Whole wheat bread recipe not turning out
I have a 100% whole wheat recipe. I am new to bread baking. I have had this recipe turn out only once. My question is how would i know if my recipe is correct with "normal" ratio's of the ingredients. i know the more experience you have the more you can "push" the boundaries of bread baking. would you have any suggestions on how to know if i have a good recipe or one i need to make adjustments for. unfortunately i don't know how to make adjustments. any help would be a blessing. Thank you in advance, Lisa
Best Answer
We have a whole wheat sandwich bread recipe that works just fine. It is certainly possible to get it right every time. As you noticed- if you want to be able to both chew and swallow your bread it does require extra gluten.
To improve your recipe- or at least make it more repeatable- it will help to switch it over to weights. Just make it as you normally would by volume but weigh each ingredient as you measure it out and write it down. You can then reliably tweak your ratios and enjoy predictability of your product.
Baking bread by weight, besides not being as affected by the weather, is also much faster. You don't have to carefully scoop out level cups anymore- you just dump in flour from the bag until the weight is correct.
I will also second the comment above that you might experiment a little bit with a recipe with half whole wheat or less so you can build some experience with what a properly hydrated dough looks like. If you have kids it also helps to break them in to the bitter flavors more gradually.
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Why did my bread not turn out?
1. Your bread didn't turn out because the yeast you're using is old/bad/expired. Clearly, you need decent yeast to make a decent loaf of yeast bread. Without decent yeast, your dough will not rise and instead of a fluffy loaf of bread, you will have a brick of bread dough.Why does my bread not turn out fluffy?
Dense or heavy bread can be the result of not kneading the dough long enough. Mixing the salt and yeast together or Losing patience in the middle of molding your bread and there is not enough tension in your finished loaf before baking.Why is my whole wheat bread so dense?
The reason why whole wheat loaves end up so dense is because whole wheat flour has very little gluten as compared to white all-purpose flour. Gluten is important for giving the dough \u2013 and final loaves \u2013 structure. Without it, loaves tend to end up flat and dense.What could cause the whole wheat loaf to not rise?
Many of you love to take a favorite yeast bread recipe and make it more nutritious by adding whole wheat (or rye, or oats, or bran, or...) That's fine; but those flours and grains don't provide the stretchy network of gluten all-purpose flour does, and thus these whole grain loaves won't rise as well.Whole wheat bread made easy at home
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Answer 2
Lisa,
Another possible cause of your bread issues is kneading time. Whole wheat flour requires a lot more kneading to develop its gluten than AP or white bread flour does. If you're not kneading the dough for at least 20 minutes, you're probably not kneading it enough, which would then lead to the loaf not rising properly.
Answer 3
Whole wheat flour really doesn't behave the same as AP or Bread flour. If you are new to baking, I would strongly suggest doing a few practice batches using AP or Bread flour until you have your technique down, and have a good idea of what the dough is "supposed" to feel like when everything is right. After that, step up to 1/2 wheat flour and 1/2 white, and see how that behaves.
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