I want to show you the difference between the Whole Wheat Flour i use and the Wheat Bran, both good for making your hearty and healthier versions of Pandesal and loaf breads. Below is the Wheat Bran, which you cannot use 100% of course, a cup of this to your regular recipe will go a long way. Now, grab your favorite Whole Wheat Bread from the grocery aisle and peek through the crumb and count the flecks of whole wheat visible to your minus double lens eye. Find any?
Chances are you will not find A LOT, and this could mean two things. First, they did not use the wheat bran below, what we call back home as cracked wheat. Because if you do, you will be amazed at how very little of this can totally change the dough structure, from a smooth gliding dough to a brown speckled mass. So if you see your Whole Wheat Bread having very little tiny brown colored dots, chances are they use just a small percentage of wheat bran or cracked wheat (which can be very expensive) or that,
they use whole wheat flour...puede rin, but then again, like i said this is one expensive ingredient.
This is the Whole Wheat flour, very fine, dark colored and way much finer than the whole wheat flour sold by Purefood's. I got this one from the Bulk Barn in Canada, the wheat bran was from an Amish Pennsylvannia store in New Jersey, just before Princeton.
You scoop the ingredients straight off the bins, label it with a piece of paper they have and write the number and pay. So cool.
So let me show you just how speckled this Whole Wheat Bran based dough will look like once i mix the dough and see for yourself the big difference. I suspect that the ones you buy, barely has this much wheat bran. Below are images from Whole Wheat Pandesal, i used my 20 Quart mixer, this is a 1 kilogram batch.
Now that, is what a Whole Wheat based dough should look like. I always show this to my students, make sure you know what your dough looks like, ALL THE TIME.
I used a sponge on this one, see how the dough expands inside this jurassic oven? Amazing. I am still at awe with how the process of fermentation gives out such an incredible job, wonderful.
Pandesal that does not deflate, the shape stays on and the sweet, nutty flavor of the bran lingers to your mouth after. I tweeted a while back that this batch lasted on a warm 72 F kitchen for 6 days, with out any preservatives.
Next time you buy your whole wheat bread, be a Poirot and think about it. Is it or is it not?
For baking class inquiries, please go to my website, www.breadmakinglessons.com to see the schedule, the lessons, fee and all.
Yes, i do give one on one baking classes, if you wish to take the lessons alone, you are free to do so. The minimum fee is that you should pay for at least two students, which is P5000.00, on site or in my place. If you wish the classes held on site, an extra student would have to pay (meaning a third student), but the fourth one does not have to. If you have a group who wants to take the lessons, the fee will cost you only what 3 students would pay, so if there is like 6 of you, you can chip in and divide the fee among yourselves. Pretty neat i must say. I wish i had taken such class when i was still brow beating myself trying to learn how to bake Pandesal, instead i ended up taking a two year Culinary Course yet failed to learn it still :( P1,000/unit lang naman. Parang Ateneo during that time, what was i thinking?
Anyway, hands on sessions with no time limit increases your chances of learning how to bake breads by a mile high. There is nothing out there that can teach you more than dipping yourself elbow deep into the flour bin so to speak. You have to "feel the dough" and take the steps in real time. No other way. You can buy 10 baking books, attend demos here and there, but unless someone gives you the opportunity to make the breads yourself and find out the whats and whys, you are just wasting money. I should know. It happened to me.
PS
Love it when families sign up, mother and daughter, mother and son with girlfriend, or husband and wife with daughter etc., Must be fun to take a class with your family, i am sure it is.
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