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Whole White Wheat Flour

brad_randall

brad_randall

Well-known member
I guess this is directed at Tom, but maybe others have experience working with this “new” product…

So here is the formula we’re currently using for our hand-tossed school pizza dough:

Ingredients
• Flour: 100.00%
• Salt: 1.75%
• Sugar: 2.00%
• Instant Yeast: .50%
• Vegetable Oil: 3.00%
• Water: 58.00%

With an eye towards meeting the Healthier US School Challenge Whole Grain requirements next year, I want to substitute at least 51% of our regular Bouncer High-gluten flour with Whole White Wheat flour. If I can get it above 53%, a slice cut from a 16" pie would generate 2 servings of whole grain according to the guidelines.

What changes to the other ingredients should we make when substituting this particular variety of whole-grain flour?
 
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Here are some definitions from Wikipedia:
The word “whole” refers to the fact that all of the grain (bran, germ, and endosperm) is used and nothing is lost in the process of making the flour. This is in contrast to white, refined flours, which contain only the endosperm. Because the whole flour contains the remains of all of the grain, it has a textured, brownish appearance.

Thus, the flour is whole grain or white but not whole white. You can blend the 2 together though to incorporate some of the nutritional aspect of whole wheat while maintaining a desirable texture with the white.
That being said, we used to incorporate whole wheat into our dough with a ratio of 1 part whole wheat and 3 parts white. Dropped it eventually because I didn’t like the texture that the whole wheat gave it. I’m sure some of the guru’s here have some suggestions though.
 
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bouldercreekpizza:
the flour is whole grain or white but not whole white.
Click to expand...
plain link: http://www.wholegrainscouncil.org/whole … -wheat-faq
Q. What is whole white wheat?
Click to expand...
A. White wheat (pictured here) is a different type of wheat that has no major genes for bran color (unlike traditional “red” wheat which has one to three bran color genes). An easy way to think of it is as a sort of albino wheat. The bran of white wheat is not only lighter in color but it’s also milder in flavor, making whole white wheat more appealing to many people accustomed to the taste of refined flour.

The term “white flour” has often been used to mean “refined flour,” so “whole white wheat flour” sounds like a contradiction in terms. But it is simply WHOLE flour – including the bran, germ and endosperm – made from WHITE wheat.
 
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Brad;
Whole white wheat flour is nothing more than a whole wheat flour milled from a variety of hard white (as opposed to red) wheat.
The best way to make the dough will be to utilize a soaker (check some of my past articles on using whole wheat flour). The soaker is nothing more than all of the whole white wheat flour and water. The amount of water that you add must be determined to some extent be trial and error. Begin by adding 65% absorption to the whole wheat flour and just stirring in in. DO NOT MIX FOR DEVELOPMENT. Allow the soaker to hydrate for 30-minutes, then check it to see if it has absorbed all of the water. It should look something like stiff oatmeal when properly hydrated. Add more water, a little at a time until the soaker reaches the desired consistency and doesn’t change upon standing for 30-minutes. Divide the amount of water added by the weight of whole white wheat flour. You now know the correct absorption value for the whole white wheat flour. You already know the absorption value for your white pizza flour, so just multiply the amount of white flour by that absorption value, add up the two, and you will have the total dough absorption for your new “wheat dough”. Please note that you can make a whole wheat flour soaker for each wheat dough you make. The soaker should be allowed to hydrate for a minimum of at least 30-minutes, 45 to 60-minutes is better. Wheat and whole wheat doughs should always feel a little tacky/wet after mixing, this is both normal and desirable. Do not over mix a wheat or whole wheat dough. Just mix it until is takes on a smooth appearance. Wheat doughs do not hold up well in the cooler for much more than about 36-hours. Whole white wheat flour is perferred over regular whole wheat flour made from hard red wheat varieties as the white wheat varieties are much lower in tannin content which is responsible for the bitterness associated with products made from whole wheat flour, hence, products made with whole white wheat flour will have a better flavor and much improved overall acceptability. For those of you who have attended our October Pizza Seminar, this may all sound very familiar. This is one of the doughs that we always make.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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Brad;
Check the archives for my article on whole-wheat and multi-grain pizza doughs/crusts. I advise you to use a soaker to hydrate the whole-wheat flour properly. If not correctly hydrated, the finished crust will always be sub par in quality.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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I finally got around to making this dough.

I thought the finished product worked reasonably well (less elastic dough, but still workable) and I liked the taste (a mild wheat flavor) & texture (not as chewy). Some of the employees that tried it did not like the flavor, but the only concrete feedback I received was that the crust was not sweet enough.

I’m sure I got the soaker wrong as some parts of the flour were still dry. I added the rest of the water (for the white flour) to the soaker and let stand for 30 minutes before adding the rest of the dry ingredients and mixing. The finished dough was just a bit tacky after mixing like Tom described, but I’m worried I got to that point along the wrong path? I’ll try again with more white wheat flour hydration to the soaker when I get the time as I’m worried I made the sub-par product…
 
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I’ve finally perfected this to my liking. I’m soaking the Whole white wheat flour at 68% along with 1/2 the yeast for 1 hour and then adding it to the remaining ingredients. The finished product got rave reviews from the Lunch Admins and passed the “goldfish” test (so good I’ll eat it until it runs out or my stomach explodes, whichever comes 1st).

Anyways, new problem: Sodium! Here is the Nutritional Profile:

pizza slice cheese
amount per serving 1/8 16" pizza
Calories 335
calories from fat 81
total fat 10 g
saturated fat 5 g
cholesterol 22 mg
sodium 1366 mg
total carbohydrates 43 g
dietary fiber 4 g
sugars 3 g
protein 20 g
vitamin A 9%
vitamin C 4%
Calcium 31%
iron 15%

Sodium restrictions begin to kick in next year. I’m not sure to what level, still waiting to get the guidelines back from the Admins.

So Tom, if I want to reduce the Salt below the 1.75% in your recipe what other changes do I need to make to compensate?
 
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Brad;
Most commercial producers going for reduced sodium will reduce the salt level added to the dough to only 1% of the total flour weight and then add something like garlic powder, onion powder (at very low levels) or even unsalted butter to the dough to improve the finished crust flavor. Even with this done you will probably need to address the sodium level in any meat toppings and the cheese as they are significant. One effective way to do this is to use extended meat products as well as a blended cheese product (half cheese product and half real cheese) this can give you a significant reduction in sodium.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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So other than flavor, a reduction in sodium won’t affect the dough performance in any substantial way? No need to tweak any of the other percentages?
 
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Brad;
As long as you keep the salt level to at least 1% flavor is going to be the main issue.At low salt levels the finished crust will have something of a “starchy” taste. The functions of salt are to control the rate of fermentation and to help strengthen the dough. If you were to delete the salt entirely then you would need to address these other issues too.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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