Ever on the quest for a somewhat soft-textured whole wheat bread, I decided to try another round of no-knead type bread with 100% whole wheat. In my opinion, whole wheat bread needs to have all whole grain flour in it. I have had some locally grown red-fife wheat flour, which I have been interested to try out.
Having done some snooping around, there were a number of ventures which called for more liquid in the dough, and some which used additional gluten. So, spatula and bowl in hand, I set about it, opting to go for the no-knead approach, because I like the flavours that develop during the long, slow ferment.
When making up the dough, I made it quite wet to allow the yeast to work its magic. I added nearly an extra 1/2 cup of liquid to the no-knead proportions, and tossed in a few multigrain flakes at the end. the other thing I did was add about 2 1/2 tablespoons of gluten to help things along.
The dough was very wet, but when I poured it into the bread pan, it had nice bubbles in it. I let it sit in the pan till it rose level with the top, then put it in the oven (400 degrees).
During baking there wasnt a lot of extra rise, so i was worried it would be fairly dense. When i sliced it open, however, the structure was fairly open, and the taste was nice and sweet even though this was a basic dough (ww flour, salt, water, yeast and gluten), due to this being VERY freshly ground flour from locally grown wheat.
So after round deux, I will make some more refinements, and see if I get closer. i think i will keep the gluten level about the same. i will reduce the liquid by about 1-2 tablespoons, and try the next round with no barley flakes. I liked the flavour, but not the texture. From a previous tryst with pans of different sizes, I also think I will try the narrower bread tin and see what happens.
Stay tuned for round trois!