Wholemeal no-knead bread

I try to use organic flour for the bread I make, and ever since I bought the Thermomix I have been milling wheat grain into flour.  I find the terms wholemeal, wholewheat etc very confusing, and so it seems do the manufacturers of commercial bread.  A lot of this product has a varying amount of white flour added, to make the bread rise more and give a lighter final product.  There are no standard definitions in different countries either, so what you buy may not be what you thought you were buying.  Some breads even have artificial colouring or molasses added to make them look brown, when they are in fact highly processed.

Whole wheat or wholemeal flour is made of the entire grain, with nothing added or subtracted.  It contains volatile oils, so it won't keep as well as white flour.  This is why I prefer to mill it myself, because the grain keeps better than the flour.  Using 100% wholemeal flour will result in a denser bread, which is not to everyone's taste.  I love the smell and taste of wholemeal bread, and I think it makes nice toast too.  There is less gluten in wholemeal flour, and also the bran prevents air pocket formation so the final result is not surprising.  However, you can counteract this to a certain extent by adding more water and leaving the bread to rise longer, or let it rise twice.

With wholemeal flour you get nothing added and nothing taken away.  A lot of white flour has various things added back, in some countries by law eg folate, so if you want to know exactly what goes into your loaf use wholemeal flour.

I wanted to try the no knead method with wholemeal flour.  This weekend I'm also going to make some cupcakes for a morning tea at work on Monday to raise money for the Christchurch earthquakes.  Although Australia has had its fair share of natural disasters in the last month, what has happened in New Zealand is beyond words.  New Zealanders and Australians are family.  I might put the recipe for the cakes in here later in the week.

Ingredients for wholemeal no-knead bread


3 cups wholemeal flour
Roughly 2 cups water
1/4 tsp dried yeast
1 and 1/4 tsp salt

There is more water in this recipe than the standard recipe, but different flours will take different amounts of water, particularly wholemeal flours.  Mix everything together, starting with 1.5 cups water and slowly add the rest until you get a soft mushy consistency but not too wet.  Place in a bowl, cover tightly with cling wrap and leave for 12-18 hours at room temperature.  Tip out the dough onto a floured surface and fold over once or twice.  Cover with a tea towel for 15 minutes, then shape into a ball.  Place onto a heavily floured tea towel, cover and leave to rise for 2-3 hours.  Preheat oven to 230 C, with your cast iron or ceramic pot inside, for at least 30 minutes, then upend the dough into the pot.  Replace lid and leave in oven for 30 minutes, then remove lid and cook for another 30 minutes.

The final product was very dense. although when I cut it there are pockets of air inside.  I sliced off a bit while it was still warm, and it tastes delicious.  Overall though, I'm a bit disappointed.  It's too heavy and crumbly for sandwiches, so it will probably end up as toast for the next few days.