<p>I like to bake with King Arthur 100% White Whole Wheat flour. It is, nutritionally, whole wheat, but it is much milder in taste and does not have specks of bran. I use it in quick breads and muffins, and my kids don’t realize that it’s whole wheat. Could this be used in the 5-minute recipe? They talk about all-purpose flour for the ARtisan bread, and various whole grain breads for the Healthy bread.</p>
<p>fireflyscout, I watched a video of the female half of the author team baking a loaf, and right after she put the bread onto the stone, she poured water into a pan on the shelf underneath it.</p>
<p>NYMom: I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill (a west coast flour) White Whole Wheat with success in my version of the 5-minute recipe (see above). It works well and tastes pretty good, although it’s a fairly dense bread. I prefer to mix it 50-50 with white flour. (Another way I add nutrition to white bread is to add oatmeal.)</p>
<p>Thanks, dmd77. It sounds as if you modify the recipe in various ways - is there a general principal that you follow to make sure it turns out well? Do you just make sure that the dough is the right consistency?</p>
<p>NYMom: The basic recipe I’ve worked out over many many years is half wheat flour (whole or not) and half additives (more flour, oatmeal, other flours (rice, rye, etc.), corn meal, etc.). 1 packet yeast. Sugar or honey up to 1/4 cup. An egg is okay if I’m not going to do a long rise. Warm liquid (about 125 degrees F) if I want a short rise; cold if I want a long rise. Liquid can be milk or buttermilk or water. Herbs or seeds to taste. A little oil or butter sometimes. At least a tsp of salt per pound of flour (otherwise it tastes flat).</p>
<p>How much liquid? Well, I stir all the dry ingredients, then add enough liquid to make a dough that’s somewhat thicker and stiffer than pancake batter (it won’t pour but it will slowly deform). If I’m going to knead the bread I add more flour (usually white flour at this point, just because it’s easiest) until the dough is soft but not sticky. I don’t like the results if I get a stiff dough. If I’m not going to knead the dough, I just let it be pretty thick and sticky; I can always add more flour later.</p>
<p>Then I leave it rise until I feel like dealing with it. Fast rise (warm liquid)–about an hour or so–then make loaves and let them rise to double size before baking at 400. (I don’t use loaf pans. If I did, I’d bake at 350.) Slow rise (cold liquid) I leave all day because I don’t care if it falls, I’m just letting the yeast reproduce and the dough develop some flavor. When I have time, I shape the loaves (I put them on a silpat) and let them rise until about half an hour before I want warm bread. I let them rise in a nice cool place if I have time, or a warm place if I’m short on time. (My oven has a very low setting–110–and I’ll put them in there if I’m really in a hurry.)</p>
<p>Bake at 400 on the silpat. About 10 mins before it’s done (i.e., pale brown) I pull the loaf off the silpat and put it back on the naked oven rack to finish and brown on the bottom.</p>
<p>Hope that helps. I realize it’s pretty loose. People worry too much about bread; it’s really not that hard. If it’s underdone (too moist), it makes great toast. If it’s overdone, it can be used for stuffing ;-)</p>
<p>I met Jeff Hertzberg who wrote this outside a local bookstore here a couple of weeks before Christmas, giving out samples. However, when I looked over the book, it was lots of different white breads… not so healthy. They were also hawking Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a day. I didn’t buy it (long story, more because I didn’t want to give business to that particular bookstore than because I didn’t want the book).</p>
<p>One really easy way to handle the baking is to use a cast iron dutch oven. It gives you a nice crispy round loaf. Don’t need a stone or a peel or anything fancy. </p>
<p>It sounds like it is pretty challenging to get the 5 minutes technique to work with a bread that leans toward whole wheat. But there are some ideas in the book - I just haven’t tried them to see how well they work. (I don’t own the book - just checked it out of the library a while back.)</p>
<p>All the recipes in the first book, Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes a Day use unbleached white flour. The authors got many requests from people who wanted to make whole-wheat breads using the same technique, and other people who needed to eat gluten-free bread. So, they developed the recipes that are in the second book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.</p>
<p>I have ordered the Healthy Bread book and am expecting it to arrive tomorrow. I hope to be able to give a report fairly soon! I did read in the reviews of the second book that you need to use Vital Wheat Gluten in their whole wheat recipes. Apparently the concept is the same though-you make a fairly wet dough, don’t knead it, and can refrigerate it for 2 weeks, using it up a loaf at a time.</p>
<p>Now I need to figure out how to store 2 large containers of dough in my fridge at the same time! I don’t want to do a week or two of all french bread and then a week or two of only whole wheat.</p>
<p>Thank you for the recipe, dmd77. I take it you don’t use the vital wheat gluten, even when using whole wheat flour? I’ll probably try it with half all purpose flour and half white whole wheat. </p>
<p>I heard on NPR today that they were going to interview someone (else) who developed a no-knead bread recipe. I was not in the car long enough to hear it, but it is probably on their website. This seems to be the new fad!</p>