100% Wholewheat Sandwich Bread

I must confess here that i dont like baking bread completely with wholewheat flour coz i have made bad experience with them earlier. Later i slowly learned them and one fine day i succeeded making an incredible 100% wholewheat bread. Somehow none at home like wholewheat bread as they will be bit dense when compare to the bread flour or all purpose flour used bread. If am making bread at home, either i'll make completely with bread flour or else i'll go for both whole wheat and all purpose flour. But its been a while i prepared wholewheat flour bread without all purpose flour.

For our this month's We Knead To Bake, a monthly baking event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen, she pulled us to bake an incredible wholewheat sandwich bread. Initially i was bit skeptical coz this bread goes for almost a day preparation. Yes, this bread goes for soaked and the biga/sponge,obviously if you are planning to make this bread you have to start your preparation better before a day. Coz the soake need to be in room temperature for atleast 12 hours and the biga/sponge need to be in fridge for almost 12hours too. But trust me this both part are very important to get this extremely spongy and prefect loaves of this wholewheat sandwich bread. Aparna also shared a video of shaping a sandwich loaf which helped a lot for making this loaf, check here.I used Aasirvaad atta for making this loaf and we had this spongy bread for our lunch with some salad and grilled meats.Sending to my own event Cooking With Seeds- Wheat guest hosted by Priya.

Recipe source: Peter Reinhart
For Soaker:
1+3/4cups Whole wheat flour
1/2tsp Salt
1cup Water
1tbsp Apple cider vinegar

For Biga/Sponge:
1+3/4cups Whole wheat flour
1/4tsp Instant yeast
3/4cup Milk
1tbsp Apple cider vinegar

For Final Dough:
The Soaker
The Biga/Sponge
1/2tsp Salt
1+1/2tsp Vital wheat gluten (optional)
1/3cup Whole wheat flour +3tbsp Flour
2tsp Instant yeast
1/8cup Oil
2tbsp Honey

For making soaker:
Mix all the ingredients given for soaker together in a bowl until all the flour gets well mixed, soaker will be somewhat like firm bread.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 12-24hours.

For making Biga/Sponge:
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, knead slowly to form a soft ball.

Cover it and refrigerate for atleast 8hours or overnite.

Biga can stay prefect for 3days in fridge if you are not planning to make your bread.

Two hours before you plan to make the bread dough, remove the biga from the fridge and let it come to room temperature.

Make small pieces about 12pieces using a sharp knife with the soaked and biga.

Put them in food processer and knead it for few minute, add the remaining ingredients and knead for 3minutes.

Let it rest for 5minutes, then add the flour and knead for few more minutes.

Your dough should come away from the sides of the bowl.

Arrange the dough in a greased bowl and let it rise for about 1+1/2hours. Turn out the dough to a lightly floured surface, pat the dough and roll it as a loaf, check the video.

Preheat the oven at 350F..

Place the loaf in a greased load tin and bake for 40-45minutes at 350F until the top gets a nice brown colour and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Let it cool completely before slicing.

Notes:

The dough will be extremely sticky, a food processor or a stand mixer make the life easier.

Wheat gluten is optional if you want to add them,please do add while preparing the final dough.

Dont add more flour while kneading the final dough.