Need urgent (like, right now) advice for whole wheat bread

M

marilynfl

Moderator
So I decided to try making whole wheat bread for the first time. Ever. I'm using the recipe on the back of the Gold Medal bag (see linked) and thought I could finish it all last night, but just as I started to hand-knead the dough...

Great Granddaughter Gracie called from Minnesota and I helped her do a "Tuesdays with Morrie" phone interview with Mom for a school project. After that I got the dough kneaded and...

Three grandkids (Christiana, Benjamin, Sophie) called to say Hi Baba! and chat and that took a while since neither Mom nor I are used to FaceTime on my phone. We mostly aimed at the ceiling.

By the time THAT was over, it was going on 10 PM and I just shoved the dough in a gallon zip lock bag and tossed it in the refrigerator.

This morning about a 2" mass had escaped from the bag and dried out so I cut that off. Then when the dough was room temperature I shaped it into two loaves.

It's on a 45-minute rise and I have ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE how much it's supposed to rise BEFORE I put it into the oven. Right now it still has 10 minutes to rise and has just peeked over the top rim of the 9x5" bed pan.

(ha! I just saw what I'd mis-written. Given Mom's lack of kitchen supplies, this isn't all that unreasonable.)

Do I bake it when the 45 minutes are done? Or is it supposed to get to the full height of a baked loaf of bread BEFORE I start baking it?

See...it's simple things like this that demonstrate I was not born a survivalist.

https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/honey-whole-wheat-bread/9360659c-011e-4f3a-99f0-930272766ae5

 
You need to punch it down and reform the loaves and make them so they

are half the volume of your loaf pan. Let rise again (don't mind time!!) until they are at the edge of the pan. Then bake.
You will get a bit of oven rise that should make them just right.
Continue in next

 
I wanted to get that to you and then explain something about letting bread rise.

The amount of time in a recipe for rising is at best an estimate--it depends on the ambient temp, the dough, etc. So use it as an estimate but when dough has doubled , that is when to go to whatever the next step is--another rise or baking.
If you baked your loaves as you described them they might have been OK OR possibly more likely, the tops would have spilled over th edge and your loaf might either collapse or be too airy/soft.
Enjoy your bread!!
Added/ Bread is very forgiving and punching it down if it isn't convenient to bake or as what happened to you won't matter.

 
Thanks. I ended up doing exactly that before I could get back here for responses. I

went outside to check on Mom and she said "I'm going to be an electrician today!" with a bunch of electrical objects (lamps, timers, a SANDER) on the table in front of her.

If that doesn't strike fear in your heart, you aren't sufficiently scared.

So I popped the loaves in the oven at the end of the 45 minute rise (higher than the rim) and baked for exactly 30 minutes like the recipe says.

The results are astonishingly not bad.

https://recipeswap.org/fun/wp-content/uploads/swap-photos/wwbread.jpg

 
Looks really good. I should try to find whole wheat flour.

I think the butter keeps the crust soft.

 
Beautiful for the first try, Marilyn!

Because of the circumstance of the time between making the dough and baking, the dough got really airy so you have a very loose texture. If you go back and look at the photo that came with the recipe you will see a tight and more dense texture which is usually associated with WW bread especially with that balance of WW to AP flour. I would have punched down a couple more times and if I had to cut off some of the exploded dough I would have lost some dough volume so loaves would not rise above the loaf pan with the extra punches. No big deal.

Do NOT take this as criticism for your loaves as they look delicious but hopefully just to help for next time.

 
so how many times can you "rise" a dough? I was a bit worried the refrigeration

would kill the yeast, but then I remembered cinnamon rolls can be prepped but not baked and kept in the refrigerator overnight.

I used fresh yeast again. God, I love that stuff.

 
The yeast keeps replenishing a little--and you had fresh so you had a head start.

I've done 3 times at least. First, second, punch down, not yet ready, and then rise to bake.
You can also put in the fridge which will slow it down. Make a ball, coat with oil and cover with saran. Will have a little slow rise flavor to it. Take it out, shape, rise and bake.

 
Sorry I didn't get a chance to answer. Our "expert" has stepped in again.

 
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