How Much Yeast in Rich Dough?

[lizztwozee]

So bakers! Question for you: I'd like to add soft butter to my 81% whole wheat (19% bread flour) dough--it's just a little too "healthy", kinda grainy and maybe a tad dry, when baked (at 65% hydration). It has 4 tsps. of instant yeast in the batch, which measures about 15 lbs. of dough (just flours, water, yeast and salt). So how much more yeast should I add to compensate for the fat? Thinking of throwing in some honey too, just so I can call it "honey-butter wheat"--should sell well at the farmer's market! Here's a shot of the current lean version. Dense, but delicious!

Edited November 10, 2015 by lizztwozee (log)

[Lisa Shock]

Have you thought of going with a finer grind of flour?

 

It's hard to say about the yeast amount, since room temperature and fermentation time also affect it. I don't usually adjust yeast for added fat. If you are going for more than 5% honey, try osmotolerant yeast.

[lizztwozee]

Lisa, just adding about 2%, so hopefully no yeast kill-off. What amount of butter would you recommend?

[Lisa Shock]

To be really indulgent, 8oz butter to 5lbs flour.

[andiesenji]

I bake a lot of breads with whole wheat with seeds and grains and they can be quite dense.

 

I add a couple of tablespoons of vital wheat gluten and 1/2 cup of dry whole milk for every 1000g of flour. (8 cups)

You have to increase the liquid slightly using these additives.

During mixing I watch the dough and if it looks a bit dry (the milk powder is extremely absorbent) I add more a bit at a time.

 

I knead the whole wheat doughs quite a bit longer than regular "white" bread because it takes longer for the gluten to fully develop.

I have done tests side by side with the same dough, doubling the kneading time from 10 minutes to 20 minutes and the latter was much less dense but still with a fine crumb.

 

I have also substituted up to 1/3 of the flour with oat "flour" - old-fashioned rolled oats (NOT quick-cooking) pulsed in the food processor or blender until it looks like very fine meal - I often toast the oats first and this gives a wonder new dimension to the bread.

 

There are different ways of adding fats. I often use butter (homemade) but  I use rice bran oil in most breads.  Recently I have been adding egg yolks (I made some meringues so had a bunch of yolks to use up) and the result was a bread with fine crumb and perfectly moist that toasted beatifully.  It was a very rich whole wheat, with oat flour, sesame and poppy seeds and finely ground toasted pumpkin seeds.  Without the addition of the vital wheat gluten, the milk powder, the oil and the eggs, this would have been a very dense bread.

Edited November 10, 2015 by andiesenji (log)

[lizztwozee]

Andiesenji, what wonderful suggestions. As I bake about 185-250 loaves in a day for the farmer's market, the longer mixing would stress out my mixer too much at 20 minutes per batch (not using a bread mixer--kinda pushin' it with the 20 qt. Hobart and spiral dough hook at 18 lbs. of dough); do you think a couple of stretch and folds, in addition to a 10 min. knead with the mixer would do the same? Thanks so much for your insights. I've been reading your posts with interest for quite some time now!