On 9/12/2016 at 2:14 PM, chromedome said:It's possible the whole-wheat flour here in Canada is higher in gluten than what you're using.
My usual loaf is a sandwich bread, so it's enriched with egg, milk, butter and honey; sometimes (depending on my flour and how it behaves) I'll add a dash of vital wheat gluten and a spoonful of lecithin granules. I often replace up to a third of the whole-wheat flour with a random mixture of other flours out of my cupboard (rye, buckwheat, corn flour, oat flour, kamut flour etc), in which case I definitely add gluten.
Have you tried using the basic setting, instead of the ww setting? It's possible your bread might be over-proofing and then losing volume (the ww cycle usually extends the rising time). Your nose will usually tell you if it's over-fermented, the dough will develop a sour and faintly alcoholic smell and the finished loaf will be dense and coarse.
That is so. I use the regular - basic setting. The only time I use the WW setting is when I am baking one of the intentionally dense fruit and nut loaves or similar like the "Ezekial bread" loaves. And those are so dense and so wet that after the baking cycle ends, I reset it for "Bake only" for 45 minutes and check the internal temp with my Thermopen until it registeres at least 210° F. in the center.
I should add that I routinely use a remote probe thermometer when I am baking a new recipe with which I am unfamiliar, particularly when they contain different ingredients that I have not used previously.
Setting the alarm for 205° so I can check the loaf often shows that the cycle ends well before the internal temps have reached the optimal point.
