that storebough 'spongey' bread texture?
gwa...@my-deja.com
wholewheat/multigrain/multi-seeds type bread with our new Automatic Bread
Maker, but my girlfriend still enjoys the storeboard stuff for its 'spongey'
sorta texture. Any ideas as to how we can get that effect? Ours tends to be
slightly crumbly.
thanks you!
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Before you buy.
Alex Rast
>Hello experts! We really like making our own healthy organic
>wholewheat/multigrain/multi-seeds type bread with our new Automatic Bread
>Maker, but my girlfriend still enjoys the storeboard stuff for its 'spongey'
>sorta texture. Any ideas as to how we can get that effect? Ours tends to be
>slightly crumbly.
>
art, not a science. You will learn far, far more by repeated baking,
experimentation, and learning what works than by trying to follow any
formula-based or recipe-based approach. Each loaf will be different to some
degree, and so much of getting good results depends on tuning what you do for
the particular occasion, that only the very broadest of statements can really
make the right kinds of differences. Enjoy the art of good breadmaking.
Ok, now let's discuss your specific situation.
The spongey texture you get out of storebought can vary all the way from the
total marshmallowiness of Wonder Bread to the very chewy, challenging textures
of some of the more "rustic" artisan breads. Both are to a large extent
dependent on how much protein the dough has. This protein is essential to
preventing crumbliness - a dough with zero protein will be very crumbly
indeed. It's possible to go too far - if you make a dough with 50% protein
content, it's going to be so chewy as to be distracting - rather like trying
to knaw on a mattress. However, you'll generally want to look for the
highest-protein whole wheat flour you can find. These are usually called
"bread flour" and have about a 13-15% protein content - some have even higher
amounts. Generally speaking, this will be good enough, but if you use any
other flour than wheat, you'll want to compensate by adding some amount of
"gluten flour" - very high protein wheat flour containing about 75-80% gluten.
Somewhere in the range of 5:1 (non-wheat flour to gluten flour) to 8:1 will
usually suffice, but you'll want to experiment. You can also use gluten flour
to enrich regular whole-wheat flour, if you can't get a high-protein variety,
but you should use much less than for other flours, more like 20:1. Mix
thoroughly too, or you'll get a very lumpy loaf. I might also point out that
while gluten flour will help, it's not quite as good as getting a high-protein
flour to begin with - the texture will be slightly less fine.
Proper kneading is the next essential. You need to knead until the dough feels
very soft and smooth in your hands, as the saying goes "like a baby's bottom"
Kneading with your hands is far more effective than machine kneading either by
KitchenAid or bread machine, im part because you can get much more feedback on
how the dough is progressing, and in part because machine kneading really
stretches the dough, rather than compressing it. Anyway, you pretty much need
to knead until you're really sick and tired of doing it, and also trust that
when the dough has reached good gluten development, you'll know. The change in
texture is quite sudden and very dramatic. You're not looking for subtle
changes, but rather a sudden, radical smoothening of the dough.
It will also help if, contrary to recommendations you often see, you let it
rise very, very slowly, using the *least* possible yeast that you can (I use
somewhere in the vicinity of 1/6 of a standard fresh yeast cake for 6 cups of
flour.) Mostly this slow rising builds flavor, but it will also assist in
promoting fine-textured bubbles, useful for sponginess. You can control just
exactly how spongy by how far you let it rise before punching it down - for a
dense, firm sponge punch it down perhaps as early as when it is 1 1/2 times
original volume, for normal use double volume, and if you want a very
open-textured loaf with big bubbles you can let it rise all the way to triple
volume. A greater number of risings will improve the texture a bit, but after
a while you reach diminishing returns. 3 to 4 risings is almost always all
you'd ever need no matter how picky you are on texture.
Baking temperature will also have an effect. A low baking temperature will
give a very soft loaf, particularly good for toast, while a high temperature
will make the loaf very chewy - good for picnic sandwich bread where you need
robustness to prevent disintegration while walking with it to the destination.
I would call 350F "low", 375 "moderate" good for all-around bread), 425
"high", and temperatures above that an invitation to burnt bread, unless
you're very careful, or baking pizza. Under certain special conditions, if you
wanted extreme, robust chewiness, you might want to go for 450, but this
requires constant watching. Note also that a higher temperature produces a
crisper crust, if that's a factor.
Adding whole grains is going to make it still more challenging. Here the key
is proportion. Too many whole grains will cause crumbliness no matter what you
do: I wouldn't want to exceed a 2:1 proportion of flour:whole grain, and then
only with very high-protein flour.
Got all that? It's a lot to cover. Again, remember what I said it the
beginning. Bread is an art. Just start experimenting with the factors I've
discussed and you'll begin to get an idea for how you want to head. There are
other more minor factors as well, but I'm sure you'll discover those along the
way.
Alex Rast
ar...@uswest.net
ar...@inficom.com