Adapting bread recipe

elf06

I know there have been many many threads on bread making but I am not sure if this question has been answered yet. I have a tried and tested white bread recipe which I love but I would like to extend it to other types so the question is ...........

Can I just replace the strong white flour for say granary flour or wholemeal or would I need to adjust the quantities??

Thanks in advance

CCP

I find both granary and wholemeal loaves work best if I use about 3/4 wholemeal / granary flour and 1/4 white flour - the bread tends to come out a bit heavy otherwise. You'll also need a bit more yeast (I use 1/2 tsp in white bread and 3/4 tsp in wholemeal, to give you some idea), and slightly more water if you make wholemeal as it seems to absorb more water than white or granary flour.

Everything else is the same, though. HTH!

bitemebankers

What CCP said. And to get an even better result with wholemeal/granary loaves, try adding a 1/4 teaspoon of vitamin C powder (ascorbic acid) to the dry ingredients.

elf06

thats great thanks - although i not sure how much yeast i use the recipe just calls for a sachet of yeast so not sure howm uch to use. Think the sachet is 7g so maybe try 10???

Do you think i need more water for granary?

CCP

Your recipe obviously uses much more yeast than the recipe I usually use! A sachet might well be enough for a wholemeal/granary loaf, but you could use one and a half sachets if you want to be on the safe side.

As for whether granary flour uses more water - it depends on the flour, unfortunately. If I use Hovis' granary flour then it does need a bit more water, but when I used some stoneground granary flour that I'd managed to acquire (expensive, but so good!) it only needed the same quantity as I would use with white flour. You'll probably just have to try it and see how it works out.

elf06

My recipe is really easy but just says on sachet of yeast so think i might try one and a bit! Its Hovis flour I have in so more water will be required. Ah well will give it a bash at some point. Nothing ventured nothing gained :rotfl:

bitemebankers

elf06 wrote: »

Nothing ventured nothing gained :rotfl:

That's the spirit. In my experience, it's not that critical and I usually seem to end up with something edible.

aliadds

Whenever I make any bread other than white I use 50/50 with good results. I normally use the same quantity of yeast as for white, but would agree that you need more water for wholemeal and granary!

Justamum

elf06 wrote: »

My recipe is really easy but just says on sachet of yeast so think i might try one and a bit! Its Hovis flour I have in so more water will be required. Ah well will give it a bash at some point. Nothing ventured nothing gained :rotfl:

You shouldn't need any extra yeast - just leave it to rise for longer. If I need to let mine rise overnight I used half the quantity I would normally use so that I don't find it oozing over the sides of the tins in the morning :eek:

elf06

I do mine overnight to rise then knock back and allow another hour to rise so do you think the same quantity yeast would be ok?

Justamum

elf06 wrote: »

I do mine overnight to rise then knock back and allow another hour to rise so do you think the same quantity yeast would be ok?

It will be fine.