bread 'fail'

[canesisters]

I tried (again) making bread last night. Basic, simple, whole wheat bread.


I can't quite call it a 'fail' because, let’s face it, the purpose of bread is to transport melted butter - and it does this very well. But it was doughy in the middle. I mean, gooey!! It was ok for about 2” in from the crust.
Maybe didn't rise enough? I baked it about 5 mins longer than called for... actually; I was folding laundry and didn't hear the timer go off.. Maybe tried to make too large of loaves?? These are about 8-10" across.
It was a basic recipe of flour/yeast/salt/ water - mix - kneed - rise - shape - rise - bake (425 - 20 mins).
I baked them in 2 tall stock pots instead of loaf pans because I wanted round loaves.
TOTAL NEWBIE who has yet to make a successful (crusty, fluffly, light-ish, yummy all the way through) loaf. Any suggestions??????

 

[buckabucka]

DH puts 1 T. of gluten per cup of flour in whole wheat bread. It will give it a better (less dense) texture.
Also, if you get a thermometer, like the kind you would stick in a roast, the internal temperature of the bread needs to be 190 degrees to be cooked through.
DH has always baked our bread until this summer, when a really good bakery opened up! I think the bakery loaves are only part whole wheat, but the loaves are great!

 

[thistlebloom]

They don't look done to me, and 20 minutes doesn't seem near long enough and 425 sounds like too high a temp too.
Heck, maybe it's your recipes fault?

Was it a two loaf recipe?

I have a quick 2 hour wholewheat recipe that comes out great every time.
You can make round loaves on a baking sheet too. They come out a bit more rustic, but good.

 

[canesisters]

The recipe actually said something like "shape the dough into a few Itialian loaf shapes", so maybe there wasn't enough time for my much larger loaves to bake through.
Can I get your recipe, please?

 

[seedcorn]

425 does seem high heat and 20 minutes is short and I make 1/2 LB. Loafs. Would think outside like rock with inside dough.

 

[ninnymary]

The temperature is too high and the bread is browning/cooking on the outside too fast. That's why the middle is still raw. I bake my bread at 350 for 25 minutes. Comes out perfect every time. I have a recipe for whole wheat bread where it uses all wheat flour. But it's for a bread machine.

Mary

 

[thistlebloom]

Here you go Cane-

This is from a whole wheat cookbook that my grandma Nathalie gave me when I was 18.

QUICK 2-HOUR BUTTER CRUST BREAD

3 cups warm water
3 pkgs. yeast
1/3 cup honey
3 Tbsp. oil

6-61/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. salt
1 cup powdered milk

Mix water, yeast, honey, and oil.
Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. (sift? I just stir the flour well before I measure)
[Also, you probably know to add flour gradually, stirring well between each addition, and only add enough to make it workable when you knead. More flour is added on the kneading board as you work it.]

Let stand in warm place for 15 minutes.

Knead well for 10 minutes.

Form into loaves and place into 2 well greased loaf pans.
(you can form them into rounds and put them on a baking sheet if you like)

Let rise in warm oven15 minutes (80-85 degrees)

*Remove bread from oven and heat to 350 degrees.

Replace bread in hot oven and bake 50-55 minutes. Brush top with butter.

*VERY IMPORTANT! Haha- learn from my experience.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I use warm milk instead of water because I rarely have powdered milk on hand, and lots of times I use half whole wheat and half unbleached white.

ETA- I think that the amount of flour any bread recipe calls for is variable. It depends on the moisture content of the flour, the type of flour, stoneground, etc. So I just add flour until I get soft workable dough. It's better to add less, than more.

 

[sumi]

I bake bread for 1 hour at 356*F (180*C). To check if it's baked through I tip it out of the pan and tap the bottom of the loaves. If it sounds "hollow" it's ready.

Another fun thing you can try with bread is a rolled herb loaf. Make a batch of ordinary bread dough, let it rise, knead it down, then roll it out to about 1.5inches thick. Paint with olive oil (optional) then sprinkle fresh or dried herbs and chopped sun dried tomatoes over it before rolling it up. Place in a bread pan and bake as I said above. It's delicious!

 

[canesisters]

THANK YALL!!!
I'll try again tomorrow night.

So... um.... any suggestions what to do with the crusty dough balls?
Maybe freeze and toss to the chickens. They can peck at the cold dough all afternoon.

 

[NwMtGardener]

If it were winter, Cane, i'd say you could break those crusty loaves up in the bottom of a bowl and top with some kind of yummy soup - french onion, creamy broccoli, etc. or you could cut them into croutons and toast a bit more for salad croutons. But the chickies will probably like them too!