Wholegrain Bread Recipes - Help please!

I'm getting into making my own bread and have tried a couple of recipes but have yet to find a really nice wholegrain bread recipe. Anyone got any good ones or some tips to improve my bread - it tends to not be very soft

Making ordinary white bread is a fairly straightforward operation but wholegrains/wholemeals using things like bran, germ and kibbled grains are slightly (with the emphasis on slightly) more complicated and several things need to be remembered.

1. The amount of hydration (water) in your recipe is important. With any bread the dough, when it is first mixed needs to actually be sticky enough to stick to your hands when your first start kneading, but not so sticky that after a period of time (I'll explain later) kneading, it doesn't become a soft, pliable, non-sticky dough.

2. When you knead the dough you keep going till the gluten forms a network of long, elastic chains within the dough which helps trap the gases from the yeast and thus making your loaf light and fluffy. To check cut off a bit, flatten it on some flour and then pick it up and stretch it out. You should be able to create an almost see-through flap that, when you press lightly from the back with your fingers whilst holding it up, will stretch, rather than break.

3. The best way of kneading is to use one hand only. Have a scraper in the other hand. (You need to have a clean hand in case the ph goes - lol). Push the dough away from you, slap it back, do a ¼ turn and repeat. Do this for 5mins only then make dough into a ball, scrape the sticky dough off hand with the scraper and invert a bowl over the dough and let it rest for 30secs - 1min). Do another 5min knead, etc. I do mine for 30mins by which time the dough is perfect - no longer sticky but soft and elastic. Resist the urge to add more and more flour to make the dough less sticky. A fine dusting on the bench between each 5min block should be sufficient.

4. Now the wholemeal question. Bran and other bits interfere with the dough's ability to form long elastic chains. It acts like glass, cutting the chains so the kneading technique I have just explained is more important than with plain white flour dough. To counter the effects of the bran, it is also important to add gluten to the dough. Select a recipe that uses gluten or add 1/3cup to every 5cups of flour. I use this rule of thumb because that is how much flour I use per loaf. 1 cup for the starter. 1 cup for the sponge. 3 cups for the dough.

There are other things to explain about the knock back but as this is turning into a novel I'll let your resource books explain more fully.

The importance of the hydration cannot be over emphasised. It makes it easier to knead the dough for starters but it also helps you to produce a light, fluffy loaf that resembles a bought one and ensures it stays fresh for days rather than go stale on the day it is baked.

I have often seen instructions in here to knead for 5-10mins but if you want to make a superior loaf do as I do and do it properly. But don't worry if you don't. You will be in good company. Wild Wheat loaves are small, leaden lumps too and go stale at high speed as well and their bread is considered very good.

Real great advice thanks guys. I have tried a recipe of my SIL's today and it has come up really quite well, I substituted some of the flour for gluten flour and think that gave me a softer bread which is still really nice today - I had some for lunch. It called for milk instead of water and I used a mix of kibbled grain and seeds such as pumpkin and sunflower and I washed the grain first to get all the dust off it - I don't know if that helps or not, I kneaded for 20 min with a break in the middle. I will definitely check out the bread thread - I hope to bake most of our weekly bread from now on

Good for you. I haven't bought bread since I learned how to make sour dough. All our bread is homemade. I had a small taste of bought bread recently and quietly spat it out. It tasted horrible.

That is wonderful craig04. I hope you allowed the 30sec-1min break every 5mins as this does give the yeast a chance to rest.

I guess you probably understand how to test whether your dough is ready to go into the oven but I'll refresh your memory just in case.

I only ever make sourdough using a starter and everything takes much longer, including the "spring back" test however roughly it goes thus:

Press the dough gently with your finger to make a small indentation. If it springs back rapidly, it is not fully proofed. If it springs back more slowly but still comes back then the dough is ready for cooking. If it doesn't spring back at all then it is overproofed and you will not get any 'oven bloom' (extra rising when the loaf goes into the oven) but the bread will still be edible anyway. I often see overproofed bread being sold in the bakery depts of supermarkets so don't worry if you slightly overshoot the optimum proofing time.

One other thing I do when I'm proving my dough is put the tin/tins inside a plastic shopping bag and tuck the open end underneath or tie the handles. This keeps the top from drying out and saves on gladwrap. Obviously you need to leave space inside the bag for your dough to rise. I test the dough through the plastic bag.

One more thing. When you heat your oven, put in a metal bowl or dish that can get nice and hot. Just before you put your dough in, throw a few ice cubes into the hot metal dish. Bread always cooks better if the oven is slightly steamy to start with. Commercial ovens have the facility to deliver a shot of steam at the beginning of the baking process.

Beautiful, thanks guys! My loaves turned out awesome and we've been wolfing them down. I made a batch of white on Friday as well, so we're set for bread for the rest of the week and not a bought loaf in sight - yay! Thankyou buzzy for your great tips - I've learnt more about bread-making on this MB in one week than I have in 38yrs!

Lol. I only learned how to make bread less than 2 years ago when I became interested in the health benefits of sour dough. However, not being the sort of person who is keen to waste time and money experimenting I spent a lot of time researching "my project" so that I could get it right from the start. My first few sour dough loaves were fairly dire because I hadn't found the right reference book. I read a number of books and recipes from all the experts, Jamie Oliver included, but none of them even came close to providing me with the correct information. I'm the sort of person who looks for the answers to 'Why' and not just 'How. But I now have what I need.

I have a huge amount of knowledge on bread making tucked up in my head now and the information I have shared with you is just part of a very large story.

Good luck all of you.