As part of my diet and exercise program, some of my pre-exercise snacks call for whole wheat bread products. Since these can get a bit expensive, I've decided to try my hand at various forms of bread making. This one is whole wheat sandwich bread.
I started with the recipe at the An Oregon Cottage website. Seemed like a simple recipe with basic ingredients. Upon measuring the first ingredient, however, I was off on a tangent. It seems my bag of flour weighs more than it says. A 1/4 cup of flour should weigh 30 grams, meaning a full cup should be 120 grams, but my measuring cup puts a full cup at 160 grams. Which is correct? According to the King Arthur Flour website, it should be 4 ounces, which converts to ≈120 grams. A flour measurement converter available at the Traditional Oven website changes 1 cup of whole wheat flour to 120 grams. Therefore, I am converting the recipe to 120 grams of flour per cup.
The recipe also calls for “warm water” but does not give a temperature. Fortunately, the bag of flour I purchased has a recipe, and that recipe gives the degree range for “warm” water. The water is supposed to be 110°-115°F, so I pulled out my handy dandy Food Network instant read thermometer that I haven’t used since culinary class. The water coming out of my faucet exceeds 130° degrees. I tried to get the water to come out at a more precise temperature. That was futile. Hence, I put the water in the mixing bowl and am just going to wait for it to get down to the proper temperature before proceeding.
At 112.2°F, I proceeded. The flour and water are to be combined with the yeast to “sponge.” A sponge is a pre-fermented dough made as a starter for the final dough, according to the Video Bread website. It should be thoroughly mixed, whereas my recipe only says combine. My bread may already be ruined! At ≈7 minutes into the sponge, I mixed it up; I also rephrased the recipe to indicate it should be thoroughly mixed. On continuing my sponge investigation, I find the sponge method is actually something that should take place over a longer period of time, from 12-48 hours depending on the recipe. Again, I shall have to see if this recipe creates a usable product.
With the three ingredients combined, I put them under my paddle attachment. Within seconds, the dough separated from the sides of the bowl, which the recipe states is the next stage; so I changed to the dough hook. The recipe says to add tablespoons of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the sides. After 8 tablespoons of flour, the recipe's maximum, the dough was still sticking to the sides. I took the dough off the hook at the 7-minute mark, divided it into two 750-gram pieces, and placed the pieces in oiled loaf pans to rise. The warm place I chose was the top of my refrigerator.
While it is rising, I have gone back to the original website to see if I missed anything. It has pictures of all the stages. My bread is nowhere near as nice looking as the pictures. First, it is apparent that the first three ingredients are mixed thoroughly before proceeding. They are even already under the paddle attachment, so I am making another change to my instructions to do the combining under the paddle. Comparing other pictures, I changed to the dough hook at the proper time, but my kneaded dough never achieved the texture of the original loaf. Perhaps this person used more flour due to using cups rather than scales. Next time, I will keep adding flour at the end until it achieves the smooth look.
Checking my rising loaves at the 30-minute mark, they are growing nicely. One of them is already over the top of the pan, so I switched their locations on the fridge to try to keep them even. At 45 minutes, both loaves are well on their way to the recipe's 1”-2” rise above pan with 15 minutes to go. Maybe I didn't ruin it after all. The oven gets turned on in a few minutes.
Now out of the oven, the loaves aren't as high as they need to be for “sandwich” bread, but they thump hollow, so they should be fully cooked. I will have to extend the rise time next go around. Upon tasting the bread, it wasn't too far afield from the taste of store-bought bread. However, I felt quite satisfied, something I never got from store-bought bread.
PS: Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was so busy trying to follow the recipe that I didn't snap any shots. If the recipe works, I will take pictures of the next batch and add them to this post.
As always, I welcome your comments. Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.
I started with the recipe at the An Oregon Cottage website. Seemed like a simple recipe with basic ingredients. Upon measuring the first ingredient, however, I was off on a tangent. It seems my bag of flour weighs more than it says. A 1/4 cup of flour should weigh 30 grams, meaning a full cup should be 120 grams, but my measuring cup puts a full cup at 160 grams. Which is correct? According to the King Arthur Flour website, it should be 4 ounces, which converts to ≈120 grams. A flour measurement converter available at the Traditional Oven website changes 1 cup of whole wheat flour to 120 grams. Therefore, I am converting the recipe to 120 grams of flour per cup.
The recipe also calls for “warm water” but does not give a temperature. Fortunately, the bag of flour I purchased has a recipe, and that recipe gives the degree range for “warm” water. The water is supposed to be 110°-115°F, so I pulled out my handy dandy Food Network instant read thermometer that I haven’t used since culinary class. The water coming out of my faucet exceeds 130° degrees. I tried to get the water to come out at a more precise temperature. That was futile. Hence, I put the water in the mixing bowl and am just going to wait for it to get down to the proper temperature before proceeding.
At 112.2°F, I proceeded. The flour and water are to be combined with the yeast to “sponge.” A sponge is a pre-fermented dough made as a starter for the final dough, according to the Video Bread website. It should be thoroughly mixed, whereas my recipe only says combine. My bread may already be ruined! At ≈7 minutes into the sponge, I mixed it up; I also rephrased the recipe to indicate it should be thoroughly mixed. On continuing my sponge investigation, I find the sponge method is actually something that should take place over a longer period of time, from 12-48 hours depending on the recipe. Again, I shall have to see if this recipe creates a usable product.
With the three ingredients combined, I put them under my paddle attachment. Within seconds, the dough separated from the sides of the bowl, which the recipe states is the next stage; so I changed to the dough hook. The recipe says to add tablespoons of flour to keep the dough from sticking to the sides. After 8 tablespoons of flour, the recipe's maximum, the dough was still sticking to the sides. I took the dough off the hook at the 7-minute mark, divided it into two 750-gram pieces, and placed the pieces in oiled loaf pans to rise. The warm place I chose was the top of my refrigerator.
While it is rising, I have gone back to the original website to see if I missed anything. It has pictures of all the stages. My bread is nowhere near as nice looking as the pictures. First, it is apparent that the first three ingredients are mixed thoroughly before proceeding. They are even already under the paddle attachment, so I am making another change to my instructions to do the combining under the paddle. Comparing other pictures, I changed to the dough hook at the proper time, but my kneaded dough never achieved the texture of the original loaf. Perhaps this person used more flour due to using cups rather than scales. Next time, I will keep adding flour at the end until it achieves the smooth look.
Checking my rising loaves at the 30-minute mark, they are growing nicely. One of them is already over the top of the pan, so I switched their locations on the fridge to try to keep them even. At 45 minutes, both loaves are well on their way to the recipe's 1”-2” rise above pan with 15 minutes to go. Maybe I didn't ruin it after all. The oven gets turned on in a few minutes.
Now out of the oven, the loaves aren't as high as they need to be for “sandwich” bread, but they thump hollow, so they should be fully cooked. I will have to extend the rise time next go around. Upon tasting the bread, it wasn't too far afield from the taste of store-bought bread. However, I felt quite satisfied, something I never got from store-bought bread.
PS: Sorry for the lack of pictures. I was so busy trying to follow the recipe that I didn't snap any shots. If the recipe works, I will take pictures of the next batch and add them to this post.
As always, I welcome your comments. Click on the Comment link below; it may say "No" or have a number in front of it.
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