Adventures in Steam

[skeptic7]

Aaron;
How old are your kids? I didn't start eating whole wheat until I was an adult and my taste buds had dulled enough that I didn't mind bitter things like brussel sprouts. I buy my sandwich bread at Trader Joe's, I bake scones and rolls and pizza and other things that I can only make.

[BakerAunt]

Some people do have a genetic sensitivity to bitterness in whole wheat. I think it was Wingboy (?--S. Wirth would know), from the former KAF Baking Circle who had this issue with whole wheat, as well as a lot of beers. I suspect that it is an issue for my husband's cousins, as I've found that they avoid wholegrain bread that I bring in favor of white breads from a bakery. A semolina bread went over very well with them. I've also been able to use half white whole wheat flour in cinnamon rolls without their noticing.

So, if you want to get whole wheat into your children, the white whole wheat flour is a good place to start. I also use some in cookies where I don't want the whole wheat flavor to dominate. It's too bad that Bob's Red Mill ceased offering their "ivory wheat" flour, which was white whole wheat, as it was my favorite. I now have to buy from King Arthur online, which is pricier. White whole wheat flour, medium rye, pumpernickel, espresso powder, and cheese powder are primarily the reason that I renewed my Bakers Rewards membership with King Arthur, even though they carry less these days than interests me, and their prices are higher.

[Mike Nolan]

I've been making Hamelman's semolina bread recipe a lot lately, but semolina is NOT a whole grain product. Triticale might help here, it has the nuttiness you get from durum wheat (not surprising since it is a cross-breed between durum wheat and rye), and so far I didn't notice much bitterness in it, and I'm using whole meal triticale, though the first batch was only 10% triticale. I may try doubling that this week.

[BakerAunt]

Sigh. I was so disappointed previously when Mike informed us that semolina is not a wholegrain. I've tried more whole wheat in my pizza crust but did not like the result. Adding some dark rye has worked. I may try some of the white whole wheat in place of the KAF flour. I do add some dark rye.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't tried any of the cauliflower pizza crusts yet, though I hear it is hard to tell the cauliflower is in it.

I think it is possible to get whole grain durum wheat flour, but I don't think I've ever seen it in stores and if it came up in a web search I just did it wasn't obvious.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Skeptic. I bake scones and pizza too. My family does not want to order pizza from anywhere in town now (we average one pizza place per resident in my town). SO I get it. And I used to buy Whole Foods whole wheat sandwich bread and it was reasonable. My wife is now buying this sprouted stuff that is stupid expensive. I would and do pay that much from one of the local bakeries but a mass produced loaf? Doesn't seem worth it.

BA - I use white whole wheat in my pizza crust. I make about five pounds every two weeks:

2 pounds of water
1.5 pounds KAF cake or Caputo semolina flour
1 pound KAF white whole wheat
1/4 pound Bob's flax meal
1/4 pound Bob's chickpea
~ 1 TBL SAF yeast
~ 1 TBL turbinado sugar
~ 2 tsps. Morton's kosher salt

My family loves this dough and is very resistant to any changes or experiments. Not sure if the proportions are on or not and I do this by feel but it's a start.

[Mike Nolan]

When we moved here in the 70's, Lincoln was a city with three major pizza chains (Valentino's and Godfather's, both companies started in Nebraska, and Pizza Hut and a small handful of local shops. Now it seems like there are more pizza places than gas stations.

The local paper recently did a 'top 25 pizza places', without mentioning any of the chains and missing at least a half dozen places. Casey's (a convenience store chain) may have more outlets in Lincoln making pizza than anybody else these days, as Godfather's is down to I think just one or two locations. (But Casey's pizza is incredibly greasy, and I don't think their small countertop ovens are hot enough.) Domino's, Papa John's and Little Caesar's have numerous outlets around the city, too. Marco's has 3 places in Omaha but none in Lincoln yet. Fox's Pizza Den opened one store near us, but it didn't survive. (That same storefront also failed as a bakery and is now, I think, a pet grooming place.)

Unfortunately, nearly all of them put garlic in the sauce if not in the crust. We have found a few that we can order pizza with no sauce but double tomato chunks. And my wife can tolerate a LITTLE garlic, so we do order Vals from time to time. Making pizza for two is just too much work.

[skeptic7]

Mike;
I eat a lot of cold pizza for lunch particularly on hot days. I can make a 10 inch pizza, eat a quarter fresh and cut the rest up. 2 pieces fit into a sandwich box and makes a nice lunch either cold or microwaved luke warm until the cheese is just barely melted. If either of you enjoy left over pizza, making pizza is totall worthwhile for two people -- or you could just refrigerate an unbaked pizza and cook it for another meal.

[BakerAunt]

One summer before we lived here permanently, we had a pump problem that took the plumber the better part of a day. We had two of my husband's graduate students here doing research. I desperately wanted to order pizza, but there was only one very expensive restaurant. I ended up making something, although I don't recall what.

We have one pizza place--Bourbon Street, which is a chain in Indiana. I've not had their pizza. I have had pizza from Papa's, a local Italian restaurant (the expensive one). I've had it once, and it was good, although the occasion--watching fireworks with friends--may have colored that memory. We like my pizza, so it does not matter that we have no place from which we want to order it.

Thanks for the feedback on white whole wheat flour, Aaron. I'll try replacing the KAF AP in my crust next time I make it. The semolina and durum wheat will stay, as will the rye and sourdough.

[Mike Nolan]

One of the things I did during my steam test was to take a picture through the oven door window every 20 seconds during most of the bakes.

I have a tool that should be able to stitch them together into a movie, but I don't think I'll post them because they'd probably be huge. Also, the picture quality isn't all that great because I'm shooting through the window and the oven light isn't very bright.

But I've been stepping through them manually in my photo editor and they're kind of fun to watch. First you see the oven spring then you can (more or less) see the Maillard reaction and some caramelization taking place.

[Italiancook]

Moved question to correct thread -- cooking Feb. 23rd.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by Italiancook.

[aaronatthedoublef]

From our "just bread" discussion this is a simpler loaf.

It has a levain which is less commitment than a starter but then the levain requires 3 grams of starter. I'm not sure how important that is in a recipe that is about 2.25 kg.

[BakerAunt]

KAF recipes often use a small amount of sourdough starter for the overnight levain. (See Jeffrey Hamelmann's rye bread recipe on the KAF site.) I find it a bit iffy, having tried baking the rye bread on two occasions, as there seemed to be a small window between when the levain was ready and moving on to the next step. I need to try that recipe again.

[Author]

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