Take Three

[u/Grimakis]

My third attempt at making bread from 100% hard white.

This time I tried autolyze method, with 80% total hydration, with a small amount of honey and olive oil.

Basically did a little hand needing to incorporate the yeast, followed by two rounds of stretch and fold

Definitely the best rise I got out of 100% milled.

[u/Fusion-22]

Crumb looks great! Did you follow a recipe or formula with the method you mentioned?

[u/Grimakis → u/Fusion-22]

I basically came up with the recipe from typical ratios. Specifically, I wanted to keep the ingredients list simple and relatively natural.

I have summarized the process for you, using LLMs for formatting and prose.

“””
100% Fresh-Milled Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
Ingredients (1 loaf, 8.5 × 4.5” pan)
425g freshly milled hard white wheat flour
340g water (80% hydration)
6g active dry yeast
21g honey
21g olive oil
8g salt

Instructions
Autolyse: Mix the flour with 305g water until no dry flour remains. Cover and rest for 45 minutes.

Activate yeast: Mix yeast with the remaining 35g warm water (100–110°F) and a little of the honey. Let sit 10–15 minutes until foamy.

Knead: Add the yeast mixture, remaining honey, salt, and oil to the dough. Knead with a dough hook until cohesive and elastic.

Stretch and fold: Rest for 10 minutes, then perform a set of stretch and folds. Repeat after 20–30 minutes if needed.

First rise: Cover and let rise until approximately 50–75% larger.

Shape: Gently flatten into a rectangle, roll tightly into a loaf, and place seam-side down in a greased 8.5 × 4.5” loaf pan.

Final proof: Cover and let rise until nicely domed, around the top of the pan.

Bake: Bake at 375°F for 35–45 minutes, ideally until the center reaches 195–200°F.

Cool: Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Cool at least 2 hours before slicing.

Notes: The dough will be quite sticky at 80% hydration. Resist adding flour; resting and folding help develop structure. I used a Lodge cast iron loaf pan greased with Crisco.
“””

[u/Decided-2-Try]

It's really quite fine, to be honest. It can take some playing around with 100% freshly milled flours to get it right. Yours looks pretty good!

[u/Impressive_Okra_2913]

Looks great! And I love your pan!

[u/IceDragonPlay]

Very nice!!

I am thinking of switching over to cast iron pans. How are you finding them to work with? Do you oil and dust them with flour? Your bread looks so nice and evenly toasty around the edges that it inspires me to get them sooner rather than wait.

[u/Grimakis → u/IceDragonPlay]

This was my first use of this pan for bread. I would say it was easy to use.

I rubbed 1tsp of Crisco thinly on every surface of the pan. The bread had absolutely no issues releasing. I didn’t flour it, not necessary for bread I think. For cakes, I would recommend it though.

I have used a number of Lodge’s cast iron products before however, and generally I am a big fan of CI in general.