Whole Wheat Bread in a Bread Machine....?

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
I'm going off white bread, even the homemade stuff, I'm moving my carbs to complex carbs. :thumb:

I've done this with the rice I eat, I only eat brown rice now, in fact I like it better, much to the chagrin of both my wife and daughter who think I'm nuts :rofl::rofl:

Emiko, who, as you know, is Japanese, like most Japanese people, think the white sticky rice they eat is the "BEST" in the world, I find it bland ::) I enjoy the nutty, crunchy flavour of the brown rice, or "Genmai" as it is called here.

Today I tried to make 100% Whole Wheat bread in our bread machine, it does NOT have a Whole Wheat cycle, as it is NOT a new machine.
The first load turned out to be a door stop, I could hardly cut it with a very sharp bread knife it was like sawing wood :eek: time to dig out the chainsaw :rolleyes:

OK, time for some "Google" work.....

I found that I need to use "Gluten" and to change up a bunch of other things.

I found a recipe that uses honey and molasses instead of refined sugar....

================================
Ingredients:
REGULAR LOAF:
• 1 cup Water
• 2 1/2 cups Wheat bread flour
• 1 1/4 tablespoons Dry milk
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Butter
• 1 1/4 tablespoons Honey
• 1 tablespoon Gluten
• 2 teaspoons Molasses
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Fast-Rise yeast *** OR ***
• 2 teaspoons Active-Dry yeast
LARGE LOAF:
• 1 1/2 cups + 2 tb Water
• 3 3/4 cups Wheat bread flour
• 2 tablespoons Dry milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Salt
• 2 tablespoons Butter
• 2 tablespoons Honey
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Gluten
• 1 tablespoon Molasses
• 2 1/8 teaspoons Fast-Rise yeast *** OR ***
• 3 teaspoons Active-Dry yeast
Preparation:
• The trick to making 100% whole wheat bread in your machine is an extra knead, which gives the yeast and gluten a second chance to create a lighter loaf.
• When your first knead cycle is completed, simply reset the machine and start again.
• Some manufacturers produce home bakeries with a whole wheat cycle; if your machine doesn’t have one, this start-again method works as an easy alternative.
SUCCESS HINTS:
• The gluten gives the whole wheat flour the structure necessary for a good loaf.
• If your market doesn’t stock wheat gluten, try your local health food store.
• Remember the extra knead.
• It’s especially important in 100% whole wheat bread.
• Because of the extra knead, use this recipe only on the regular bake cycle.

>> Link << to the recipe I used:

=================================( I hope the formatting survives posting this...) ============
I made the regular loaf, our machine is not that large.

I did not have any Molasses, and in fact, my wife did not know what I was talking about, even when I found the Japanese name for it, so it might be hard to find here...?

I just added more honey, to make up for the lack of molasses.

Since our machine does not have a "Whole Wheat Cycle" it was suggested that after the first knead, that the machine be reset and redo the first knead. I did this, but later I thought that maybe I should have done that after the first rise. What I did was wait until the first knead was over, then reset the machine, maybe I should have done the first knead, then let it rise, then when the second knead started, reset the machine....?

wholewheat_ball_dough.jpg

I was a bit worried as this ball of dough is a bit larger than we usually have when we make white bread.

wholewheat_1st_rise.jpg

Here it is after it has risen once
I did not rise as much as white bread usually does, but a LOT more than the door stop loaf I made first :doh:

wholewheat_cooked1.jpg

Here it is cooked, again, it did not rise that much, but it sure smells good!

wholewheat_cooked2.jpg


There it is cooling, I'll be having a slice of that for breakfast tomorrow morning!

I'd sure like to make some taller loaves, does anyone have any tips or suggestions?

I have heard that adding some citrus juice can help, as they yeast likes the acidity of it ???

Next I'll be trying to make some Whole Wheat pasta, as the health food store here wants $5 for a small 18 Oz bag :eek:

Cheers!
 
Stu. more on this later (tomorrow most likely), as I'm on the road and the DW is home with the kiddlings...

however, Lori makes her own whole wheat bread, and one thing we found with her machine anyway, was that letting the machine do the mixing, and 1st rise, then taking it out and forming it to a 'peasant' or round loaf herself, and a second covered rise then baking separate netted a better loaf vs the all machine loaf you got there. Also, with the whole wheat you're just not going to get as much rise as the AP flour, period...

I'll double check with her when I get home tomorrow.
 
stu, in japan, don't they have any of those wonderful new devices called, ovens?

Yep, a gas oven and a convention/microwave one, but if I can get decent bread from just putting the ingredients into the machine, hitting a button, and have nice hot fresh bread in the morning, why would I want to bother with the oven and pans etc. I know how to make conventional bread, but it takes time, and time is one thing I do not seem to have any extra of at the moment, or actually just about always :D
 
Stu. more on this later (tomorrow most likely), as I'm on the road and the DW is home with the kiddlings...

however, Lori makes her own whole wheat bread, and one thing we found with her machine anyway, was that letting the machine do the mixing, and 1st rise, then taking it out and forming it to a 'peasant' or round loaf herself, and a second covered rise then baking separate netted a better loaf vs the all machine loaf you got there. Also, with the whole wheat you're just not going to get as much rise as the AP flour, period...

I'll double check with her when I get home tomorrow.

That would be great Ned.

I know you won't get as much of a rise, and you will never get the light fluffy loaves you do with good hard white wheat, but I've read online and I've seen loaves that are a LOT taller and lighter than mine.

This is an experiment, the molasses addition could really help, so could some citrus juice :dunno:

I will be taking notes and adjusting various things to see how it works out, I'm sure I can improve upon this second loaf.

Cheers!
 
I would rather eat leaves and sticks than brown rice.

I'm just now mainly eating wheat bread :(

When I lived in Massachusetts some people in a new sub division complained about the aroma from the local wonder bread bakery and petitioned to have it closed down:doh:
 
So I'm back at this again, the loafs I'm making have not been great, the first one was good, but after that they were not good at all :(

I'm going to try the method of using the bread machine to knead the dough, and then let it rise and then bake it in the oven.

bread1.jpg
Here it is in the bread machine, it looks WAY too liquid to me, but I understand that the whole wheat flour absorbs a LOT more water than regular flour, so I'll see how this turns out...?

Will let it sit for a while then do a second knead, then let it sit and hopefully rise maybe 4 or 6 hours, and then bake it..... Wish me luck!

PS Ned, did you find out what your lovely wife suggested?

Cheers!
 
So I did add more flour to the mix and then let it knead again, then transferred it to a pan.....

whole_wheat_bread_1_hour.jpg
After one hour

whole_wheat_bread_2_hour.jpg
After two hours

whole_wheat_bread_6_hour.jpg
After Six hours, I put some flour on top, so the dough would not stick to the cloth covering the pan.

I will put it in the fridge overnight, this is supposed to slow down the rising of the dough, but impart a much richer taste to the bread, we shall see.

Cheers!
 
Last night when I finally got home around 2 AM, I did one more knead on the dough and made a round loaf, and put it in a pan, I let it rise overnight and it did rise quite a bit, doubled in size :thumb:

This AM I got up early (long day ahead of me today) and I baked the bread, 30 minutes at 190C/375F.......

wwb_baked.jpg wwb_cut.jpg

Doing the slow rise overnight certainly imparted a very smooth nutty flavour to the bread, this is very good! Heck even my teenage daughter likes it :D
 
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