John's baking dilemma

 

Now that John is getting into baking bread regularly, he's discovering that it may be more complicated than he thought.

His whole-wheat loaf tastes great, but he's not happy about that dip in the middle. Why does it plummet instead of soar?

John has pitted his wits against computers, motorcycles, leaky plumbing and entire photo departments, but he’s finally found an adversary that has him stumped: a loaf of whole-wheat bread.

The contest began simply enough. With Covid and confinement stretching into seeming infinity, he decided to start making bread as a regular thing. But he wanted it to be pure whole-wheat bread – no white flour, no ingredients beyond the strict essentials – and no fancy techniques.

Search long enough on the internet and you can find almost anything, So, water, flour, yeast, a dab of sugar, a dab of salt. Mix the flour, yeast and salt in one bowl. Combine sugar and water in another. Dump the latter into the former, mix for two minutes. No kneading, and no second rise! Place in oiled pan, let rise to top of pan, and stick in 400-degree oven.

John has made about half a dozen loaves now, and each has been perfectly edible. But not one has had the height or the nice rounded dome of the finished loaf in the recipe illustration. Rather, to be perfectly honest, the opposite. Instead of ballooning up with the oven heat, John’s loaves seem to get smaller. “It’s shrunk!” was the wail I heard from the kitchen on his first attempt.

Since then, each loaf has been a hopeful new experiment in solving the problem: Weigh the ingredients instead of using measuring cups (new scale: $80). More water, less flour. Hotter water. More sugar. More time rising, less time rising. The result is always the same: a lean, clean-tasting loaf with a flattish, if not absolutely concave top.

“It reminds me of when I was learning to ride a motorcycle,” said John, surveying his latest disappointment. “I kept coming home bloodied and bruised.”

 I suggested he shouldn’t worry about the appearance. “It tastes good. Why worry about what it looks like?”

But John, the man who spent years perfecting dirt-bike jumps, does not hear such words. “What would happen,” he asked, “if I just left out the salt?”

"There will be tools," I thought when John got into bread-making. I wasn't wrong. Soon enough, classy new weigh scales arrived in the kitchen. 

Every drop of water is weighed and measured.

This two-minute stir takes the place of five minutes of kneading in most bread recipes.

The dough is poured into a pan, smoothed out...

... and into a 400-degree oven.

This loaf turned out more level than some, but it still wasn't what John was hoping for. 

We eased the disappointment by spreading it with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Next time, it will be perfect.....