My 13th experiment - a 2:1 whole wheat bread

This is to me a great leap forward towards whole grains. I've started to rely less and less on recipes, but more and more on memory and "common sense" which really is experience. Here is my own recipe on a heartier whole wheat bread. It is by far the loaf that has the most whole wheat flour I've used---2 cups of whole wheat flour to 1 cup of unbleached flour. This loaf uses a 3-day pre-ferment that has a relatively large portion of yeast. The same pre-ferment can be used in more than one loaf.

These are all the goods baked from the same pre-ferment:

Recipe: Hearty whole wheat sandwich bread (1 medium loaf)

Ingredients:
Pre-ferment (to be fermented for 2 days, use half in this recipe)
- 2 cups gold medal brand unbleached flour
- 1 tp active dry yeast
- 1 cup warm water
- 1/2 tp kosher salt
Soaker
- 2 cups grocery store brand whole wheat flour
- 2 TB buttermilk powder
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1 cup + 2 TB water
Final dough

- half of the pre-ferment

- all of the soaker

- 1/4 tp salt

- 1 TB oat bran

- 1/8 tp active dry yeast

- 1 TB honey

- 1 TB olive oil

- extra oat bran for toppings

Procedure:
Day 1
To make the pre-ferment by autolysis:

1. Dissolve the active dry yeast in 2 tablespoons (TB) warm water out of the 1 cup. Allow to sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, mix flour and salt in a medium bowl.
2. When the yeast has dissolved, add the yeast solution into the medium bowl. Add the remaining warm water into the bowl. Using a fork, mix the ingredients until the flour has mostly moistened.
3. Allow the bowl to sit for 10 minutes. Then stir the flour mixture again a few times. Repeat this 3-4 times.  At each time, use the fork to try to lift up the flour mixture. At first, the weight of the mixture will cause the mixture to break very quickly. The mixture can hardly be called a dough at the beginning. But gluten forms gradually. The dough becomes smoothly, and can stretch longer before it breaks. Eventually, it is possible to lift up the whole dough without breaking.
4. Rub the top of the dough with a few drops of oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rest in the fridge until needed. If the dough is to rest for more than 1 day, then gently stir the dough with a fork every 8 hours or so to punch down some holes.

Day 2
Stir the pre-ferment and punch it down once. Allow to continue chilling in the fridge.

Day 3

1. Take half of the pre-ferment out of the fridge and allow to warm up on the counter.
2. To prepare the soaker: Mix the whole wheat flour, butter milk powder, salt in a medium bowl. Then add water in small quantity until the mixture becomes a soft dough with medium hydration.
3. Allow both the pre-ferment and the soaker to sit on counter for at least 2 hours. The pre-ferment may grow a bit, but not too much.
4. To prepare the final dough:
1. Mix salt, oat bran and yeast together in a large bowl.
2. Add to the large bowl the warmed pre-ferment and the soaker. Mix all the ingredients very well so that the pre-ferment and the soaker are fully blended together. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.
3. Then add honey and oil. Knead the dough for a few minutes to make sure the wet ingredients are blended in.
4. Allow the dough to rest in room temperature or in a slightly warmed oven (the oven can be warmed by turning it on to 150F for 10-15 seconds). When the dough has increased its size to 1.5 times, stir it a little with a fork. Then pour it into a greased 3.5"x7.5" loaf pan.
5. Sprinkle some oat bran on top of the dough. Sprinkle water to moisten the oat bran. Allow the dough to proof in the loaf pan until the dough has risen to 1.5 times its volume again. The loaf pan may be kept in the warmed oven to speed up the proofing time.
6. Preheat oven to 450F.
7. Bake loaf at 350F for 30 minutes.

Results:
Day One 8:39pm, pre-ferment's volume after chilling 10 hours:

Day One 8:39pm, pre-ferment's non-stickiness to the bowl after chilling 10 hours:

Day One 8:40pm, pre-ferment's strength after chilling 10 hours:

Day One 8:43pm, pre-ferment punched down:

Day Two 10:29pm, pre-ferment's volume after 34 hours of chilling:

Day Two 10:30pm, pre-ferment's non-stickiness after 34 hours of chilling:

Day Two 10:30pm, pre-ferment's strength after 34 hours of chilling:

Day Two 10:30pm, pre-ferment's gluten development after 34 hours of chilling:

Day Two 10:34pm, pre-ferment punched down:

Day Three 8:39am, pre-ferment on the third morning (after 48 hours of chilling):

Day Three 9:03am, soaker mixed:

Day Three 11:40am, pre-ferment and soaker rested for 2 hours on the counter at room temperature 72F:

Day Three 11:45am, pre-ferment and soaker at initial stage of mixing:

Day Three 11:55am, pre-ferment and soaker mixed for 10 minutes:

Day Three 12:28pm, final dough ready to rest:

Day Three 1:13pm, final dough having rested in warmed oven for 40 minutes:

Day Three 1:16pm, final dough poured into 7.5"x3.5" greased loaf pan, added toppings, and waiting to proof:

Day Three 1:51pm, final dough proofed for 30 minutes (expanded but looked really flat):

Day Three 2:10pm, loaf baked 20 minutes (midway through):

Day Three 2:22pm, loaf baked 30 minutes (observe the large oven spring):

Day Three 2:24pm, loaf's bottom:

Day Three 2:24pm, loaf's side:

Day Three 2:26pm, loaf's Top:

Day Three 5:05pm, loaf being sliced, observe the thinness and the strength of the slices to stand:

Day Three 5:10pm, one loaf yielding 19 thin slices:

Day Three 5:10pm, a center-of-loaf slice (observe the large hole in the middle despite that the dough had been vigorously kneaded):

Day Three 5:10pm, an end-of-loaf slice (compare it with the center slice):

Observations:
1. This time, my loaf has 2/3 whole wheat flour, 1/3 unbleached flour. While resting and proofing, the dough looks a little flat (unlike white loaves). The oven spring of this loaf surprises me greatly.
2. In total, the amount of yeast used is 1/2 tp from half of the pre-ferment, and 1/8 tp during the mixing of the final dough. It's impressive to me how little the amount of yeast is used to give this oven spring and soft crumb. The 2-day pre-fermentation must have done the job.
3. In this loaf, I notice a few large holes in the crumb, even though the dough has been kneaded really vigorously when the pre-ferment and the soaker are mixed. Such mixing is necessary to make sure the two blend. I have kept both the pre-ferment and the soaker a little on the moist side so that the mixing is easier.
4. I really like the texture and the mouth-feel of this loaf. The particular combination of salt, honey and oil give it a great flavor. With a higher percentage of whole wheat flour, the loaf has a richer taste of grain, too.
5. I use a smaller pan because in total there are only 3 cups of flour in this loaf.
6. On the whole, this loaf is my big new step towards whole grain bread baking.