Hi. I've just joined the list. I've really enjoyed reading through
your comments in the archives and am looking forward to joining in.
I have a question right now about (you guessed it) the Hi-Rise's Corn
Bread in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking book. I usually make breads
which are at least 1/2 whole wheat flour for health reasons. There's
usually no problem doing this for sandwich, hearth and flatbreads.
The corn bread is the first high hydration dough I've ever tried to
do this substitution with. As best I can guess the hydration level is
about 70%. The finished bread tastes wonderfull, but the rise is
closer to Low-Rise. :-) The finished loaf is still fairly light, but
only 3 inches high.
I've tried flour ratios of 40% white, 40% whole wheat, 20% cornmeal
and also 42% white, 30% whole wheat, 20% cornmeal and 8% vital wheat
gluten. Both sets of ratios produced about the same results.
Is it possible to produce a high hydration bread with a significant
amount of whole wheat and a good rise?
Thanks for any help.
Debbie Kaplan