Wholemeal apple bread from homebaking.at

Wholemeal apple bread

A simple wholemeal bread should be healthy and full of flavor, but it can sometimes be a long and hard road to get there! I usually succeed with recipes straight away, but this time the wholemeal really drove me crazy. Always too sour, then bacony again, then extreme crumb cracks and sometimes (if I'm honest - always) heavy crumbling the next day.

When good advice is needed, textbooks are usually the only source of help, and what I found there gave me even bigger and more intense bread mistakes. I have no idea how these wonderful illustrations of the breads in the books came about, but for me the uncertainty was now even greater than before (for the first time I was able to empathize with some of the readers' comments - pure despair was spreading!)

Can it be so difficult to make a sourdough from a simple wholemeal flour and then use it to make a dough that can still be eaten for several days when baked?

To minimize further failures, I started a series of tests with different sourdoughs. In this test series, I mixed sourdoughs with different dough yields, temperatures and starter quantities. I also wanted the sourdough to mature at room temperature after mixing!

TEST SERIES

• Wholemeal flour + water + 10% starter + 18h/ TT: 32°C = too sour
• Wholemeal flour + water + 5% starter + 18h/ TT: 30°C = too sour
• Wholemeal flour + water + 2% starter + 18h/ TT: 28°C = too slightly acidic
• Wholemeal flour + water + 5% starter + 18h/ TT: 26°C = PERFECT

"All sourdoughs matured at a room temperature of 20°C after leavening". The stated dough temperature (TT) was measured after leavening!

1. 30 minutes slow/30 minutes and then leave to stand for a further 10 minutes (1% yeast was added during the second mixing phase).
2. 20 minutes slowly/20 minutes and then leave to stand for a further 10 minutes (1% yeast was added during the second mixing phase).
3. 20 minutes slowly/30 minutes and then leave to stand for a further 7 minutes mix (0.5% yeast was added during the second mixing phase)

• Cooked rye grains
• scalded or soaked piece
• soaked leftover bread
• grated apple

At temperatures around 35°C, butyric acid fermentation can easily develop in soaked and scalded pieces. This usually spoils the taste of the bread afterwards. This external fermentation can be suppressed by lightly acidifying the swelling piece.

Ripe pieces of swelling or scalded pieces can be preserved by refrigerating them at +5°C and adding a small amount of table salt.

About 20-30% of the flour quantity should be used for a scalded or pregelatinized piece. In the case of enzyme-rich meal, a swelling piece should be prepared instead of the scalded piece. The proportion should also be reduced to 15-20%.

Recipe for a dough weight of 2010g

• 400g finely ground wholemeal rye flour
• 400g water
• 50g starter

• 850g ripe sourdough
• 500g fine wholemeal rye flour
• 100g fine wholemeal wheat flour
• 400g water 35-40°C
• 80g finely grated apple
• 20g salt
• 5g bread spice (as desired)

• 5g yeast
• + add water if the dough is too firm (possibly 50g)

• After mixing, scrape the dough cleanly from the edge of the bowl and leave to mature for 30 minutes, covered.
• The dough pieces are then weighed out as required.
• Shape into a round loaf and immediately place in the baking frame/mould.
• If yeast is added, the dough will probably be fully risen after 45 minutes. If no yeast is added, the proofing time will at least double.
• The loaves are baked at 250°C with steam.
• Release the steam after 3 minutes (leave the oven door open for 60 seconds).
• After a baking phase of 15 minutes, reduce the baking temperature to 190-200°C.
• The baking time should not be less than 90 minutes.
• The baking frame can be removed after 60 minutes to improve the crust formation of the loaf.