Part Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

This lovely bread from Nick Malgieri's book, "bread", is made with two different doughs, one with whole wheat flour and the other, plain dough. Each are mix separately and left to rest for one hour before they are kneaded together. According to him, "Getting the best texture possible in a whole wheat bread depends a lot on giving the ground bran in the flour time to absorb water and soften". His brilliant technique in letting both doughs rest separately, the whole wheat so that the brans have time to absorb the water, and the plain dough to ferment in that one hour, and by combining them together, the process is speeded up a little, there really is not much kneading at all.

Just a few minutes of kneading to mix the doughs together, until they are well mixed, it takes only 2 minutes when using the stand mixer attached with the dough hook. The dough is then left to rise. The risen dough is flattened to a disk, fold them as per the instructions in the recipe, and left to rise the second time. The dough is then pulled into an 8-inch square without deflating it too much, roll it jelly-roll style and placed in the prepared loaf pan for the final proofing. Bake as directed.

This bread is really nice. It has light dense crumbs, yet quite soft in texture. As you can see from the photo above, it bends easily when I hold it at one end. It makes a wonderful sandwich bread.

Part Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
(adapted from "bread", Nick Malgieri)
Makes one 9-inch loaf
WHOLE WHEAT DOUGH :
2/3 cup/150gm warm tap water, about 100F
2 cups/270gm whole wheat flour (spoon into a dry-measure cup and level off)
2 tablespoons/30gm light brown sugar
1 tablespoon/15gm unsalted butter

WHITE DOUGH :
2/3 cup/150gm room-temperature tap water, about 75F
2-1/4 teaspoons/7gm fine granulated active dry or instant yeast
1-1/3 cups/180gm unbleached bread flour
1-1/2 teaspoons/9gm fine sea salt (I use 1 teaspoon)
One 9x5x3-inch loaf pan, buttered and the bottom lined with a rectangle of parchment paper
(oops... I did not line the bottom)

1. For the whole wheat dough, pour the water into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook and add the whole wheat flour, sugar, and butter. Use a rubber spatula to stir the ingredients to a rough dough, then mix on the lowest speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with plastic wrap, and rinse off the dough hook.
2. For the white dough, mix the water and yeast in a medium bowl and use a rubber spatula to stir in the flour. The dough will be a little dry, but keep mixing until all the flour is absorbed. Cover with plastic wrap.
3. Let both doughs rest for 1 hour.
4. Scrape the white dough from its bowl over the whole wheat dough in the mixer bowl and mix on the lowest speed until the doughs are smoothly blended together, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the salt and increase the speed to low/medium and beat 2 minutes longer.
5. Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and turn it over so that the top is oiled. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
6. Scrape the dough to a floured surface. Flatten the dough to a disk. Fold the two sides in to overlap at the middle, then roll the top toward you all the way to the end, jelly-roll style. Invert, flatten, and repeat. Return the dough to the bowl smooth (bottom) side upward, and let it rise until fully doubled, about 45 minutes longer, depending on the room temperature.
7. Invert the dough to a floured surface and without deflating it too much, pull it into an 8-inch square. Tightly roll the dough toward you and place in the pan seam side down.
8. Cover with oiled or sprayed plastic wrap and let the loaf proof until it has risen about 1/2 inch above the rim of the pan. Once it's close to the top of the pan, set a rack a notch below the middle level and preheat the oven to 400F.
9. Place the loaf in the oven and immediately lower the temperature to 375F. Bake the loaf until well risen and deep golden and an internal temperature of at least 200F, 30 to 40 minutes.
10. Unmould and cool on a rack on its side to prevent falling.

I'm linking this post with 

Cook-Your-Books #16 @ Kitchen Flavours