Well Tracey, I would say that you were a very good student. That is one gorgeous loaf of Whole Wheat Bread. Well done.

Ann

Great job....congratulations. 12 pieces help it combine easier and more evenly with the dough. Best of Luck!

Tracey, that looks absolutely gorgeous, amazing, etc! Wow! I think I may need to give this a shot. Beautiful work :)
Nancy

Looks good Tracey. Can we please get the recipe? Just the amounts would be fine, lol, not all 90 pages. You did a good job explaining the method.

Tracey, that looks perfect to me. I've gotten so used to baking "half loaves" that I forgot what a whole loaf is supposed to look like.

As coconut mentioned, you can skip the 90 page intro, but the recipe would be nice. I have some whole wheat flour, not the white wheat, just whole wheat. I also have some rice flour, some spelt, some 10 grain cereal and some flaxseed that I need to use, somehow I can't pass up those bulk bins at Whole Foods....

Annie

Thank you all for the kind words. I will do my best to get the basic recipe down in my own words.

Soaker:
1 3/4 c (8 oz) whole wheat flour
1/2 t (.14 oz) salt
3/4 c + 2 T (7 oz) milk, buttermilk, yogurt, soy milk or rice milk

Mix together in a bowl about one minute, leave at room temp. for 12 to 24 hours covered loosely with plastic wrap. Any longer than that, place it in the fridge.

Biga:
1 3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/4 t (.03 oz) instant yeast
3/4 c (6 oz) filtered or spring water (room temp)

Mix all ingredients into a ball then knead with wet hands 2 minutes. Dough will be tacky. Let rest for 5 minutes, then knead again 1 minute. Place in fridge covered tightly with plastic wrap for minimum 8 hours to 3 days. Remove from fridge 2 hours before mixing dough.

Dough:
all the biga
all the soaker
7 T (2 oz) ww flour
5/8 t (.18 oz) salt
2 1/4 t (.25 oz) instant yeast
2 1/2 T (1.5 oz) honey or agave nectar or 3 T sugar or brown sugar
1 T melted unsalted butter or 1 T vegetable oil
extra flour

-Chop up the biga and soaker into 12 pieces each and place in stand mixer bowl. Add in all other ingredients except extra flour and mix 1 minute on low then 2-3 mins. on med. low.
-Remove from bowl to a floured work area and knead for 3-4 minutes adding extra flour as needed to get a tacky, but not sticky dough. Let rest for 5 minutes, then knead another 1 minute. Place in an oiled bowl and let it rise for 45-60 mins until it's about 1 1/2 times the original size.
-Form into whatever type of loaf you wish. If using a pan, use a greased 4x8 1/2" loaf pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise again 45-60 mins. until 1 1/2 x's it's original size.
-Preheat oven to 425° and place loaf pan in the oven. Immediately turn the temp. down to 350° and bake for 20 mins. Rotate the loaf a complete half turn and bake another 20 to 30 mins. or to 195°

Like I said, I used my own wording to speed it up so please let me know if anything is unclear. Tracey

You must be SOoooo exhausted working since Friday for one loaf of bread.(just kidding) You did a great job of paring down the BS in the recipe and putting the starter recipe in peoples hands. (which is alway open to improvisation)Thank you for that. FYI buttermilk powder in the dry ingredients and an amount of water equal to the volume of buttermilk will yield an equal result.(thus allowing you to make it spur of the moment)Honestly did it take any more time or just a little more anticipation.Throwing together a biga and soaker take what....all of 5 minutes. I will go back to lurking since my opinions aren't really welcome.

fotomat, your opinions are certainly welcome, although you and I have already crossed words about the phrasing of those opinions.

Because I seldom let my buttons get "pushed", I tend to not be the most argumentative of this group. Because our exchange was an aberration, at least for me, I'm sure you will get along fine with most of the forum members.

Annie

Tracey that look like a lovely loaf of bread. Whole wheat is my favourite and I'd love a slice of that right now with some butter and jam!

You did a good job, and thanks for taking the time to type out the recipe for us.

SharonCb

Hmmm, I'd have to say that the process was very well-explained but again, I've been making bread for awhile now. I think if I were a novice and I picked up this book, I'd be completely horrified and overwhelmed by the crazy-long introduction and all the details. The recipes themselves are not difficult to follow and I was satisfied with the results. The problematic part for me is having to plan ahead a day or two when I'm used to not deciding what's for dinner until the morning of. I have time for one more recipe before the book is due so Wed. we are going for whole wheat pizza.

Tracey

Tracey, your bread looks wonderful and I'm sure it tasted just a wonderful as it looks. Good job!!

Nancy

Tracey, good looking bread...pass the butter please! Thanks for taking the time and effort for sharing it here and the recipe too. Bread of any kind ranks right up there with desserts for me. You know, like eating scotcharoos until you are sick....LOL

David

Thanks for posting the recipe Tracey. I appreciate it.

Please let us know how your turns out Coconut!

David, as much as I love bread, I'd still choose the scotcheroos any day! And that's why I don't make them-I'd eat the entire pan myself :)

Thanks for the great pics and the recipe, Tracey. I believe I will try this soon.
I made some white bread from a food blog called "A Year in Bread" last week that turned out wonderfully. It makes 3 standard loaf pans full and we finished all three in a day and a half!
This will be a great addition to my repertoire as we really like hearty breads also.
Lisa

tracey, thank you for taking the time to post the recipe and the pictures. It looks gorgeous.

Do you think I could do it free-form on either a cookie sheet or pizza stone? If so, which one?

Ok, what am I missing--what are scotcheroos???

Thanks!

Oh, yummmmmmmm!

Thanks for the great step-by-step instructions! I've copied them and will give this a try. I'm just entering the grand bread baking adventure and everything is fascinating to me. My much heavier multi grain bread didn't even clear the top of the pan when it rose! No wonder it came out so squat and heavy! Yours is gorgeous!

One question tho - what's "instant" yeast? Is it different from the regular kind you get in the grocery store? If I use the regular kind, will it matter? Also, is it really necessary to use filtered water for the biga? We have pretty good water where I live so I'm not sure if it's to avoid places with crappy water, or if the chlorine and things added to tap water will ruin the process.

Thanks again!

Lisa

What a beautiful loaf of bread! I'm so glad you shared the pics and recipe! Was it as good as it looks? How did you eat it? With just butter?

Tracey, you have the patience of a saint, and look at the heavenly results.

Sol

Lisa, bread baking is addictive although I don't do it as much anymore because we don't eat a ton of bread. Just wait until you decide you want to try a sourdough starter-I become completely obsessed and even asked my friend to "babysit" it when I went out of town.

As far as baking it free form, I don't see any differences in instructions except scoring the loaf right before baking. There are instructions for hearth baking which include using a steam pan and baking stones/tiles. I don't have the patience for that so what I would probably do would be to place it on a baking stone covered with parchment and mist it lightly with water before baking. More experienced bakers will probably have better suggestions.

Lisa, Instant yeast vs. regular yeast from the book: "instant yeast is recommended because it can be added directly to the dough. Active dry yeast will also work, but it must be hydrated in warm water before it is added." I believe instant yeast is the same thing as bread machine yeast. I buy my instant yeast in bulk packages from Sam's club. As for the water, I think the chlorine can be a factor so that's why they say to use spring or filtered water. Please let me know how yours turns out!

It really was good bread-it's a little crumbly but not dry if that makes any sense and the flavor is awesome. No bitterness or heavy wheat taste. I don't know how much it affected the final flavor but I did use white wheat flour which is a lighter flour than traditional whole wheat. I really hope some of you guys try this and let us know how it turns out!

Tracey

That was a really nice post, great pictures, beautiful end result. I decided to try as I've just started using freshly milled whole wheat.

I was doing OK till the last rise. It rose only about half as high as I expected and then collapsed. So I don't know if I let it rise too long, or if it was something in my technique. I baked it anyway, as it was still up to the edges of the bread pan, hoping that it would poof up somewhat in the oven. It didn't, but otherwise the bread tasted good. Nice chewy/crunchy crust, which is what I love (I always have dibs on the heels), good texture till you hit the center of the loaf and then there's a hollow right under the top crust that, although not doughey, does cause the slices to fall apart.

All that "resting" of the dough makes for a long time to wait for a loaf of bread, but it isn't much more work, all together, than other methods.

I get my whole grain from a woman who runs a bakery and uses Oklahoma grown. She told me to only let it rise once. So maybe I will skip that first rise after everything's mixed together next time and see what happens. I think she said our Oklahoma wheat is lower in protein. That may have been my problem.

This recipe did call for a lot of yeast and sweetener (I used honey), I thought, as compared to the artisan bread I've seen recipes for.

Thanks Tracey for all the trouble you went to, to share this with us. Even though I'm an old chick, I find I can learn quite a lot from you young ones. --Ilene

Well shoot Ilene, I'm sorry this didn't rise properly for you. I really don't know what could have happened-I'm not much of an expert. I do know that for me, this was the fastest, best rising wheat bread I've ever made. I'm completely jealous of your fresh wheat. Even though I doubt I'd regularly grind my own, I would definitely like to try some at least once. Thanks for letting us know how yours turned out. And I definitely don't feel like a young chickie! You are sweet :)

Trudy, if you see this I realized I never answered you about scotcheroos. They are a variation of rice krispies treats with chocolate, peanut butter, and butterscotch and are absolutely to die for, especially if you are a peanut butter nut like me. I actually saw some whole grain rice krispies the other day and I may have to buy some and make a pan.

tracey, now I will have to make the scotcheroos and bread--there goes my diet.

Thanks!