Light Whole Wheat Bread

Light Whole Wheat Bread

Light Whole Wheat Bread

At all times I try to incorporate healthy ingredients into my baking as much as possible. For this reason, I once made a whole wheat bread with pure whole wheat bread flour. The texture of this bread was so dense that I could not have more than two slices. I then tried the recipe with few changes by adding some enrichments like egg, oil etc but the result remained the same.

This Light Whole Wheat Bread is the perfect choice for times when you want to enjoy few slices of bread but you don't want to consume either the heavy textured whole wheat bread or the pure white bread. This is called a 'light whole wheat bread' because it is not made with only wholemeal flour or only white bread flour. It has a combination of both. I use this bread recipe the most since it gives the lightness of bread, the goodness of whole wheat flour but not the dense and heavy texture of the pure(100 percent) whole wheat bread.


Source: Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice but made few changes.

Makes one 2 pound sandwich loaf

Ingredients
320 grams bread flour
190 grams whole wheat flour
20 grams sugar or honey
1+1/2 teaspoons salt
1+1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons oil
320-350 grams water

Method
Click here and follow the steps till the first proofing stage. Once you knock back the dough after the initial proofing, press it by hand into a rectangle about 8-10 inches long and 6 inches wide.

Form the dough into a loaf as shown here.

Lightly oil a 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch bread pan. Place the shaped dough in the pan, spray or brush with oil and cover with a cling film.

Once the dough is nearly double it's size, preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Bake the bread in the preheated oven until all the sides are evenly browned and it sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom of the bread. If you have a food thermometer, it should register at least 95 degrees C when inserted in the bread.

Once the bread is ready, immediately remove it from the pan and place it on a wire rack to cool completely, preferably overnight. You can rub some butter on the bread as soon as you take it out of the oven for a soft crust.

Happy Baking!!!

Light Whole Wheat Bread