100% Whole Wheat Bread

I'm loving this. Usually when I bake bread at home, I get full-sized loaf which either goes stale within a couple of days or disappears into my belly too fast. The idea, from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, is that I make a lot of bread dough, keep in the refrigerator and bake a small portion a day. This way I have well-portioned fresh bread every day. As a bonus, the bread dough develops more flavor the longer it stays in the refrigerator. (The book said not to keep for more than 5 days.)



This is the 4th loaf a got from the batch - baked in a preheated dutch oven, NYTimes no-knead bread style. The loaves are not as airy as oat bran bread which was made from all-purpose flour. This one has beautiful crust and nutty and a bit sour flavor. My first loaf which was baked about 10 hours after I mixed the dough came out a bit bitter. But the bitterness was gone in the second loaf baked the next day.



Here's the recipe which I adjusted a little bit from the book. Why the adjustment? I think that bread is not as delicate as what people said especially those that get to ferment for many many hours. As long as the ratio of flour per liquid is about right and salt + yeast are added, there will be bread. Measuring flour by weight instead of by volume is just convenient for me. I rounded yeast and salt to a tablespoon because I couldn't find my other measuring spoons. So there.

Ingredients

• 800 grams whole wheat flour


• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water


• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm soy milk


• 1/4 cup light tasting olive oil


• 1/2 cup Agave nectar


• 1 tablespoon salt


• 1 tablespoon instant yeast

Directions

1. Mix flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Mix all the other ingredients into the bowl with a wooden spoon. When all the flour is nicely combined and wet, cover with a towel and let rise for a few hours until the dough falls. (I mixed the dough at night and just leave it overnight.)


2. To bake, with wet hands take a grapefruit-size ball and shape into round by gathering its surface at the bottom and let rise on floured surface covered with a towel or plastic wrap until it's about one and a half size the original ball. (I lined a bowl with parchment paper. Rise my dough on it. And later just placed the paper with the dough on top into preheated dutch oven.) When the dough is at room temperature, it took me about one hour. But with refrigerated dough, I let it sit (covered) in a cool oven for about 2 hours to get to room temperature. Then shape and let rise for about 1 more hour.


3. Preheat the oven to 450 minutes with a dutch oven and its cover inside for about 30 minutes.


4. Flour the surface of the dough, slash (or not - I forgot with this loaf and I kind of like the way the loaf exploded.) Dump the dough onto the piping hot dutch oven, cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for 10 more minutes or until the bread browns.


5. Let cool on a cooling rack for at least one hour before cutting.