Get your hands into it: WHOLE whole wheat buttermilk bread

Ragazzi, it is one of those nasty late January days, where Annalena just wants to hide in the apartment.  The kitties are all laying around like they've been sedated (would that this were true), and we're all, in Woody Allen's words "so mellow we're beginning to rot."

A perfect day for bread baking.  And ragazzi, we're going to do REAL whole wheat bread.  By that, Annalena means bread that has NO. WHITE. FLOUR  in it.  And no, it is not a doorstop because, at this point in her life, Annalena has learned to be patient.  If you are, you get:

There are SO many myths and fears about bread baking, ragazzi, and this is a shame.  Once you get the hang of it, you will LOVE making your own bread.  Annalena knows that some of you already do it, but more of you should.  Trust Annalena:  once you get used to the fresh stuff, NOTHING will compare.  And once you get the hang of it, you can play with recipes, play with additions, and there's a whole new world. 

Let's chat a bit about baking with whole wheat flour.  There is a notion, not without support, that when you bake with whole wheat flour, you get heavy, dense, products, that simply do not taste good.  

The fact is, whole wheat flour IS heavier than white flour.  If you are enamored of puffy loaves, and soft centers, this bread is not for you.  It will NEVER scale the heights that, say, that bread that comes in a plastic bag with balloons on it does.  But it is SO good.    As far as taste goes, whole wheat flour has a high oil content.  So it goes rancid if you do not use it quickly, or keep it cool, etc.  So buy small quantities.  And, finally, when you use whole wheat flour in your baking, you are going to need more time to let it rise.  

One last thing:  very, VERY important.  The reason why bread rises, is gluten:  a very stretchy molecule, that expands when yeast gives off gas .  Think of the gluten molecules as stretchy, bungee cords.  Whole wheat flour has its bran in it.  If you look at bran under a microscope, you will see that it looks a little like a razor blade.  

Annalena suspects you know where she's going:  you have to be careful when kneading whole wheat bread, to minimize the cutting that the bran does to the gluten.  In her experience, rather than knead the dough MORE than you would white bread (which is what you are taught), you should knead it less.  

There is more information on being a good bread baker within this recipe, so read it.  Pay attention.  Annalena does not say that often, but here, she does, and there are reasons for it. 

Your ingredients:  1.25 cups of cold water, and 1.25 cups of buttermilk.  .25 cups of honey, 2 tablespoons of butter, unsalted, at room temperature;  2 teaspoons of salt.  2 teaspoons of dry yeast. 5.5 cups of whole wheat flour. 

Let's look at the ingredients.  Annalena specified cold water.  Most baking recipes will tell you "warm"  or "tepid".  Why does Annalena say cold?   Well... everyone take out a sheet of paper and write down, privately, what you think "warm" or "tepid" means.   Now, someone collect the answers:

Hmmm... no agreement.  Most bread baking failures happen because people use water that is too hot, and kill the yeast.  Ideally, the water you use should be the temperature at which you would bathe a baby.  Rather than put that responsibility on you, Annalena says:  just use cold water.  Your home is warm enough.  You don't need warm water to get the bread and yeast going. Take cold water right out of the tap, and mix it with...

the buttermilk.   If you are buying your buttermilk at the store, you are buying "cultured" buttermilk, which is not "true" buttermilk, but is fine for this recipe.  "Cultured" buttermilk is 1, or sometimes 2% milk, to which bacteria have been added, to "clabber" the milk, i.e, to sour it.   This is an attempt to replicate REAL buttermilk, which used to sour, simply by sitting around.  It was the liquid thrown off in butter making, and it would be stored, unrefrigerated.  Errant bacteria would find a home, and sour the milk.  You can find this, at farmers markets which have dairy farmers.  Know, however, that there is almost no sourness in this, and your bread is going to be wonderful, but it will not be the same as with cultured buttermilk.   Try it both ways if you can. 

Let us jump to the yeast. If you do not bake a lot, you will buy those little yellow packets that come in threes.  Pay attention to the expiration date.  Another big problem in bread baking failures, is using yeast that died.  Buy your yeast as close to the time you are going to bake, and keep it in the freezer.  It doesn't take up much space. 

Your flour : bread flour or all purpose, whole wheat, please. NOT PASTRY.  Pastry flour has been fine milled, and even if whole wheat, has probably been bleach treated.  It will not form gluten (the bleach kills the precursors to gluten, called glutinin),  and you will not get good bread.  Use that pastry flour for pie crusts. 

Are we ready?  Not quite yet.  Make sure you measure everything precisely.  Bread baking is, ultimately, a bit of a science.  Annalena will tell you when you can be free with things. 

For example... let's say you want a lighter, softer, richer bread.  You can double the butter.  It will take longer to incorporate, and you'll get something a little closer to cake than bread, but you can. 

Let's assume you want a stiffer, harder bread, or you're baking on a very wet day.  In those cases, you can kick the flour up to six cups, but don't add the last half cup until late in the process. 

Mix the liquids, the butter, the yeast, the salt and the flour.  Annalena uses a mixer.  You get a very soft, wet batter:

Let this sit, covered, for an hour and a half.  This is going to make two loaves of bread.  So, first, grease two 8x4 inch pans, and then wet your hands, divide the dough as best as you can, and flatten it in the pans, as best you can

The information on 8x4 pans is very, VERY important.  Many bread pans are available as 9x5 inch pans.  You may be wondering:  what difference does an inch make?  

Those of you who are more geometric will get this right away.  We are working in volumes, and we have to consider lengthxheightxwidth.  All bread pans are essentially 2 inches deep.  Hence, a 9x5 inch pan will hold 90 units.   An 8x4 pan, will hold 64. 

 You see?  We're working with something that doesn't rise very high to begin with,  and we're working with pans which differ by about 33 percent.    Here are some examples of the differences in size

So we've greased our 8x4 inch pans, and put our batter into them.  Now, we're going to cover them, and go away for an hour and a half,  again, and we'll get: 

This is longer than you will need for white bread. And that's ok. At some time during that hour and a half, start heating  your oven to 350.   Put the bread pans in the oven, as far apart as you can.  Let them bake for 30 minutes.   You've already seen what you get:

Let these loaves sit for about half an hour, and then dump them out.   They are going to have some moisture about them, but that will dry off.  Don't eat this bread for at least a few hours.  It needs to rest, and to breathe.    And then... trust Annalena on this one, you are going to enjoy bread bliss. 

Once you have done this a few times, you can play with things, like adding seeds, or raisins, or making a topping of different seeds, and so forth.  Or make rolls (you'll use more butter there, ragazzi), on a baking sheet.  

HAVE SOME FUN!!!!  This is really not much harder than a lot of cooking.  People have been baking bread for thousands of years.  See what you've been missing.   You may hit yourself.