whole wheat flour	2 ¼ cups
White flour	1  cup
Vital Gluten	none
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

The dough ball looks pretty good during the first mixing process.  It is just a little bit sticky, but not so much that it gets stuck in the corner while the paddle is trying to knead it.

I peeked in a half an hour later and the dough had started to take on the blob shape that had me worried last week.  I tried pinching it, and it felt OK, so I'm not going to tinker with it.

After the second kneading cycle, it looked more like a ball.  I think it's going to work out.

It came out pretty well, but it seems to be yielding to peer pressure from the rye breads and donning the pompadour hairdo.

Take 5

In addition to being an excellent song by Dave Brubeck, this is my 5th attempt to incorporate my sourdough starter into my whole wheat recipe.  I've had such success with adding vegetable oil to my rye recipes, that I've decided to replace the butter with oil, this time.  Ordinarily, I am loathe to remove butter from any recipe.  Everything is better with butter, but prior successes suggest giving it a try.

Another reason that I hate to give up the butter is that I don't ordinarily measure the honey.  I just pour it over the pat of butter until it looks like that house paint logo. 

If I use a measuring cup for the honey, too much of it stays in the measuring cup.  OK, as a consolation prize, there is something delicious to lick afterwards, but I like just squeezing the honey bottle into my mix.

Another change is that I'm changing ¼ cup of whole wheat flour to white to help with the rising.  Those of you who remember the scientific method from school will notice that I am changing more than one variable at once.  Well, think of this as the more modern Taguchi method for design of experiments.

My recipe, now, looks like this:

Whole Wheat, Take 5
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6-8 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	5 oz.
Whole wheat flour	2 cups
White flour	½ cup
Vital Gluten	1 Tbl
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 Tbl
Honey	¼ cup

The dough ball is nicely cohesive and sticky in the pan.

After about an hour, I peeked into the pan and found this limp blob at the bottom of the pan.

Maybe that is why this hasn't been rising, the dough isn't stiff enough to hold itself together as the yeast releases carbon dioxide.  I added another ¼ cup of whole wheat flour and started the cycle over, again.

That had the dough stuck to the side of the pan to such an extent that it wouldn't leave its corner.  I tried forcing the issue, but the dough is still too sticky.  This is like when you are kneading dough by hand and it keeps sticking to the counter and your hands.  The solution, then, is to add flour to the counter top until it stops sticking.  I added another ¼ cup of white flour to try to get the desired effect.  It still liked to stay stuck in one corner, so I added about another ¼ cup of white flour.  I didn't actually measure it this time.  I just sprinkled flour from the scoop the way I would do if I was kneading it by hand.

It eventually turned into a single ball. 

After an hour it looks better than at first, but I'm still worried.

This experiment looks like it may be headed toward the Journal of Irreproducible Results.
Oh, and while we're on the subject of irreproducible results, I forgot to add the vital gluten.

But, look at the end result.  This is my tallest whole wheat sourdough loaf, yet.

Now, the question is, "Can I do that, again?"

Ryer Rye

The last rye loaf rose so well, that sandwiches that I made with it wouldn't fit in a standard sandwich bag.  As I mentioned, the previous recipe was more like rye-flavored white bread.  This week I'm making the same recipe with some of the white flour replaced with rye.  Thus, I will have a ryer rye bread.

The old recipe was:

My Rye Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6-8 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	7 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 tsp
Rye flour	1 Cup
White bread flour	2 1/3 Cup

Now, I'm tweaking the white/rye ratio to this:

Ryer Rye Bread
Remove 4 oz. of starter from the fridge.  Add 4 oz. of white flour and 4 oz. of water.  Set in a warm place for about 6-8 hours until it doubles in size.  Then, add
Water	7 oz.
Salt	1 tsp
Caraway seeds	1 Tbl
Oil	2 Tbl
Vital gluten	2 tsp
Rye flour	1 1/3 Cup
White bread flour	2 Cup

That's only a little tweak.  I've moved 1/3 cup of flour from white to rye.  The previous recipe was so successful, that I don't want to make a big change.  The mathematically inclined readers will notice that I've gone from 30% rye to 40% rye.  That's not insignificant.

The dough ball looks good.  I didn't even need to scrape remnants from the rim of the pan.  The dough is one cohesive piece and it sticks slightly to the sides of the pan as it mixes.

Three and a half hours later, I have another well risen loaf of bread.  The characteristic rye bread hairdo has reappeared.

My wife had a good idea about the too-tall loaf.  She suggested cutting off the top and making sandwiches with that.  (I'm thinking hamburger buns.)  Then, use the decapitated loaf for the rest of the slices.

I think I can go a lot further in the rye-to-white ratio.  Next week I am going to make a bolder move than just 1/3 cup.