My 40th experiment: Walnut whole wheat bread

This is adapted from King Arthur Flour whole wheat baking. I just want to try out different recipes of whole wheat loaves.

Recipe: Walnut whole wheat bread (make 1 medium loaf)

Ingredients:
- 3 cups King Arthur whole wheat flour
- 2+1/2 tp active dry yeast
- 4 TB orange juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 TB vegetable oil
- 2 TB firmly packed dark brown sugar
- 1+1/4 tp salt
- 3/4 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Procedure:
1. Proof yeast in 2 TB warm water.
2. Mix flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Add proofed yeast, orange juice and half the warm water. Mix to form a dough. Add the remaining water incrementally 2 TB at a time, until the dough is well hydrated. The resultant dough should be rather sticky, but not sloppy. It should be able to stand on its own as a bowl. Do not attempt to add flour to fix it unless it cannot stand.
3. Add in the oil and chopped walnuts. Form a smooth ball. Allow to rest in a bowl, covered with wrap, until its volume has doubled. It takes about 1 hour on a warm day.
4. Grease a 8.5"x4.5" medium pan with butter, and dust with a little flour. Gently deflate the dough. Shape it into a log. Place it in the greased pan and allow to rest until the dough rise to about 1" over the rim of the pan.
5. Preheat oven to 350F. Bake for 40 minutes. For the first 15 minutes, bake uncovered at 350F. Then cover top with foil and continue baking. Loaf is done when internal temperature reaches 190F.

Results:

9:37am, ingredients except oil and nuts:

9:48am, initial mixture of the dough:

9:52am, dough kneaded 2 minutes:

9:55am, dough rested for 2 minutes:

9:59am, dough kneaded another 4 minutes:

9:59am, texture of dough:

10:04am, oil and nuts added to dough:

10:09am, final dough before resting:

10:09am, final dough's height before resting:

11:03am, final dough rested 55 minutes:

11:03am, final dough rested 55 minutes height:

11:12am, final dough's texture after rest:

11:18am, final dough shaped into a log:

11:18am, final dough's height after shaped in a pan:

12:20pm, final dough rested 1 hour:

12:21pm, final dough's height after it rested 1 hour:

12:29pm, final dough scored:

12:30pm, final dough's height just before baking:

12:48pm, loaf baked 15 minutes uncovered, going to bake covered for the remaining time:

1:12pm, loaf baked 42 minutes, not ready yet:

1:19pm, loaf baked 50 minutes, internal temperature reaching 190F:

1:19pm, loaf's height when done:

1:20pm, loaf's edge detached from pan:

1:21pm, loaf's bottom:

1:21pm, loaf's side:

1:22pm, loaf's top:

4:09pm, loaf cooled 3 hours:

4:13pm, loaf cut into 16 slices:

4:13pm, a center-of-loaf slice:

4:14pm, an end-of-loaf slice:

Remarks:
1. King Arthur flour hydrates rapidly.
2. This is a very moist dough. It's not a batter, but definitely not a hard dough.
3. This loaf is baked the same day that the dough is made. In general, such loaf has about 2.5 to 3 tp active dry yeast for every 3 cups of flour. The height of this loaf is reasonable. I punch down the dough twice. So the crumb has rather uniform holes, that are comparable to those in the overnight loaves.
4. I suppose the biggest difference between overnight fermentation and same-day fermentation is the amount of yeast needed to achieve the same volume.
5. This loaf almost does not seem to have an oven spring!

I love this loaf very much! The walnuts are wonderful.