Baking Whole Wheat Bread, by Raj B. Apte

How to Bake Bread (and keep your job)

Raj B Apte

Matadero Creek Bakery, Brewery, Cidery, Winery, Dairy, etc.

I love naturally fermented breads, both whole and partial wheat. But many of the recipes you find require 3-6 hour risings that are incompatible with my lazy, employed lifestyle. This document describes how to bake a very nice loaf of bread without waiting. The technique uses dough that rises in the fridge, and the flavor is clean and wheaten.

Barm:

Starting a barm is easy and fun. And much simpler that you think (the literature and web are full of rubbish about how to do this). First, establish a temperature and hydration that you intend to use. In this case, its 5C (refrigerator) and 100% hydration (equal masses of flour and water). Mix up 100g of dough, put it into a small mason jar, and set it for 1 week in the fridge. Refresh after a week by discarding half, and adding 25g flour and 25g water. Repeat daily until you develop some leavening power: the dough should rise at least 50% in 24 hours and maybe double. The more active it gets, discard a bit more each time (and increase the flour and water addition) until you are keeping 20g of barm and adding 40g of flour and water, each. You now have a barm. Take care of it, but don't be alarmed if it changes on you from time to time. If it doesn't tast or smell good, chuck it and start over.

Introduction:

My bread uses whole wheat flour, water, salt, and malt extract flour. The malt extract is to give a bit of extra sugar to the loaf and to add a touch of malty flavour. Honey is a great substitute, and omission of the fourth ingredient is just fine. So let's review the big three:

Flour: I use Joseph's Best hard red wheat flour from Certified Foods in San Leandro. If you live anywhere in the civilized world (Northen California), give them a call and order up a 20kg sack. If you cannot move to California, don't give up hope—maybe you can someday. In the meantime, find a stone-milled high-protein whole wheat flour that is not overheated during milling. Use within 6 months.

Water: Use a charcoal filter to treat your tap water. This reduces the chlorine levels and helps clear up any off flavors. If your tap water is not fit to drink, you have bigger problems than baking bread. Hardness is not really a problem in moderation, but if you must use softened water, you may need to adjust the salt level.

Salt: Use salt free of additives. I use coarse canning salt or a nice sea salt (Paludier brand).

Bulk Dough

Start with 100g of barm. In the course of a day or two, feed (without discarding any) until you have 550g of barm. When this barm doubles in size (another day or so in the fridge), you are ready to mix the dough. Combine: 500g barm, 500g flour, 400g water, 15g salt, and 15g malt powder (honey, or omit). Mix with a spoon for 10 minutes. I use a coarse salt that takes a while to dissolve. This mimics the classic technique of adding the salt after the first mix. The dough should stick to the bowl, but pull away when stirred. Dump the dough into a clear plastic dough-rising box, put a rubber band around the outside to mark the level of the dough, and put it into the fridge. The dough is ready for punch-down and panning when it doubles (use the rubber band to judge).

Shaping

Dump the dough from the rising box onto a floured surface. Dust with enough flour to pull flat and degass. Perform a rough turn: stretch the dough and fold left and right thirds over the center, then fold top and bottom thirds onto center. Press flat, stretch, and repeat. You can wait 15 minutes and do this again, or just get on with the shaping. I will not describe shaping because there are very good references (Peter Reinhart's books are great). I use a batard shape, which I place onto a floured cloth (couche) and into a wicker basket. Cost Plus Imports has very nice bread rising baskets (sold without reference to baking). I then wrap the entire basket in duck canvas and place in the fridge. A day later, when it has risen (almost doubled), it's ready for baking.

Baking

The most important elements in baking bread are stone and water. For a stone, I use a refractory kiln shelf purchased from a local ceramics store. My stone fits my oven perfectly (a 4cm margin on all four sides) and is 2-3cm thick; I place it on a rack in the center of the oven. I takes about 45 minutes for the IR thermometer (which you absolutely MUST have) to indicate that the stone has preheated to 550F. When the oven and stone are all at 550F, gather a metal baking (cake) pan, a straight razor, and 500ml of boiling water (fill a measuring cup and throw it in the microwave). Place pan on bottom of oven. Remove the dough from the fridge and gently roll onto a peel dusted previously with coarse semolina or cornmeal. Dock with straight razor (I use the same one I shave with, so I know the blade is always sharp), flip dough onto stone, and pour water into pan (don't steam yourself!). Close the oven and, after 2-3 minutes, turn oven down to 450F. Bake 10 more minutes at 450, open oven and remove pan, and turn oven down to 350. Bake for 40 more minutes, until interior temperature is 97C. Since the dough is so wet, it takes a lot of baking or the bread will be too wet and will spoil. Let cool for 1 hour before cutting.

Keeping

I keep bread in a wooden box, a metal box, or wrapped in duck canvas. It stays good for a week or more, but you have to keep an eye out for the moisture level. As it dries, try to conserve the moisure, but the fresh loaf is too moist for close keeping.