The Fresh Loaf

News & Information for Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts

Flour Power?

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Ami's picture

Flour Power?

Just joined yesterday and bought my bread machine day before yesterday.  I am based in Lahore, Pakistan.  A place where we have just two kinds of flour the All purpose white and whole wheat known as Atta.  I grow my own wheat and then get it stone crushed (the husk and all) myself.  Used this to make whole whoa bread last night and came out DENSE.....  Any advice will be highly appreciated, suggestions???

Bakingmadtoo's picture

Hello and welcome. Can I ask did you use all whole wheat flour in your bread? (I am assuming that is a typo and not a type of bread I have not heard of?). Very few bakers use 100% whole wheat  as it does have a tendency to be dense but if you give more details of your recipe and how you baked it, I am sure you will get better advice.

dabrownman's picture

bread must have been terrific if you didn't rermove the husk from the seed before milling.   it would be hard to raise properly though.  You are way past 100% whole grain there.  So how did it taste?  I sift the atta out of durum atta and feed that to the SD levain, to soften it as much as possible, or just use it to line the pans and dust the tops of the bread.  Usese the sifteheflour in the bread.

Welcome and happy baking .  

Ami's picture

Oh my you are all soooo right, it was dense and yet tasted great I did add a tablespoon of 'flour imrpover' although had no clue what it is and how much to use.  Our wheat is milled whole, i.e the husk and all and we use it every day for our flat breads hat are baked in a clay oven (tandoor).  This was my first ever loaf made in the bread machine, the top was like a shell separate from the body otherwise it looked perfect.  The recipe I used was:

250ml Water

1tbsp Oil

370g Whole wheat flour (minus 1 tbsp as I replaced this with flour improver)

30g white all purpose flour

3tsp Milk (didn't have powder so used fluid)

1tsp Salt

3tsp Sugar

1tsp Instant Yeast

8tsp Flax seed