Whole wheat bread, volunteer culture

Have you ever noticed how books on bread baking always say to wait an hour after the bread is removed from the oven before tearing into it? They explain the bread is not done for at least an hour, that chemical changes continue to occur following removal from the oven, that it's not good to slice it immediately. Then, without exception, they all admit, they ALL admit, to not being able to resist. So I say, why bother? Go ahead and cut it immediately. It's never better. How's that for counter-revolutionary?

The leaven of this bread is produced by the organisms present on the grain from which the flour was milled. In large measure, those organisms are also responsible for the bread's flavor, but not entirely, as the whole wheat grain contributes significant flavor. This bread was not fermented in the usual sense by retardation through cool storage, a period that allows the bacterial portion of the culture to work its specific magic, creating an increased acid environment within the dough we reference as tang. It must be added that because the proofing periods are so long and because there are multiple feedings, all that really does amount to a period of fermentation although not as much as when a retarding period is included, especially so when compared with bread produced from commercial single-strain yeast within a matter of hours or even a single day. What this means is you can achieve bread with greater depth and broader flavor profile using convenient and powerful commercial yeast by chilling and aging the dough for a few days, at least overnight as pizza makers do.

This loaf is 100% whole wheat. It is a by-product of another experiment that cultivated organisms from grain over a period of several days at room temperature to produce natural bread the usual way including the usual fermentation period and using the usual combination of whole-wheat and all purpose flours. The process of cultivating organisms from yeast is not shown here. It will appear up there ↑ in a future post when that bread completes its fermentation. That cultivation of organisms from the grain began with only the grain but then switched to milled grain + A/P flour. But before the switch was made, a few tablespoons of the culture were reserved to initiate a separate batch of culture using pure 100% whole-wheat. That's where these photos pick up.

Tuesday 02/26/2010 2:30PM

This is a small ball of starter withheld from the immediately previous starter developed from soft white wheat grain. The ball was fed with an equal weight of water and enough milled grain to form a stiff sponge. ↓

The intention is to produce a loaf of 100% whole wheat, keeping in mind what is understood about the milled husks present in whole wheat cutting protein strands thus preventing the dough from rising normally without being augmented usually with at least an equal amount of high protein bread flour often twice as much. I may consider not kneading it at all but rather rely primarily on chemical leaven. The problem with that idea is the batter (sponge in bread terms) would need to be baked immediately following the final feeding because baking soda begins immediately, including the baking soda that comprises the bulk of baking powder, although a portion of it is activated by heat.

Tuesday 01/26/2010 11:35 PM, The sponge looks like this ↓ nine hours following the first feeding. Now, after feeding again it looks like this ↓↓ having doubled its liquid portion, about one cup, possibly more, and enough whole wheat flour to form a stiff dough (with the certainty it will loosen considerably as it proof and formed into a loaf. I decided not to add chemical leaven. I did add salt, and that's what seems to have abruptly arrested yeast development in the last experiments. I like to live dangerously. Also, the last time I used heat to get the organisms started and I did not do that this time. So right there are two rather significant differences.

At this point I have a choice. I was considering baking the wet sponge to see if that would result in greater oven-rise. That was my plan all along. On impulse I decided to stiffen the dough instead, knead it normally, and produce a loaf. You can see the loaf doubled in size.

Wednesday 01/27/2010 9:30AM Ten hours proofing. You can see the dough has filled out the pan and approximately doubled.

No oven rise. :-( This is ever the case. This absence of oven-rise makes me want to experiment with batter. I'm thinking the larger air bubbles that you can see in the jar will expand by heat. Those bubbles don't get as large inside densely compacted dough. My fear is that the loaf will collapse while baking or that I will not be able to get it out of the pan without destroying the loaf. I suppose there's only one way to find out.

Did I mention this stuff is indescribably delicious. It's why I'm such a terrible bread snob. I mean it. I cannot stand bread done quickly. It seems like such a regrettable waste of perfectly good wheat and the ruin of sandwiches. It makes me want to have a war with no-class bread.