100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

From Peter Reinhart’s Book: Whole Grain Breads – with modifications by me

I make my own flour from organic Heritage Red Fife Wheat Kernels (I buy them here)

This bread has a rich, complex extraordinary flavor that you just cannot find in commercial bread.

On the evening before:

Make the Soaker: 227 g Whole Wheat flour (WWF), 4 g Salt, 250 g probiotic yogurt (or 200 g milk or buttermilk, best cultured). Mix well. Cover loosely, let stand at room temperature 12-24 hrs.

Make the Biga: 227 g Whole Wheat flour (WWF), 1/4 teasp. (1g) instant dry yeast, 170 g/ml water at room temperature. Mix together, then knead with wet hands for 2 min, let rest for 5 mins, then knead 1 min more. Cover loosely, let stand in the fridge 8 hrs – 3 days.

On the day of baking:

Remove the Biga from the fridge 2 hours before mixing the final dough.

Final dough: All of soaker, all of Biga (each cut into 6-10 pieces), 56 g WWF, 5 g salt, 7 g instant dry yeast, 42 g raw honey, maple syrup, molasses or (brown) sugar, 14 g melted fat (I use avocado oil or coconut oil, but butter, lard, tallow (from pastured animals) or olive oil or other unprocessed, organic, non-GMO oil works too).

Knead until combined in bowl with wet hands. The dough should feel soft, slightly sticky; adjust flour and water accordingly. This takes a few times practice and a few not perfect loaves until you get the feel for it. Toss the dough on a kneading surface. Knead 3-4 min with the heels of both hands until the dough feels soft and tacky,, not sticky. Form into ball, let rest for 5 min.

In the meantime, prepare a lightly oiled bowl. that is big enough for the dough that rises to twice its size.

Knead the dough on the surface for 1 min more, this is the last chance to adjust flour and water, if needed. The dough should have strength, be soft, supple, very tacky. Form dough into a ball, roll in oiled bowl. Cover bowl loosely with kitchen towel, let rise at room temperature until about 1.5 size (45-60 min on average).  Grease a bread loaf pan with coconut oil, lard or butter.

Form dough into a loaf form, drop into the greased loaf pan. Cover loosely, let rise at room temperature until the dough fills the pan. (takes 45-60-120 min depending on temperature and consistency and size of loaf pan).

Preheat the oven to 425F.

If possible, put a baking stone or heavy baking pan in the oven to even out the temperature.

Place loaf in oven, lower the temperature to 350F and bake 40-55 min depending on your oven.

The bread is done when the crust is nicely browned and the bread, when taken out of the pan on a cooling rack, makes a nice thump when you knock on the bottom. (The internal temperature should be >195F, but I don’t measure it).

If you have an uneven baking oven, you may need to rotate the loaf pan by 180 degrees after about 20min.