Calling all you Bread Making Mamas!

[cristina47454]

My family loves the no-knead ciabatta bread. I make it with about 1/2 cup ww flour and 3 c white flour. Without spending weeks in the kitchen trying to perfect a whole wheat version, can you tell me if a whole wheat version will even work?? My dds have forsaken whole wheat sandwich bread, and I'm trying to figure out if I can bake ciabatta rolls for their sandwiches. Just wish I could figure out a whole wheat version. (Although why I'm wed to the idea of a sandwich is beyond me!)

[jojoboy]

I'm not familiar with your specific bread, but I get fairly good results substituting about 1/3 - 1/2 of the white flour with whole wheat. In your recipe, that would be around 1 1/2 cups of ww flour, and the rest with white.

Using completely ww flour (no white flour) is a little trickier (at least in my experience), but there are some ww bread books out there. I tried some recipes, I just remember having to use ww bread flour and some ww pastry flour to get a good french bread, and it seemed like a pain. Plus, in my house cost is a consideration and white flour is so cheap.

I do get pretty good results from ww pitas or tortillas, and they can be used for pita sandwiches or wraps too. But I use my food processor to make bread, so the kneading isn't really a consideration in my house. The machine does all the work.

[Aubergine68]

Originally Posted by jojoboy

I'm not familiar with your specific bread, but I get fairly good results substituting about 1/3 - 1/2 of the white flour with whole wheat. In your recipe, that would be around 1 1/2 cups of ww flour, and the rest with white.
.

This.

I have heard that adding a conditioner to the dough, like soy lecithin or whey, will make homemade whole grain breads better, but have not experimented with it. I have access to good quality whole grain sprouted breads, which my kids love, for about a dollar a loaf (which is v. cheap here) so I have put experimenting on hold.

When I do make bread, I make it with half ww flour -- any more and my kids won't eat it.

[cristina47454]

Hmmm..that's what I was afraid of. I googled and came up with a couple of recipes, but if it's a french/ciabatta I'm after, I don't want to spend a bunch of time trying to figure it out only to find that it doesn't work. So I guess my next question is...how important should "whole wheat" be? If I'm buying bread it's ALWAYS whole wheat (if I splurge on artisan bread it never seems to be though). And if it's nutrition I'm after I guess white bread, even homemade, isn't that great. Right?

[jojoboy]

White bread isn't nutrition-less. It's still good for you, just ww has more nutritional value - more fiber, more nutrients, etc. I think the main problem comes from eating all white bread in your diet, or all white starch (white rice, potatoes, white bread, etc). In my own family, we do a mix - mostly because wheat never comes close to the taste of white bread for me, especially when we're talking about french bread or sweet breads.

I'm a big fan of everything in moderation, and since I love food, I refuse to let nutritional value to be the ONLY thing I consider when I think about what I eat. Taste is important too (at least for me).

[mnnice]

I add 1/2 tsp of vital wheat gluten per cup of ww flour to my bread and use about 1/2 whole wheat flour and half white flour. I've been real happy with the end product.