Hi there guys,

Big hi from sunny devon/uk

new to baking bread and needed some advice if imay please?

my white loaf is turned out really nice but when i try to make a wholemeal loaf it comes out like a brick and i dont know why.

some one did say i may need to add some Gluten flour or been told another name is vital wheat gluten but i cant seem to find any in my local shop can anyone give me some advice please??

do you think this could be why my whole meal loaf wont rise?

It seldom works to take a white flour recipe and substitute whole grains, you need a recipe that is designed to work with whole grain flour.  The bran bits in whole grain flour act like little knives, abrading and degrading the strands of gluten which are necessary to give your bread structure.  Without enough structure, it’s heavy and dense. 

The fix is to reduce the bran and/or increase the gluten.  You can reduce the bran by reducing the proportion of whole grain flour, or by using a fine strainer to sift out the larger bran bits.  Modern roller milling leaves some of the bran in larger flakes, so they sift out easily.  You can use the flakes to coat the outside of the bread or just discard them. 

To increase gluten, switch the white flour portion of your bread to one with higher protein such as bread flour (12-13% protein) or high gluten flour (14% protein).  Vital wheat gluten is something like 75% protein and is sometimes sold in health food stores. 

Whole wheat doughs often need more water and more yeast than white flour dough, both of which help provide more oven spring.

Rose has some lovely bread recipes over on the blog portion of the site, they range from 25% whole wheat to 100% whole wheat and have all the features necessary to produce high-rising whole grain loaves.

A 100% whole wheat loaf will always be much more dense than white bread, which is why most people prefer a mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour.  For those glutens for punishment who truly desire a 100% whole wheat loaf, some additional wheat gluten is very helpful in producing an edible product.  I’d be surprised if you can’t locate it locally.

Now, if your bread didn’t rise at all, you may have other problems.  Perhaps your yeast was killed with too hot water.  Or, if you got some rise, you may not have developed the gluten even to the extent possible with whole wheat flour.

cheers guys… the wholemeal bread did rise some but i,d say only about a 3rd of what my white bread did.

i am having the same problem just brought a panasonic breadmaker and i am having the same problem.i brought this panasonic sd2502 breadmaker for £70 but it seems i can’t even get my faevourite wholemeal bread to rise.

http://www.kitchengadgets.org.uk/panasonic-breadmaker-sd2502-review/

Wholemeal bread wont rise at all and gets hard in the pan.

please help make a perfect loaf for my kids!

Elena, I have a Panasonic bread maker and I make a wholemeal loaf in mine regularly.  Do you have the recipe brochure with your machine?  If you do you should be able to find recipes for various strengths of wholemeal dough, ie. 50% , 75% and 100%.  I use the 50% recipe and it always turns out well for me.  You will find that recipes using wholemeal/wholewheat flour use more water in the dough, otherwise they it does result in a dense, heavy dough.  I am no expert but I think if you follow the recipe to the letter in the booklet/brochure you will be well pleased.  Bear in mind, as someone else said, your yeast must be new, it doesn’t cost much so if you have any doubts about it’s age ditch it and replace it with new.  Let us know how you get on.  I live in Wales, by the way.

jeannette - 16 January 2013 12:34 PM

Elena, I have a Panasonic bread maker and I make a wholemeal loaf in mine regularly.  Do you have the recipe brochure with your machine?  If you do you should be able to find recipes for various strengths of wholemeal dough, ie. 50% , 75% and 100%.  I use the 50% recipe and it always turns out well for me.  You will find that recipes using wholemeal/wholewheat flour use more water in the dough, otherwise they it does result in a dense, heavy dough.  I am no expert but I think if you follow the recipe to the letter in the booklet/brochure you will be well pleased.  Bear in mind, as someone else said, your yeast must be new, it doesn’t cost much so if you have any doubts about it’s age ditch it and replace it with new.  Let us know how you get on.  I live in Wales, by the way.

Thank you

Yes i got a recipe book with it, i will have a read in the morning, i will pop into Asda and get some new yeast i think its old.

I hope your okay in Wales hope you been making a snowman.

Keep warm thank you for your reply x

I have not baked a 100% whole wheat bread; however, I read that adding some ascorbic acid to the flour will help rise the dough. add structure to the dough, and act as a preservative as well. For a small batch of bread dough (1-2 loaves), use 15-50 mg of Ascorbic Acid.
Happy Baking