A few bread questions
1...Has anyone tried making Mark Bittman's no knead bread (or Ken Forkish's recipe from Flour Water Salt Yeast) in a loaf pan (to make sandwich bread instead of a rustic bread) instead of a dutch oven? If not, do we think it would still work despite different moisture content than other breads?
2...what's the deal with whole wheat bread recipes that have butter/oil in them (eg https://food52.com/recipes...) ? I'm trying to make whole wheat bread at home but would rather leave them out on account of health...is there a reason butter/oil are usually included in the recipe? can i leave them out?
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4 Comments
Why the fat in most WW bread recipes? Because it's difficult to develop the gluten with whole wheat flour. The bran in WW makes it difficult to develop the long strands of gluten that give bread and most baked goods their soft and stretchy texture. The fat compensates for this because of their long molecular structure. True, you don't need the fat and when you are working with white flour you can often leave it out. But when you are working with other non-wheat, non-white flours, you often need the fat to keep your product from coming out heavy and crumbly.
2) The 100% whole wheat breads tend to turn out dry and crumbly compared to white bread, and the fat helps protect against that. The fat isn't required though if you just want to leave it out. I'd add a little extra liquid to replace it if the dough seems dry.