100% of whole wheat bread

3rd attempt. No salt.

This is 100% of whole wheat grain milled at home. The grain is soft white Spring wheat of moderate protein value. It does not behave the exact same way as hard red Winter wheat, which I prefer.

I'm disappointed in 100% of whole wheat loaves because they simply do not rise in the way we expect when a considerable percentage of refined flour is included with the dough.

Having said that I must hasten to add this is among the most delicious bread I have ever tasted, and I do believe this is the bread of history. This is the bread pictured on the walls of numberless ancient Egyptian tombs in a wide variety of shapes. See Gardiner's hieroglyphic sign chart section X 1-8. (Incidentally, after 100 years of concurrence that first sign, the small semicircle that stands for the phonetic "t", it is finally being disputed as representing a small loaf of bread due to it usually being painted black when the walls are painted with a full palette of colors. It is now thought by some present-day experts to represent the primordial mound. Colors do mean something.) But this is all a little bit off the point, in'nit?

It's impossible for me to believe the ancients had any more success than I do in getting loaves to rise much more than this, given their mills were more rudimentary and their yeast cultures were no different. There is no way they could have kneaded the dough as thoroughly as I can do right here at home with a machine that can work far beyond what any person could do by hand. I'm saying throughout history right up to modern era, it was not possible to mill grain as finely or work the dough more thoroughly than I can do right here at home. That's my story, and I'm stickin' with it.

In fact I think damage to the teeth of ancient people shows that it was not uncommon for tiny stones to make their way into the dough, being abraded by the mill stones used to crush the grain, either huge ones or small home types. Can you imagine what a drag that must have been, and how coarse their standard bread must have been? I'm certain if they were presented with a loaf of, say, Wonder bread, they wouldn't even consider it to be bread at all.

I only got as far as I have because I didn't add salt. My second failure, pictured below, taught me that salt was retarding the progress of the yeast and bacteria. One way to avoid that is to add the salt later but that risks forgetting it altogether which I've done several times, and it deflates the loaves, which isn't usually a problem unless it took a day to rise the first time, in which case I'm reticent to start over.

Forlornly pondering the situation of dough suddenly stopping all progress caused me to have an insight related to aquariums. In the Takashi Amano style of heavily planted aquariums, CO₂ is introduced to the water along with powerful fluorescent lights above the tank. CO₂ can be sparged throughout the tank a couple of ways, one with a separate metal gas tank, another using a smaller plastic jar outside the aquarium that hold water and yeast fed with sugar connected with aquarium hose to the tank. In the second case baking soda is included to retard the yeast so that 1/4 teaspoon yeast feeds on 1 cup of sugar for nearly a month. That's what I was doing by adding salt with the flour for the final feeding of the dough. Duh. The tender delicate little yeasties didn't much care for that.

Even without salt, I almost didn't bake this salt-less loaf pictured above because it failed to rise to the top of the bread pans which would have doubled its size. It rose less than double. It rises fine as a wet sponge in a jar, but hardly rises at all as a dough with much more weight bearing down on it, flattening it. The yeast really does need a lot of liquid to multiply effectively. There was no oven-rise either as expected with refined flour loaves.

The loaf was not fermented either, save for the unusually long period it took to proof.

Still, I would be proud to serve this cut thinly as the base for small canapés. Its natural flavor is truly astounding, and I can imagine small sandwiches, cut thinly, of course. And that's without salt. Usually bread without salt is the most bland thing you can put in your mouth, but not so with these slices. Salt added to individual slices enhances the flavor even more.

Below are three trials of sourdough starter cultivated directly from grain. The first two used heat, the third one at room temperature. There was little activity for nearly twelve hours and finally, out of impatience I put the third one with the other two near the heat source and went to sleep. When I woke up, they were all active. The third one the most, so I discarded the other two and went with the strong one that started at room temperature.

I made dough from it. I added salt along with the last doubling of water and flour mixing to the consistency of dough. It failed. I threw it all out. Pondering the situation, it occurred to me that salt was probably arresting the yeast growth. I started again, the third time with no salt added to the dough. The result is pictured above.

heat

heat

room temp./heat

These were mentioned in an earlier post. The first two jars were discarded in favor of the third. The second trial failed due to salt, but the third culture, the one on the right, went on to a third trial that succeeded partially although it failed to rise satisfyingly.

These loaves were discarded due to failed rising. It seems salt is responsible.

Maui culture sourdough bread

Ach, meine Güte, look at me and see if I can stand it.

Using a new cloche designed for long loaves, and I must say, we are now playing in a whole 'nuther league.

Not shown: the starter salvaged from the bowl of the last batch of Maui sourdough down there ↓ a few posts. I forgot to reserve a wedge of dough and had to scrape scraps from the bowl which had been soaking. This presented a problem. The 1/2 teaspoon of watery dough was all that was left of the second Maui culture after the bread was already baked. Reviving that remnant with fresh flour introduces foreign yeast/bacteria culture present on the flour. What to do, what to do. I watered the dough further with filtered water, fed it with a 1/16 teaspoon of sugar and let it sit a few hours. Observed it. It foamed loosely and weakly. I fed it 1/2 teaspoon flour. I visualized a war between the tiny reinvigorated army in the slurry of Maui culture with the tiny dehydrated hibernating army of organisms piggybacking on the flour. Surely Maui will win, no? And having now been fed, the Maui army is now even larger and stronger, albeit still tiny, no? And so it went that first critical half day, hour by hour, feeding the tiny Maui army with fresh flour that contained its own hibernating army until I had a full blown proper culture. But still, I live with the uncertainty that this is now not the Maui culture that I knew, but rather one that had been permanently altered by conscripted mercenaries that were revitalized along with the Maui remnant. I'll know for sure once I actually eat it.

Another thing makes this bread pictured here different from the Maui bread described in the post below is for that previous batch I ran out of white A/P flour and used instead up to 50% of whole wheat that I milled here from grain, so that freshly milled flour had 100% of the grains' particles, unlike whole wheat flour that you buy already milled. This altered the loaves significantly. It cause them to not lift as much as we usually prefer, they're more dense than what could be used for, say, sandwiches. But their flavor is so extraordinary and so unusual that they're still very much worth keeping around for things like soups, and to have with cheese, or to just taste. A little goes a long way. Honestly, you must eat this to know what I'm on about here, and having eaten it you'll be forever changed in your attitude about what real historical artisan bread actually is. It'll knock your socks off and there'll you'll be, improperly shod, thinking, "Da'yum! Now this is bread!" It's what the ancients ate, save for the portion of refined flour.

So the starter is not shown because it's already shown enough in other places all over this site, nor the sponge being built up, nor the dough being worked.

The photos pick up where the sponge is removed from three days in cold storage. The dough being stretched, dampened, salted, and folded, the formed loaves, the cloche that was used, a loose wet stretched loaf set in a rocket-hot cloche and slashed, finished loaves (first photo).

These loaves contain approximately 1/3 whole wheat. You can see the difference in lift that difference in percentage of whole wheat makes, from 50% down 30%, the oven rise as they say, the crumb and the crust are altered completely. I could feel these loaves are not as light or as hollow as 25% whole-wheat loaves by merely lifting them from the cloche. They will be more dense than ordinary sourdough loaves, but not nearly as dense as the previous batch, and that's a good thing for their intended purpose.

These loaves will be for a dinner party tonight. The one thing the host knows how to cook is chili, so that's what we're having. I'm bringing this bread in lieu of wine, because honestly, to take wine there, although always welcome, would be tantamount to bringing Newcastles™ into Newcastle, if you know what I mean. At any rate, dense intense bread would not do, guests would think something went wrong instead of knowing something is right.

Making your own sourdough culture. For the record, once again, here is how you can collect your own sourdough culture of yeast cells and bacteria. The two methods are similar to one another and they're both quite easy, child's play, actually. 1) Make a slurry with flour and water. Cover and keep at 95℉ / 35℃ for 24 hours. Done. 2) Make a slurry with flour and water. Cover with an open fabric like cheesecloth, or a woman's nylon. Set in the open air for three days. Cover and keep at 95℉ / 35℃ for 24 hours. Done. What? Sound too easy? Elaboration: 1) Make a slurry of flour and water, say, 1/2 cup each or 1 cup each, doesn't matter. It should be about the viscosity of pancake batter. Cover it with a lid to the jar, a plate on the bowl, plasticine wrap, whatever. Take it to a spot that is consistently warm or make a spot that is consistently warm, say, with a light bulb of low wattage and a towel covering both the light and the jar. Target temperature is 95℉ / 35℃, not to exceed 100℉ / 38℃. If the contents in the jar does exceed 100℉ / 38℃ then everybody DIES and the project is ruined !!!!!eleven!!!!111111. I'm kidding. Ed Woods of Sourdough International renown (scientist) suggests using a cardboard box with a weak lamp, but I find that complication is not necessary. He's concerned the freeze-dried cultures he's marketing are successful -- customer satisfaction, and all that. I turn the stove to low and drape a towel over the burner that's a chimney for the oven, the towel also covers the jar. Setting it directly on the burner, the heat coming up from the oven is too hot, and leaving it uncovered, the air is too cool. I check it occasionally to make sure the temperature underneath the towel is about right. The method has never failed. Within 24 hours bubbles WILL appear, if not actual foam, and you can consider yourself successful. You can proceed with adding water, flour, salt, and get on with making a bread sponge to be either aged in cold storage for a few days to ferment, or made directly into bread dough. Be sure to save a portion for the next batch. Naturally, this method captures and develops the flavors inherent in the combination of organisms that are already present in the flour which is most likely a combination of grain from several sources. The same thing can be done with single-source grain. In that case, take wheat grain (bins at Whole Foods) and process it to dust in a coffee grinder or a mill, use that for the flour in the same kind of slurry. The result will be specific to the source of that one particular grain, most likely a single field, possibly even somewhere nearby, like a neighboring state. Isn't that neat-o mosquito? This need be done only once. After this, any additional water/flour added to the mixture can be done at room temperature. A small portion of the mixture, say, 1/2 cup or so should be saved in the refrigerator to start new batches of sponge or dough at room temperature. Usually, bakers like to reinvigorate the sponge for a day or two through successive feedings to bring the culture to full activity, rather than sluggish putzing around. Come'on, if cowboys could make this work, you can too. 2) You can make a slurry out of flour and collect airborne yeast for a few days in your location and build up enough organisms in your slurry that they collectively overcome the organisms that are in the flour. Cover a bowl of slurry with cheesecloth, a metal strainer, splatter guard, woman's hose, anything to keep bugs and debris out. Three days in the open air will certainly do it, even in winter. A hot windy day is best, my theory is, unhappy airborne organisms that are dislodged from their origins are shoved with great force directly into the slurry by the motion of the air. You can collect enough on a good windy day within a single hour. Then heat for 24 hours the same as the first method. 3) You can experiment yourself and compare the results from the airborne culture in the slurry you collected with a plain slurry straight from the flour bag. Heat them together but in separate jars and have a race. I've found the collected slurry is actually slower to culiminate, and the differences in the resulting cultures, how they bake, rise, the resulting crumb, crust, the speed the yeast works, etc., along with how they taste ultimately, is very distinct, enough so that the separate cultures need to have their own name. Do this with your kids, and amaze their impressionable little minds permanently.