A question for the bread bakers on here…

I’ve been making wholemeal bread for a while, by hand, and got it down to a pretty good routine.

But while the moisture and crumb are pretty good, it still feels not quite as light and fluffy as it could. Just wondering whether there’s anything I can do to make it a bit lighter. Is it about the kneading? A special ingredient? Or is that just the nature of wholemeal?

Cheers all

I make my own bread using the Dove Farm recipe and wholemeal flour. A chi-chi bakery would call the result ‘rustic’! It tastes delicious but it’s what I would call ‘substantial’ rather than light and springy like a lot of bread. Personally I much prefer it, you don’t need to eat as much to be full and anything else seems tasteless and lacking presence

Check the protein content of the flour. A higher protein content should, if the gluten is good quality, hold gas better. You could possibly add a touch more sugar or use the same amount of caster sugar instead of granulated to generate more gas from the yeast.
But as Brooess says proper bread is heavy duty stuff compared to plant bakery bread.

IIRC wholemeal is just a heavier flour and the only way to lighten it is mix in some white, which probably isn’t what you wanted to hear but I might be wrong,

I would recommend letting it rise overnight and then prove for about an hour. More rise and better flavour.
I have recently changed the habits of a lifetime and given up long kneading. Mix in liquid, let it stand ten minutes while gluten firms, and knead lightly in the bowl for a minute or so.
Still fairly “substantial” though

Thanks all. I use about the same weight of sugar as yeast, to make it more airy, although I’m aware of not wanting the bread to be too sweet.

Adding white is a good point, might try thtat next time around.

Cheers

I add treacle to my wholemeal loaf recipe. Provides extra sugar and flavour but doesn’t make it taste too sweet

Try reducing the amount of salt (lets the yeast work more)

Spray some water in the oven at the same time as you put the loaf in (it will thin the crust and might let it expand more)

I knew someone who put vitamin C into the bread mix as well to help the yeast work but I’ve never tried it

Your bread will come alive 😉

Vitamin C, or should that be 650C, making your yeast feel more alive.

Sugar will give you a quicker rise but isn’t necessary, yeast can manage just fine with the flour alone. Well developed gluten slows the leakage of CO2 from the dough which is what gives you a good rise. If you’re using bread flour it’s probably got all the gluten you need, but you could try looking for one with a higher protein content, it’s always on the packet. Also, is your dough wet enough? Too dry and it’ll struggle to hold up.

The type of flour makes a huge difference – Bacheldre is totally different texture from Waitrose organic for example. Simply adding white is probably the answer though. I’ve settled on about 60:40 B:W for my ‘brown’ loaves and buns.

Some useful stuff Here

Though as you have probably found out home baking isn’t always consistent despite your best efforts, even plant bakeries get odd results from time to time.

As Sandwich said gluten quality is important & sadly just the pure protein number doesn’t always guarantee the quality as the gluten could have been added during process to boost lower quality wheat.

You would be surprised the variance of baking results we get from 300 Tonne runs of flour made with the same variety of wheat from the same farm, this is one area where I’m afraid the Canadians have us beaten, vast prairies of wheat with consistent soil.

The UK’s complicated geology and relative lumpiness makes it hard to get 1000’s of tonnes of wheat the same.

It is worth paying that little bit extra for quality flour IMO

Switch flour type / Vit C?

Our mixed bread went from being fluffy, nicely risen, to a solid lump on about two weeks – this would be maybe 2-4 months ago. Put it down to Tesco bread flour (white) swapping supplier. Up the Vit Cdose and swapped to M&S bread flour restored a good loaf.

‘Fluffy’ brown bread from shops is achieved with flour treatment agents I believe. I’ve never managed it with pure whole meal flour. As above a mix can work quite well.

Have you tried a no kneading/dutch oven loaf? That gives me the best bread I’ve ever made and a very light airy crumb.

it still feels not quite as light and fluffy as it could.

You mean you want it to be more like bread produces using the Chorleywood process?
They use flour improvers and industrial processes to somehow trap air in dough

What you have is probably what real bread tastes like IMHO

Wholemeal is always heavier than White no matter what you do and I have never made a light fluffy wholemeal loaf

My loaves have come out a little softer since I started doing 50/50 wholemeal with Spelt. Still ‘rustic’ though.

I think Junkyard has it – any bread manufactured in large quantities isn’t proper bread…

its true almost every shop bought loaf could be squashed into a little ball with very little effort, imagine trying that with your own bread.
you cannot make it like that IMHO – certainly not with wholemeal
IME it never even rises as much as white even with sourdoughs and slow rises etc

IME 100% wholemeal ends up like a brick.

I tend to go for up to 50/50 wholemeal to white ratio, same with rye, much better texture but still very definitely a wholemeal (or rye) loaf.

I use a slightly wetter dough than for white, longer prove as well (maybe an extra hour).

I’ve always used some strong white (~40-50%) along with the wholemeal and rye or spelt, and get a pretty reasonable loaf. Like others said, it’s never going to be as light and fluffy as factory stuff.
I do get better results doing an initial prove, knocking back, shaping and then 2nd prove. That’s using quick action yeast.

Lots of good info here

http://www.reddit.com/r/breadit

A little (up to 10%) oatmeal can add a good texture to a mixed wholemeal and white loaf. I swap between both fine and medium oatmeal, sometimes add some flaked oats but all generally almost disapear in the general texture of the loaf. Nice though.

Ooh, some good info here.

Salt: I’ve accidentally left it out before, and didn’t like the results. It may have been a lighter crumb, but the flavour was a downer.
Hadn’t heard of the vitamin C trick, so will try that.

And apart from that it sounds like just experimenting with other ingredients – white, oatmeal etc – is the way to go.

Cheers all!

Agree that 100% whole meal will always give you a pretty ‘dense’ loaf, my standard is 60/40 WM/ white. WM can always use a bit more yeast, and you don’t say how long you’re kneeding and proving.

I kneed my mix for at least 15mins and it will require a second prove