February 3, 2023 - 12:28am
Buckwheat/dsicovery/comment
AYK from past posts, I love the taste of buckwheat, but have repeatedly failed to get my Panasonic to make good buckwheat bread with Dove's flour (sold in supermarkets). My wife bought on-line some expensive Italian buckwheat flour (Tudori), and lo! three good loaves in a row. So as an experiment I used exactly the same recipe on the Panasonic with buckwheat (25% strong white, 75% buckwheat, 2 teaspons gluten) and I again got a loaf that didn't rise well. Also, Dove's flour is darker, and the bread is darker, than from the Italian flour. Please comment, explain, advise &c.
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Hulled buckwheat flour is a lighter tan/green color- at least my crumb is. I prefer to use Bob's Red Mill whole buckwheat flour ( I am in the USA) and the loaf is a darker brown-almost like a dark rye-color.
I've recently made buckwheat bread with commercial yeast, natural levain (in the buckwheat-no added sourdough), and with chemical leavening (baking soda and powder). My results with the natural levain were much too moist for my liking but I could see the appeal in its simplicity-BW groats,water,salt,time. When I used commercial yeast, I got a better (in my estimation) crumb texture but no real fermentation flavor. I went to baking powder and buttermilk (a take off of Irish soda bread but more like a tinned batter bread) and that is now my favorite daily bread. Fast-easy-tasty and with endless flavor variations.
Try using NO extra gluten. Gluten can make the crumb tough. With any whole grain flour, I would expect a denser crumb. Soft is possible but fluffy is probably not. ANY whole grain needs some soaking-even a 30 min autolyse-or those branny hull bits will tend to soak up the moisture from the crumb after the bake and become crumbly.
You don't mention the hydration or the process. Both would be helpful.
Search "buckwheat". LOADS of hits.
to use whole buckwheat groats, soaking then processing them to make a paste. Think it produces a better bread. As Clazar said if you type in Buckwheat into the search box there's a wealth of information there.
I also think it's better to celebrate buckwheat for what it is then try to make it into a loaf that behaves like wheat.
Try this recipe. You can mix it altogether and then portion it out into the loaf pan without the paddle. Allow it to rise then choose a bake only option.