100% White Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
May 17th, 2009 by SteveB
As a child, I, like many other Americans, had been conditioned (unintentionally, I’m sure… no conspiracy theory here!) to think of bread as merely an adjunct; a pasty white, flavorless platform for slices of lunch meat, peanut butter or any other filling that happened to find its way into my school lunch sandwich. But sandwich bread doesn’t have to be dull and uninspired. With a little imagination, even simple sandwich bread can take center stage, providing both a satisfying, deep wheaty flavor and needed nutrition.
This 100% whole wheat sandwich bread is made from flour derived from white spring wheat, rather than the red wheat that goes into making conventional whole wheat flour. The resulting white wheat flour has a less biting flavor, making it ideal for sandwich bread even for those, like myself, who do not like the taste of conventional whole wheat bread. And while whole wheat breads can tend to be dense and heavy, this bread has a light and airy crumb, in part due to the double flour addition technique that is used during the mixing of the dough. Butter and dried milk powder provide a richness and tenderness to the crumb. Finally, a touch of honey lends just the right note of sweetness.
Poolish
- 185 g King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
- 185 g Water
- 1/16 tsp. Instant Yeast
Final Dough
- 460 g King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
- 370 g (all of the above) Poolish
- 260 g Water
- 15 g Dried Milk Powder
- 1 3/4 tsp. Instant Yeast
- 15 g Salt
- 40 g Honey
- 90 g Butter
The evening prior to baking, the ingredients of the poolish are mixed and allowed to ferment overnight at 70°F until mature, about 12 hours.
The next morning, the flour, dried milk powder, instant yeast and salt are combined. To the bowl of a stand mixer is added the mature poolish, water, honey and 125 g of the flour mixture. Using the whisk attachment, the combined mixture is then whisked on speed 3 until lightly aerated, about 1-2 minutes. The whisk attachment is then replaced with a spiral dough hook, the rest of the flour mixture is added and all the ingredients are mixed on the lowest speed (stir) until a homogeneous dough is formed, about 3 minutes. The mixer speed is then increased to speed 3 and the dough is mixed to medium gluten development, about 3 minutes. While the mixer is still running, the butter is then added piece by piece and mixing is continued until all the butter is incorporated and a smooth dough is obtained, about an additional 3 minutes.
The dough is then placed in a lightly oiled, covered container and is allowed to ferment at 72ºF for 1 hour. Halfway through this 1 hour fermentation, the dough is given a fold.
After the first fermentation, the dough is divided into two pieces and each piece is lightly rounded. After a rest of 15 minutes under a plastic sheet, the dough pieces are formed into loaves as shown here and placed into buttered loaf pans.
The loaves are then placed into a small homemade proof box and allowed to undergo their second fermentation at 78ºF for 1 hour. The loaves are then baked in a 350°F oven for 50 minutes, with steam being supplied during the first 10 minutes of baking
Looks great! No Wonderbread happening there! We can’t buy the different types of whole wheat and the millers don’t even specify on bags, we’d have to call and ask. But I know I’ve never seen white whole wheat. Too bad. You could fake out a great number of white bread eating children with that nice light colored and textured true whole wheat.
Beautiful loaf, Steve! I too love white whole wheat. It has been developed rather recently to try and bring more whole wheat flour to the diet of the American consumer. From what I learned at SFBI, the red pigment is actually what is responsible for the slight bitterness in wheat. Removing it made the flour more palatable. However it is still a more fragile crop, less resistant to bugs and diseases, which is the reason it hasn’t overwhelmed the market yet. That’s okay with me. I like having choices!
Looks great Steve. I haven’t tried the double flour addition in my DLX yet. Have you mixed the first components in the plastic bowl and switched to the SS bowl and roller for the remainder?
That is really an gorgeous loaf! I learned just this weekend, that there exists something called “White Wheat”. It never crossed my way here in germany. I will look, if I can find it somewhere here, because I think it is stunning, that you can bake an whole wheat bread that looks and taste more like a white Sandwichbread although I loved whole grain breads very much.
Jane, the other thing I should mention is that the KA white whole wheat flour appears to be milled to a finer particle size, and is therefore more homogeneous, than traditional whole wheat flours. Like regular whole wheat flour, long term storage is best accomplished under refrigeration to delay the onset of rancidity.
MC, as you mentioned, although white whole wheat has been around for some time, only relatively recently has there been a concerted effort to bring white whole wheat flour to the general baking public. The compounds that give traditional red wheat its color (and somewhat biting flavor) belong to the general class of compounds known as polyphenols (anthocyanin pigments being a member of this group) . If I remember correctly, scientists have identified 3 genes that are responsible for the expression of the red wheat pigments. White wheat is missing these genes.
Eric, I’ve never tried the double flour technique using my DLX. If I had to change bowls in between the first and second flour addition, as would be necessary with the DLX, I think I would probably just mix by hand.
Stefanie, if you are able to find some white whole wheat flour in Germany, I highly recommend that you try it. I think you’ll really enjoy the flavor.
Do you have the same recipe , 100 % White Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread in standard cups, tsp. measurements? If you do I’d be interested in trying it.
Beverly, I’m sorry but I do not have the volume equivalents for the ingredients I use in my formulae. Measuring ingredients by volume is notoriously imprecise so I therefore recommend to all those who are serious about baking that they invest in an inexpensive kitchen scale.
In the interim, perhaps the conversion utility posted here might be of help to you.
Yes! I am excited to make this. It looks wonderful and I can’t wait to try a whole wheat loaf recipe that won’t taste so much like whole wheat. Thanks.
Steve, that loaf is beautiful. As Jane mentions it above, no white whole wheat in France. But we do have whole spelt flour. I know, I know, it’s extremely different in taste and behavior. BUT I’d like to try your recipe with that whole spelt flour : I would have the nutrients of a whole grain flour and those delicate flavors spelt bread have. My worry is that spelt doughs often lack structure, but as this bread is baked in loaf pans…
!!
You know I’m pathologically unable to reproduce a recipe without changing a thing or two so I’ll put in “your” whole (spelt) bread, dried goat milk, too, and no butter but olive oil!
Oh my, when I think I’m trying to teach my kids to obey their teachers…
Have a nice and (hopefully sunny) day Steve! I was missing your bread posts.
Sara, I think you’ll really enjoy the flavor of this bread.
Flo, I’ll make a deal with you… if we ever meet, I’ll bring you some white whole wheat flour if you bring me some dried goat’s milk!
That’s a deal!
And I hope we’ll meet someday!
Steve, have you tried holding half the dough in the refrigerator for a couple of days? I don’t care for bread that has been frozen, so I prefer to bake fresh each time. With just the 2 of us, two loaves of bread get stale before they are eaten.
Jan, I think retarding the dough for two days might be pushing it. Whole wheat dough tends to ferment a bit quicker than dough made solely from white flour. I go with freezing one of the baked loaves after it has cooled.
350F for 50 min? I bet your crust turned out hard. When I bake whole wheat I use a temperature probe. You only need to get the interior to 200F…..which takes 23 min. at 400F. My crust turns out thin and soft. Also, adding 5% of flour weight in extra gluten and working to full development makes a lighter loaf.
shem, you’d lose that bet!
Due to the presence of butter and honey in the dough, the crust comes out quite soft, as evidenced by the clean cuts through the crust. Using the double flour addition technique give a light crumb, eliminating the need to add additional gluten.
S.,
I found your site today via Rose Levy’s..and I am enamored with your love and dedication toward bread!
I love the photo of your 100% white whole wheat bread. What size of loaf pan did you use?
I will try your recipe as I have tried several others, but felt like something was missing. your double flour technique is my must try!
Alexandra, I’m glad you’re enjoying the website.
I used a standard 8½” x 4½” loaf pan for this recipe.
[...] I found this great 100% whole wheat bread recipe from a very interesting blog called Bread Cetera. The recipe gives most units in amounts of grams [...]
Hello, your bread looks wonderful. I was trainning to do other recipes,but I think thats great, my problem: I dont know to give a beautiful form, always break in some place, I am sorry, I am learning english, but your page is so interesanting, I make bread every days and this is the best place to learn.
Hello Gabriela and thanks for the kind words.
It takes a lot of practice shaping breads to give a loaf with good form. A good place to start is with the batard shape. A video of this shaping technique can be found here. If you find that your unbaked loaves are splitting during the second fermentation (proofing), it could mean that the gluten wasn’t developed sufficiently or that the dough was too dry. If the loaves are splitting during the bake, that may be due to underproofing the loaves.
Steve,
Thanks so much for your comment! I’ll definitely take your advice when I try to tackle this bread again.
Your recipes look fantastic. I really enjoy reading your blog!
Steph
Steph, I’m glad you enjoy the blog. A large part of learning good bread baking technique comes from repeatedly making the same bread over and over again (not unlike a musician practicing his or her scales). Keep at it and soon you’ll be the next up and coming young artisanal bread baker in Chicago!
I tried this today and it turned out perfect. I bought lave rocks in home depot and use it for steaming. Can I use Whole wheat instead of white whole wheat bread?
louise, substituting regular whole wheat flour for white whole wheat flour would work fine. Just be aware that the flavor might be a bit more assertive.
This recipe, with yeast in the poolish and the dough, reminds me of a “spiked” sourdough recipe, except using instant yeast for both parts. I’m thinking of substituting 100g of 100% hydration sourdough starter for 50g each of the flour/water in the poolish, and omitting the instant yeast from the poolish. Do you think this would work out well? I haven’t made many whole wheat sourdough breads.
Thor, if you want your bread to maintain the same quantity of prefermented flour as the formula in this post, then you would use 370 g of a mature, 100% hydration whole wheat starter instead of the poolish . Please note, though, that this will probably result in a denser crumb and a somewhat different flavor profile.
I’m with Thor, only I’m trying 20% of the total weight is starter. I have no idea if that is a good idea or not, I just know rec.sourdough suggests 5-20% starter.