I have been trying to find out how to bake a simple fool proof whole wheat bread,  I searched on Google and Yahoo, but so far haven’t found anything that looks like it would work.  What I would love to know is how to keep the loaf light and not heavy like a brick.  Perhaps this is taught in cooking school or learned with time and experience, but so far, I haven’t been able to bake up anything with whole wheat that is light and airy.  If anyone has any tips or recipes that I could download I would love to hear from you. Also if you know of any youtube sites where I could see it demonstrated, that would be great.  Thanks.

Hi!  Welcome!

Rose has the following recipe posted on the blog:  http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/rose_levy_beranbaums_100_whole.html

Her big secrets:  use fresh ground flour, wheat gluten, and don’t let rise over 1.5 times in bulk.  A soaker can also soften the bran which helps reduce severing of the gluten strands during kneading.  I’ve made this recipe, but it’s not quite for me.  Perhaps I should try again. 
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2006/11/rose_levy_beranbaums_100_whole.html

That said, I find my personal preference is around 50% whole wheat/50% white flour + additional grains and I like to bake her Honey Oat Bread:

http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2007/12/a_fabulous_new_bread_recipe_fo.html

I usually add up the total amount of flour and do 50% ww and 50% unbleached or bread.  It is my absolute favourite soft sandwich/roll bread.  I just made a variation similar to it from King Arthur and there is no comparision to Rose’s recipe!  You can minimize mess/dishes by being efficient and thinking ahead.  I usually get the grains soaking.  Mix together my dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  I whisk all of my dry ingredients before I use it in the wet ones.  Then add oil and honey to the flax/oat soaker (whisk) and then dump my dry stuff on top of that.  Adding some browned milk solids (from making beurre noisette) really adds another dimension to this loaf.

Yes to everything Sherrie said (well, except that I actually like the 100% whole wheat bread a lot)

Whole wheat, specifically the bran particles, cut the gluten strands that make up a bread’s structure.  Without enough structure, the bread is dense, not light.  So to compensate, you add more gluten, either by combining the whole wheat with a high gluten flour or by adding vital wheat gluten. 

And just to reinforce Sherrie’s tips, the other things you can do are to add a touch of oil, to soak the whole wheat flour with some of the water and salt from the recipe overnight, to limit rises to 1.5x, and to use a fairly well hydrated dough.

I just made Peter Reinhart’s multigrain struan which is made of 100% whole wheat flour and also makes use of a soaker and biga and it turned out really light and fluffy! I added vital wheat gluten, lecithin granules, and a dash of ginger powder and I think these helped make the bread have that store bought quality.  I think it’s also important to achieve the windowpane consistency to the dough before the first rise.

Thank you, Sherrie, for the tip on Rose’s blog.  I read the article and printed it.  It was very helpful especially the things you highlighted, using fresh ground flour and rising time.  I know what you mean about 50/50, that is exactly what I have the most success with in bread and pizza dough. I have generally found the King Arthur products to be delicious, so your comment on Rose’s recipe being better was particularly encouraging.