FoodBanter.com - View Single Post - Using whole wheat flour in recipes from The Italian Baker by Carol Field? Which whole wheat flour?

wrote:
> Roy,
>
> Thanks for the response. I am following Laurel's Bread Book because
it
> is supposed to "the guide" regarding using whole wheat flour.
However
> most of the loaves in this book seem to be "sandwich" style which is
> not what I want.
>
> So I'm feeling kind of lost. I don't know how to look at recipe and
> know if I will get the holey kind of texture I am looking for rather
> than the dense sandwich kind of loaf.

A sandwich load is indeed dense due to the firmer doughs, optimum
mixing/dough development and tight molding process.
Many of those holey breads usually have softer doughs and because of
that texture there is a tendency for it to become more open
grained.Artisanal loaves are usually moulded into boules, batards and
blooomers not in pullman loaves.
The degree of mixing can also influence the crumb grain, a more
developed dough tend to result into even grain lighter crumb and
bigger volume . In comparison a less developed dough results in
uneven grain, slightly darker crumb with slightly less volume and I
think that is what you are looking for.A bread with more substance not
gas.
Therefore....
Mix the dough to half or just a maximum of two thirds developed but
give it more fermentation time and knockdowns, don't degass it much (
just like in sandwich breads preparation)but just fold the dough gently
in every knockdowns so that you will maintain the unevenness in grain.
Whether you mold it tighthy or a bit less doesnt matter the bread will
be uneven grained( a bit holey) when baked.

> I thought maybe find a book that concentrated on a "genre" might help
> me out.

I am not in the position to agree or disagree as I am never obsessed
with any book yet occasionally do read some interesting text that
caught my fancy.
It is not any book that will really help you achieve your goals; It
should be looked only as a guide (not looked as a holy bible or
somtthing similar).
Sometimes if you have to read books you will be focused on that
particular authors technique and you will become a fanatic of it an
would stunt your intellectual growth and baking skill and that should
not be the way.Never try to shower admiration to the author but rather
see if his technique is sensible or it make sense to you and you can
ably apply( if not duplicate it).
The wisdom of reading any baking book that incidentally caught your
interest is to extract its essence and not the rote memorization of
recipes and and step by step procedure.Try to understand the recipe
and technique from the bigger picture , and see how you can apply that
in your particular case and do not forget to apply a big dose of plain
commonsense.
And that what makes a good baker, and not the one who is just a
purveyor of recipes or a collector of baking books but had not gained
any wisdom .Instead of becoming a good baker he or she become instead a
book collector or a librarian who can qoute any passage of his/her
collection but barely understood what is all about;yet unable to do it
in practice, .

> I agree I need to keep baking. In fact I'm obsessed - there are only
> two of us in the house and I've made 5 loaves in the past 2 weeks.
But
> I don't have a clue how to get the bread I'm looking for.
>
I am pleased to hear that, as there is no royal road to the attainment
of good baking skill that can replace deligent practice; whether you
are bakery tradesman or just a hobbyist baker.

Roy