ovenbird - "Are most commercially available red WW flours made from soft varieties?" No, they are milled from hard wheat (or a combination of hard and soft to get a certain protein count) unless it says something like "Whole Wheat PASTRY Flour", then that would be milled from soft wheat. I've had 16% protein wheat, which is almost too much gluten and will make a tough loaf of bread, and I have had to mix it with other wheat varieties, because that much protein would take forever and a day of kneading to develop that much gluten. I don't mix soft and hard wheat flours to make an "all-purpose" flour because I consider it a general purpose flour that really doesn't address all the gluten issues. To me, all-purpose flour is a "lets settle for something in the middle since most people don't know the difference" kind of flour. In all-purpose flour there is enough hard wheat for gluten for fairly good yeast breads, and enough soft so you can make a fairly good cake or quick bread, but it really doesn't address all the gluten factors and options like when you have a chance to mill your own grains, nor is all-purpose flour optimal for all uses. When judging cakes at the local County Fair, I can tell who used cake flour and who used all-purpose. There's a great deal of difference. I often know the protein level of the grains I get (from test weights at the elevator), or I can do water/flour tests as outlined in "CookWise" by Shirley O. Corriher, to figure what the gluten content is, but that's a rare occasion that I'd need to do that. I get grains from reputable sources. Spelt is also a good choice for a replacement for all-purpose flour, especially when making anything other than yeast breads with it, and I use a lot of spelt - nearly as much spelt as wheat. I can also tell from the feel of the flour, once it's milled, if it's hard or soft. If I were to forget which type of grain I had milled, I could usually tell by feeling it. Soft wheat makes a very fine, powdery flour, while hard wheat is a bit more coarse. There is usually more endosperm in soft wheat than there is in hard wheat, but not always. Hard winter wheat is usually small and wrinkled looking and has more bran and less endosperm. Hard Spring Wheat usually has more endosperm than Hard Winter Wheat, but also has less gluten because it has a shorter growing season. Commercial wheat is milled from a combination of hard and soft wheat to get the correct protein content because there is so much variance in grains. Even in the same field you'll have a combination of hard and soft. Anywhere there are puddles where water lays in the wheat fields, the wheat growing in that area will be soft from too much moisture. If there is a side of the field that has some shade from trees, that might also be lower protein than the rest of the field. So most commercial flours, whole wheat and processed white/unbleached, are usually a combination of hard and soft grains. I mill soft white wheat and oat groats (3:1 ratio) to make a very fine wholegrain "cake" flour. That's one that is a bit different.... -Grainlady

ak girl, you're right, I meant "home ground". I buy hard red spring wheat from Wheat Montana, GMO free and organic. Shambo, I think you have a good idea, I'll up the wheat flour a quarter cup at a time and see how far I can actually go. Ann T, I consider this a success, but still not what I'm looking for. Elery likes that chewy crust and soft interior, and this is definitely a sandwich loaf, not an "artisan" type bread. So, I try again... agmss, the real problem is that my prior two loaves didn't taste particularly good either. One was just.....bland. The other had a tablespoon of vinegar per a suggestion that adding acidity might help. It didn't help the rise and it tasted awful. Lemon juice was not an alternative because my mother is allergic to lemon and I often share my loaves with her. I had no ascorbic acid on hand, but I need to stock up on Vitamin C tablets for fruit canning, so that's a reminder for me. Annie

I haven't used it for years. IIRC, it's easier to work with than home milled. As long as it smells fresh, you shouldn't have to adjust the flavor. The genetic information that colors red wheat carries a lot of the bitter, so without it the flour is much sweeter. Any whole wheat recipe should work well. The mix with refined flour, however, helps the rise and kind of cushions the gluten. The bran in the whole wheat can cut the strands of gluten and they don't "heal" well. Expect a 1.5x rise rather than 2x, though you might get more. Use a preferment and let the finished dough ferment a longer time. After the initial knead, try not to handle it too much, or too hard. If you have any vital wheat gluten, you can add some to support the rise. There was a 100% whole wheat expert with a blog, but it seems to have disappeared. This other blogger, in the link below, isn't any kind of expert, but it looks like she's had a success with a Peter Reinhart recipe, so it might be a good one to look at. https://littlechefbigappetite.com/whole-wheat-baguette-recipe/ Good luck! It's such a lovely thing you're doing for people.

No. Soaking the wheatberries will make them too soft, and you'll get slurry instead of flour, and it will be hard to control the hydration. Yes, soak the flour, but in the amount of water you want to use for the recipe. It may seem crumbly dry, but just make sure it's as well mixed as you can. It'll be nice and moist at the end of the soaking period. I think I'd soak all the flour, rather than just the WW, but that's something to experiment with. Maybe the white would be greedy and soak it all up before the WW had a chance. Best of both worlds, soak the ww, then do an hour autolyze after mixing the rest. Do soak the WW for at least 8 hrs. Overnight is good. This is even more important if you have little chunks you’re trying to soften. An alternative to having coarsely ground bits of wheat, would be to mix in some interesting other whole grain, like millet. Just toss it into the soak. It's very nice. I've also used amaranth, buckwheat groats, various seeds and whatever took my fancy. Just keep to a small enough quantity that it doesn't impede the rise. Don't chill it unless your baking day gets postponed more than a day or two, and you think you'll get mold. Just cover your vessel, and leave it on the counter. Ambient humidity does make a big difference. I know you baked professionally, but I can't remember what. IME, all that “baking is chemistry” cliche stuff is about cake (which includes quickbreads and cookies). You have to have the right specific ingredients, in the right quantities, with the right methods under the right circumstances, to get a replicable product. Breads are different. They're much more about art, about adjusting for how dry your flour is, how dry the air, how active the yeast. You know there’s enough flour or water when it feels right. Pastry seams somewhere in between.