The result...

Well, the 100% whole wheat was a disaster. Okay, not a disaster, per se, but really not what I was hoping for. Pros: it had a really nice, thick, crunchy crust, a soft crumb texture, and a nice flavor (enough salt! And WW tastes great). Cons: it felt like a brick. The loaves hardly rose at all, in or out of the oven, and I gave them almost 8 hours in a warm place. I don’t think I killed the yeast, because they were still rising a little bit before I finally got fed up and put them in the oven.

What I think I could do to change it is this:

1) Maybe try adding a little bit of white flour, or using WW bread flour rather than just the regular stuff.
2) Increase the proportion of water. I had to add about a third of a cup anyway, because the flour would just not incorporate. Ideally, I’d like to only go up to about 75% water (this means that the amount of the water in the mix is 75% of the weight of the flour), but with 100% WW, I realize I may need closer to 80%.
3) Suck it up and let it rise longer. What I really should have done, I think, is let the shaped loaves proof overnight. I was both impatient and afraid that they wouldn’t rise if I put them in the fridge, or would overproof if I left them out. But in retrospect, overproofing probably would have been better than what I got.
4) Increase the amount of yeast by a little bit.
5) Let the soaker warm up before I mix up the final dough. I think the fact that I started kneading when the total mix was only 62 or so degrees was not really helpful for yeast happiness.

At least I know that the soaking works wonders, and that the amount of salt is right.


On a happier note, a few days ago, my mom and I went to a commercial kitchen supply store, which was amazing. I felt like a kid in a candy store. My mom really wanted to buy a pizza stone, which I greatly appreciate, as I’ve been using it for bread to great effect. I wanted some French fry baskets to use as couches (pronounced “kooshes,” and used to help loaves keep their shape while proofing). We both got what we wanted, plus I picked up a dough blade for 3 bucks (!) and splurged on a canvas pastry bag, which I plan to use to make éclairs and cream puffs. I think I may have to break the rules of this blog to write about them. And then, while I was making preparations for baking my first loaves, I found a broken half of a cutting board my mom had lying around, and I’ve been using it as a peel (that thing you use to put bread or pizza into the oven directly onto a stone). It’s perfect! Which is great, because before this I was trying to slide a sheet of parchment with two unbaked loaves on it onto a 400-degree baking sheet in a 400-degree oven. Not the smartest thing I could have done. Bottom line: I love kitchen toys, and commercial kitchen supply stores. And I should wait at least a year before going in one again.