Brown bread using whole wheat flour?
 

A friend who does not have access to the Internet, asked if I would find a
bread-making recipe for brown bread that incorporates whole wheat flour.

Her current recipe which makes a batch of four loaves, uses white flour and
oatmeal. She wants to experiment and produce a brown bread that will be
healthier, and uses whole wheat flour.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Yours, aye

Mike Campbell

The so called special recipe is a myth... breadmaking is 10% theory
and 90% practice.
If she already understood the basics of breadmaking then she can easily
adapt the recipe she is used to variations in flour compositions.
There is no specific recipe for such bread,it ....it is just like any
white bread, but you just have to exercise the same care as with your
oatmeal and white flour blend That is mixing the dough may not be
extensive as with using pure white flour.
You can add your own ingredients such as honey or molasses,butter and
even nutmeats to contribute some difference in taste and texture.
Let her try using wholewheat flour or much better the coarser
wholemeal flour and replace part or totally all the white flour in the
recipe.
For a start let her use the 60/40 blend by weight of white flour and
whole wheat. flour She may have to add more water as they whole wheat
flour ( to get the desired dough consistency is absorptive )if compared
to white flour.
use the hardwheat wholegrain flours and not the softwheat wholegrain
flours as that has stronger gluten quality.
It is best also to use a strong white flour in admixture with
wholegrain flours to get better bread volume.
Once she succeeded with partial replacement of white flour with whole
grain flours she can increase the ratio of the latter until she reached
the point that she is using 100% of the wholegrain flours in her
favorite recipe.
Its better for her to learn the feel of the dough gradually with her
recipe than' jumping to use ' a different recipe she is not familiar
with.
Roy

On Tue, 03 May 2005 23:07:42 GMT, "Mike Campbell"
> wrote:

>A friend who does not have access to the Internet, asked if I would find a
>bread-making recipe for brown bread that incorporates whole wheat flour.
>
>Her current recipe which makes a batch of four loaves, uses white flour and
>oatmeal. She wants to experiment and produce a brown bread that will be
>healthier, and uses whole wheat flour.

Start replacing the oatmeal with WW flour a half cup at a time.
Making ALL WW flour bread has never worked for me...since it is so
heavy the yeast can't raise the flour.

Experimenting and a couple of dozen batches will get to the exact
formula she will like.



The Fine Art of Cooking involves personal choice.
Many preferences, ingredients, and procedures may not
be consistent with what you know to be true.
As with any recipe, you may find your personal
intervention will be necessary. Bon Appetit!

Mike Campbell wrote:

>A friend who does not have access to the Internet, asked if I would find a
>bread-making recipe for brown bread that incorporates whole wheat flour.
>
>Her current recipe which makes a batch of four loaves, uses white flour and
>oatmeal. She wants to experiment and produce a brown bread that will be
>healthier, and uses whole wheat flour.
>
>Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.
>
>
As a number of people have commented, making an all whole wheat bread
isn't easy. However, it is far from impossible.

I'll give you three pointers. Two are to recipes on my web site. The
first is for Myrtle Allen's Brown Bread, a nice and easy yeased recipe
from James Beard's "Beard On Bread". I use it as a part of my
"Introduction to Baking" section. Look at
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/bakingintro1.html for more information.
The next is a 100% whole wheat sourdough bread that is modified from a
recipe in Laurel Robertson's "Bread From Laurel's Kitchen". Look at
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/100percentwholewheat.html and
http://www.sourdoughhome.com/laurelsloaf.html

Also, if you are trying to make whole grain breads, the best book I have
found is Laurel Robertson's book. Just because a bread is made with
whole wheat doesn't mean it has to be heavy. You can get it at a good
price at half.com, or borrow it for free from most libraries.

Mike

Thank you, Roy, Ida, and Mike for your comments, suggestions, and for the
Myrtle Allen Brown Bread recipe. All were appreciated and will be passed on
to my friend. This is a superb group. The wealthy of knowledge and the
generosity with which it is shared is wonderful. Thanks again.

Mike Campbell