100% Whole Wheat Mash Bread - Updated post (see bottom)

Please don't think that I am already responding to the challenge I set for myself here yesterday, i.e. that I already read the introduction to Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads (all 75 pages of them) and learned to master the master formula. I haven't moved one iota in that direction yet.
No, this mash bread is the product of two preferments which were already alive in my kitchen as I was writing that other post, both whole wheat: a mash and a levain. I had made both before I even thought of challenging myself. Actually I challenged myself because I made them both.
See, I must be a rebel at heart (at least that's what the headmistress - who was a nun - told my Dad when she made him come and pick me up from school right in the middle of a workday because I had kicked her in the shin. Of course she didn't tell him that she had slapped me first and when my Dad heard that, he said he understood and had often felt like kicking her himself but to please not do it again. I was 9 when it happened and to this day, I have never kicked a nun again, so I can't be that much of a rebel).
Anyway to come back to these preferments, I was a bit stressed out by Reinhart's instructions about sticking the mash in and out of the oven to keep it at the right temperature and I just didn't feel like doing it.
Then I remembered that Baggett's mash making method in Kneadlessly Simple was actually just that... quite simple: it involved pouring boiling water over the whole wheat flour just as Reinhart says to but after that, just to put the bowl in the microwave next to a cup of hot water, to wait 15 minutes and microwave on High for 1 minute, then wait 30 minutes and do it again, and then that was it. You could let the mash do what it had to do without having to worry about it.
But I was mixing her method and his method and even though it was simpler, it was also very confusing and that's when I decided that enough was enough, I had to read the book and understand the whys and why nots of Reinhart's technique and take it from there.
However I had my two preferments and they both looked fine. I put them in the fridge overnight so that they wouldn't get carried away while I was sleeping and two hours after I took them out this morning, they were at room temperature and ready to go to work.
So I took out the book, opened it to page 199 without even glancing at the introduction and set out to read the recipe/formula.
I was astounded right off the bat because, get this, there was NO mention of water. Mash, levain, whole wheat flour, instant yeast, salt and oil or butter (honey or agave nectar or sugar too but it's optional and I optioned it out) and NO water, which meant that, either the mash and the levain were watery enough for the amount of flour indicated or Reinhart had had a senior moment and completely forgotten about hydration or he had invented a new breadmaking technique that didn't require any water and I didn't know about it since I hadn't read the introduction.
Well, now was not the time to find out. I decided to wing it. Just to be on the safe side, I put a cup of water on standby next to the mixer and proceeded as instructed.
But the dough didn't need more water. It actually needed more flour! And Reinhart says that, yes, sometimes you have to add water and sometimes you have to add flour, and it's okay! So I added away. Altogether I added 94 g of whole wheat flour to the 255 g already in the formula.
That's a lot! But that's the only way I could think of to eventually get a mash bread and not dozens and dozens of mash silver pancakes because that dough looked like a batter for the longest time, I kid you not. All of a sudden however it decided to stop joking around and settled down to business and it became beautifully soft, smooth and elastic.
It actually became so pleasant to work with that I got second thoughts about reading the book. Don't they say that too much knowledge can be dangerous?

Ingredients:
For the mash

• 300 g water 
• 120 g whole wheat flour 
• 1 g diastatic malt powder 

For the levain

• 64 g mature whole wheat starter
• 191 g whole wheat flour
• 142 g water at room temperature 

For the final dough

• 398 g starter (i.e. all of it)
• 397 g mash (i.e. all of it)
• 255 g whole wheat flour + 94 g (see above)
• 8.5 g salt
• 7 g instant yeast
• 14 g almond oil (you can also use melted butter or vegetable oil and it is optional but I chose to put it in because it helps the bread stay fresh longer) 
• extra whole wheat flour for adjustments 

Method: Please note that I am describing what I did, not necessarily what Reinhart says to do. Also note that I used a stand mixer but that the dough can be kneaded by hand.


For the mash

1. Set water to boil
2. When it boils, pour it over the flour and the malt. Mix briefly and set in the microwave oven next to a cup of hot water
3. Fifteen minutes later, microwave on High for one minute without opening the microvave oven. Repeat after 30 minutes and leave to cool in the microwave
4. When cool and after 3 hours at room temperature, you can either refrigerate it until you are ready to use it or leave it out overnight if you plan to use it within the next 24 hours. (I left it out for about 12 hours, then I put it in the fridge)

For the levain

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl to form a ball of dough. Using wet hands, knead in the bowl for about 2 minutes until the ingredients are evenly distributed and the flour is hydrated. Let rest 5 minutes and knead again with wet hands for one minute. The dough will be tacky
2. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover losely with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours until nearly doubled in size (Reinhart warns it can take 8 hours or longer)
3. When the levain is fully developed, knead it for a few seconds to degas it. It is then ready for use but if necessary to coordinate the timing with the mash, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the fridge two hours before mixing the dough (in my case, it stayed out pretty much the whole day then went in the fridge together with the mash)

For the final dough

1. Using a metal pastry scraper, chop the starter into 12 smaller pieces
2. Put the pieces and all the other ingredients except the extra flour into the mixer with the paddle attachment and mix on slow speed for 1 minute
3. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed, occasionally scraping down the bowl for 2 or 3 minutes until the pre-doughs become more cohesive and assimilated into each other. Add more flour or water as needed until the dough is soft and slightly sticky (that's where I started to add the first of the extra 94 g)
4. Dust a work surface with flour, take the dough out of the mixer and roll it into the flour to coat and knead for 3 to 4 minutes by hand, incorporating only as much flour as needed (yeah! right) until the dough feels soft and tacky but not sticky
5. Form into a ball and let rest for 5 minutes
6. Lightly oil a bowl or dough bucket
7. Resume kneading for 1 minute and make the final flour adjustment. The dough should pass the windowpane test. (Well, mine didn't! Not by a long shot. It ripped like crazy, so forget about hand mixing, I threw it back into the mixer and went at it, on medium-low, for as many minutes as it needed to pass the windowpane test and it took a while and I did have to add flour - although it set my teeth on edge because that's exactly what I hate do do and I hadn't added any water so why was the dough SOOOOOOO wet?, but I went on mixing and I went on adding flour until I had added in a total of 94 g and that must have been the magic number because all of a sudden the dough started behaving and passed the windowpane test with flying colors and I was in baking heaven)
8. Form into a ball and place in the prepared bowl, rolling to coat with oil
9. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for approximately 45 to 60 minutes, until it is about 1 1/2 its original size
10. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and loosely form into a batard
11. Let rest for 15 minutes and form into a tighter batard
12. Place on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and dusted with flour (I used a mixture of bran and semolina as it works fine for me)
13. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for approximately 45 to 60 minutes, until it has grown to 1 1/2 time its original size
14. Preheat the oven to 425 F/218 C after putting in it a baking stone and an empty metal pan
15. When dough is ready to bake, score it (for whole grains it is best to score at a 90-degree angle to the sides of the loaf), pour a cup of water into the metal pan, lower the temperature of the oven to 350 F/177 C (I have an issue with that as I think it's way too low. I actually would have liked the loaf to come out of the oven a little bit browner and ruddier, so next time, I'll shoot for 380 F/193 C from the get go)
16. Rotate the loaf 180 degrees and continue baking for another 20 to 30 minutes until the loaf is rich brown on all sides, sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom and registers at least 200 F/93 C in the center (as it wasn't brown enough, I increased the oven temperature to 380 F/193 C and added 10 minutes to the baking time)
17. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool for at least 2 hours before serving and longer if possible.

Reinhart says that mash breads tend to taste better after they have fully cooled, and up to one or two days after they come out of the oven (store them in aluminum foil or a paper bag).

So I left the mash bread to cool all evening and all night and I sliced it open for breakfast this morning. Here is what the bread should look like according to Reinhart (I scanned the image from the book) ...

...and here is what mine looks like:

So maybe mine is a little less airy (doesn't it sound better than "denser"?) but it isn't too far off the mark. It is not however what I was hoping to achieve, which is this:

... and I got that using the Baggett's recipe in Kneadlessly Simple for a 100% whole wheat honey bread based on Reinhart's mash method. I will need to put the two recipes side by side and see where they differ and try to make adjustments to Reinhart's until I get the same result. Why not just stick to Baggett's recipe? Because I don't find it particularly advantageous not to have to knead. In fact Baggett has us do some heavy mixing (with a spoon) which I find pretty tiresome. Plus her method is for home use only. It wouldn't work in an environment where you have to make more than one loaf at a time.
Tastewise, Reinhart's mash bread is very good. It's hard to describe the flavor other than by saying that it is, well, wheaty, which I happen to love. It doesn't feel dense or heavy under the tooth, it isn't chewy, it's just a great sandwich or breakfast bread. It could not pass for a baguette or a ciabatta but it certainly stands its ground. Will I make it again? Yes, but with white whole wheat to see the difference. Stay tuned!
I had sent a link to this post to Peter Reinhart and here is what he kindly wrote back:
"Thanks for a very entertaining ride! I love that you are playing with all these ideas in your own quest for bread you can fall in love with. Bravo! Nancy's loaf really gave you great holes--I haven't been able to get those with my method. 
I tried developing a mash using boiling water and never thought to use the microwave the way Nancy did--see, we all have things to learn. I gave up on it because it was too hard to maintain at the right temp. 
My wetter version, which really can work without all the oven fretting--just put it in a warm oven and turn it off--the next day the mash should taste sweet like maltomeal cereal. But then, yes, you do have to add lots of flour because it's such a wet mash. 
I think there's room for perfecting this concept to create the kind of bread you're looking for but, now that I'm about to put the latest book to bed after a year of intensive writing and research (it goes to press Friday, God willing), I'll be taking a break from breads for a while and just recharge this summer. 
But you know, sooner or later, I'll dive back in and go after it again. Interestingly, the whole wheat bread that seems to get the best crumb for me is the spent grain bread with biga. It always opens up nicely and the spent grain adds fabulous flavor. I get the grain from my local brew pub where the brewmaster is happy to set aside a bag from whatever he's making and I subdivide it into smaller zip bags and keep it frozen. The spent grain has a lot of positive effects on the dough. If you try it, let me know."
Thank you, Peter! I'll be sure to read these 75 pages before the new book comes out!

This loaf has been submitted to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for her weekly Yeastpotting feature.

Other Kneadlessly Simple breads I have made

For a review of Kneadlessly Simple by Nancy Baggett, click here. For other breads I made from the book and posted about, click here and here.

Crusty seeded cracked wheat pot boule
This bread was excellent. We loved it. I had changed the recipe to sourdough.

Rustic rye pot bread
This one I also converted to sourdough. It was good but not exceptional.

Hearty caraway beer bread
This bread, I didn't convert to sourdough. I pretty much followed the instructions (to a point) and baked it in a covered oiled oven-proof dish (a first for me). Since I hadn't added flour before the second rise, as recommended by Baggett (I just can't bring myself to do that), the final dough was a bit slack, to say the least, and almost impossible to score. Which is why the crust cracked where it wanted to. That being said, it came out scrumptious and I would strongly recommend it to any rye/caraway lover. Of course, if you don't like caraway seeds, this bread isn't for you. Next time I make it, I'll use a natural starter.

100% whole wheat honey bread
This one is the best whole wheat bread I ever had. Tasty, wholesome and light. What more to ask for? Well, maybe it could look better. However its flat, deceptively low-key appearance may be due to the fact that I had trouble timing myself for this one and it ended up spending an extra night in the fridge, which is exactly the opposite of what the author recommended. But we soon forgot about its unassuming look. It was so airy it melted in the mouth and the flavor of the whole grain came out with a peppery aftertaste which made it very addictive.

Kneadlessly Simple San Francisco Style Sourdough Bread

The recipe for this bread comes from Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple, a book I rewieved here. Ingredients: 496 g all-purpose unbleached flour (+ more as needed) 9 g de sel (the bread wasn't quite salty enough to my taste. Next time I'll use 2% of the total amount of flour indicated in the recipe, including the flour in the starter, i.e. 13 g) 1/4 tsp instant yeast (I used SAF) 12 g corn oil, canola oil or other flavorless vegetable oil + more for coating dough and pan 368 g wild yeast sourdough starter (hydration 100%) 350 g ice water (water chilled to around 50 F/10 C by adding ice cubes)

Method:

1. In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, salt and yeast
2. In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk the oil and starter into the water
3. Vigorously stir the mixture into the bowl with the flour, scraping down the sides until the ingredients are thoroughly blended. If too dry, stir in just enough ice water to be able to incorporate the flour but don't overdo it as the dough should be very stiff (conversely, if necessary, add more flour)
4. Brush or spray the dough with oil and cover the bowl with plastic wrap
5. If desired, for best flavor or convenience, the dough can be refrigerated for 3 to 10 hours
6. Then let rise at room temperature for 18 to 24 hours. If convenient, vigorously stir the dough once partway through the rise (I forgot to do that part)
7. When ready for the second rise, vigorously stir the dough, adding more flour as needed to make it very stiff and hard to stir (as I couldn't bring myself to do that, I more or less stopped following the author's instructions at this point and proceeded my usual way. I still did steps 8 and 9 however)
8. Then using a well-oiled rubber spatula, fold the dough in towards the center, working your way all around the bowl (which will help organize the gluten)
9. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes
10. Invert the dough on a lightly floured counter, sprinkle the dough with flour and pre-shape it into a boule (ball)
11. Let it rest for 20 minutes under a damp cloth
12. Shape it into a tighter boule and place this boule into a floured cloth-covered basket (probably because I hadn't added flour as recommanded by the author, the dough wasn't stiff enough to rise by itself on a baking sheet)
13. Place the basket into a large clear plastic bag, blow in the bag and close it tightly. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours or 4 to 24 hours in the fridge (I chose to let it rise overnight in the fridge)
14. On the day of the baking, take the loaf out of the fridge and invert it onto a semolina-covered parchment paper and then to a Dutch oven lined with parchment paper (I use a 5-quart Lodge cast-iron oven but Pyrex or any large enough other covered ovenproof dish would work too). Do not cut the paper to the diameter of the Dutch oven as you will need the extra paper to carry the loaf into and out of the Dutch oven as on a sling
15. Sprinkle some flour on the loaf, then score it in a tick-tack-toe pattern
16. Close the Dutch oven and place it into the cold oven (once again, this is not the author's method, but mine) and turn the oven on to 470 F/243 C. Bake for 45 minutes
17. Take the Dutch oven out of the oven, get the bread out of it (lifting it on both sides using the paper as a sling) and set it back in the oven, without the paper, directly on the baking stone (if using)
18. Lower the oven temperature to 440 F/227 C and bake for another 15 minutes (tenting the top of the loaf with foil to avoid overbrowning if necessary)
19. Take the loaf out of the oven and check its internal temperature with an instant thermometer. If it has reached 204 F/ 96 C, it is ready. If not, put it back in the oven for another few minutes (taking care to protect the top with foil)
20. When the bread is done, take it out of the oven and set it to cool on a rack before slicing it.

This bread didnt taste like the one I had several times in San Francisco but I like it better that way as I am not a huge fan of the famous San Francisco sourdough bread, except when eaten with clam chowder. But I like the fact that without being exceptionally good, this bread is really tasty (especially after a few hours or the next day as it truly improves with age), that the work involved is minimal and that, best of all, all I had to wash afterward was a couple of bowls and a wooden spoon...

No-knead garlic parmesan bread

This recipe is one of several I tried in Nancy Baggett's Kneadlessly Simple book. I am not a huge fan of no-knead breadmaking as I don't mind the kneading (especially since I am the lucky owner of a bread machine, which means that, when I don't have the time or energy to knead by hand, I just throw all the ingredients in the machine, select the dough cycle and let the machine take care of the temperature, the mixing and, sometimes, the first rise).
But I still find Baggett's book rather amazing as it manages time and again to produce great breads with minimum effort.
While in most of her other recipes, I replaced the yeast with sourdough starter (with very good results), in this one, I stuck to yeast. The only thing I changed is the way I baked the loaf. From step 17 on, I reverted to my usual way of doing things.
Whenever possible, I like to put the dough in a cold Dutch oven which I cover and put in a cold oven which I then turn on. It saves on the energy bill and it is better for the environment than preheating. It also saves me the trouble of creating steam as the dough self-steams inside the Dutch oven.

Ingredients:

• 1 large head of garlic
• 1 tbsp olive oil 
• 10 g freshly grated Parmesan + 2 tbsp for garnish
• 570 g unbleached all-purpose flour (I use Whole Foods 365 organic)
• 2 tsp salt
• 3.5 g instant yeast (I use SAF)
• 500 g ice water + more if needed

Method:

1. Peel off the papery outer skin from the garlic but do not separate the cloves. Cut across the top portion to display the flesh inside. Discard the cut-off portion
2. Put 1 tbsp of olive oil in a small ovenproof dish, dip the cut side of the garlic in the oil, then turn the head cut-side up, place in the cup and cover the cup with foil
3. Bake in a preheated 350 F/177 C oven for 35 to 45 minutes
4. Let cool, then squeeze or scrape the garlic from the cloves into a medium bowl
5. Add 10 g of Parmesan and thoroughly mash with a fork to form a paste
6. Reserve (this paste can be made several days ahead and refrigerated; it would need to be brought back to room temp and stirred before using)
7. In a large bowl, thoroughly stir together the flour, salt and yeast
8. Vigorously stir the water and the garlic mixture into the bowl until the ingredients are thoroughly blended
9. If too dry, stir in just enough water to blend the ingredients but don't overmoisten as the dough should be very stiff (add flour if necessary to stiffen it)
10. Brush or spray the top with olive oil
11. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 12 to 18 hours (I put it in the fridge overnight)
12. Then let rise at cool room temperature for 12 to 18 hours. If convenient, vigorously stir the dough once partway through the rise (I forgot to do that)
13. Using an oiled rubber spatula, lift and fold the dough in towards the center, working all the way around the bowl, taking care not to deflate it. Brush or spray with olive oil. Re-cover with plastic wrap
14. Let rise at warm room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours or if preferred, refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours (I refrigerated overnight again)
15. Then set out at room temperature and let rise until the dough doubles from the deflated size, removing the plastic as the dough nears it
16. Put a rack with a baking stone on it in the lower third of the oven
17. Here is where I didn't do what the recipe says, which is to oil a Dutch oven and heat it in the oven. I just took the dough out of the bowl, inverted it on a piece of parchment paper and, using the paper as a sling, lifted the loaf and put it into a cold Dutch oven
18. I sprayed it with water and sprinkled the 2 tbsp of Parmesan over the top
19. I put the covered Dutch oven in the cold oven and turned the oven on (475 F/246 C)
20. I baked for 30 minutes at 475 F/246 C, then reduced the temperature to 425 F/218 C)
21. After 10 more minutes, I took the loaf out of the Dutch oven, removed the parchment paper and set the loaf directly on the baking stone
22. Then I let it bake until golden. When golden, I tented it with foil and continued with the baking until it reached an internal temperature of 207 to 208 F/97 to 98 C on an instant-read thermometer
23. Then I took it out and let it cool on a wire rack.

No-knead bread strikes again!

(click on the image to see the book on amazon.com)

Just as we thought we now knew more than we ever would need or want to know about no-knead bread and painless artisan bread, here comes a new book with a new method and plenty of well-researched recipes and, listen to this, it rocks!
Serious amateur bakers who love to mix their dough just on this side of enough, make sure it comes out at the right temperature (usually somewhere around 75 F/24 C), like to give it some strength (but not too much) by folding it once or twice while it is rising, treat it like bone china and are rewarded by crusty crusts and holey crumb will be horrified to learn that pouring ice water onto the flour and mixing it until just incorporated, adding flour so that the dough becomes very stiff, then sticking it in the fridge for up to 10 hours, then letting it rise at cool room temperature for 18 to 24 hours, then adding yet more flour not only works, but works great!
It is easy to see that the author spent years baking the traditional way before going on to experiment with this method. She is clearly on solid grounds when talking about bread "science".
Her goal is to make it possible for everybody to bake good bread at home using a simplified Reinhard/Gosselin method (for more info on this method, please refer to The Breadbaker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhard).
Bagget minimizes the number of steps and opportunities for mistakes and explains how to adapt traditional recipes to her method. Generally speaking, she goes a long way towards simplifying artisan baking at home.
Her book contains many different recipes, covering a wide variety of grains and other ingredients.
I can't vouch for her baking method which I didn't follow as I don't like the idea of doing the second rise directly in an ovenproof pot or casserole. I like to use baskets or to just shape the loaves on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and then, transfer them to a Dutch oven just before baking. Also, the San Francisco style sourdough bread recipe is the only one in the book that uses sourdough. Since I prefer baking with natural starter to baking with commercial yeast (I like the crust better and the shelf life is much longer), I converted to sourdough most of the recipes I tried. They still work, which says a lot for the soundness of the method, however out of the beaten paths it may sound.
It was fun to try the recipes and find out time after time that the bread came out just as I wanted it. The only part I take exception with is that the process is rather long. This is not a spur-of-the-moment let's make bread for dinner tonight kind of book. The actual worktime is quite short but you need to plan ahead a little bit. On the other hand, if it were at all quicker, this no-knead method would probably produce mediocre breads, so it is a trade-off.
I like the fact that, in most cases, there is only one bowl, sometimes two, to clean but I regret that the ingredients are mostly measured in volume (although ounces are indicated for the flours). I hope that in another edition (or a follow-up book), grams will be given as well.
For people who watch their sugar intake, some of the breads may contain too much sweeteners such as honey or molasses. In my experience, it is possible to considerably reduce that amount or to skip the sweetener altogether.