adapting recipe for ww flour

busydev

Sun, Dec 29 2013, 10:36 pm

hi all,
so I recently started using white ww flour in an attempt to get a little healthier. for now my goal is half "regular" flour, half ww in all my baking. maybe eventually ill get to all ww, but as is dh isnt thrilled that im "getting crunchy on him". neither I or dh particularly like the taste of ww so white ww was a great discovery.

my challa question is as follows.
I currently make a 4.5-5 cup water challa recipe (its a 1/4 recipe and gives us enough challa for 2 weeks)
I have been upping the ww content by 1/2c the last few of times I made it. this week we got to 2c (so half ww/half bread flour)
the challa tasted great but we had one problem. now it COULD be that I put in to much oil by mistake, but I dont think so. but could be esp if no one else had this problem...
my challa dough was oily. it literally slipped right out of the bowl. it left a greasy mark on the plate I seperated it on. and my hands were covered in a fine coating of oil. once the dough was braided it rose by getting flatter and wider instead of higher and when I went to egg it there was some oil around the bottom on the parchment paper. it did get higher while cooking, but also wider and the crust was oily to touch. it tasted fine tho. (dh thought it was a little to ww-ey but it wasnt bad). but it was basically acting like cookies do when I would use oil instead of marg before I figured to cut down on the oil amt when converting from marg. very flat and wide.
when adding ww to a recipe am I supposed to cut back on my oil amount? currently I put in 1/4 cup of oil. it is possible I mismeasured tho. but if there is some sort of cutback I would appreciate knowing abt it before next time I bake challa-just in case.
thanksi

bamamama

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 1:01 am

It sounds like you have too much oil - just like you thought. This isn't a problem with ww flour at all. Carefully measure your oil next week and see if you have different results. I hardly use any oil in my challah - just 2 Tbs per 3.5 c flour.

greenfire

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 1:05 am

if anything whole wheat flour absorbs more liquids than white flour

[I have no idea how white whole wheat flour behaves - not sure I would use it]

lifesagift

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 1:18 am

I agree with greenfire, if anything u may need more oil compared to reg. I wouldnt worry so much about the dough feeling oily as long as the finished product is good. Rember tho there will be a diff intaste regardless. About the rising horizontally, maybe u can try it on a snug loaf pan/foil. If it has no room to widen it will rise

Ms.MaryMack(inblack)

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 4:04 am

Try white whole wheat

bamamama

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 4:18 am

sypsmom wrote:

Try white whole wheat

If you re-read the OP you'll see that's what she's using.

bamamama

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 4:20 am

lifesagift wrote:

Grains don't absorb oil very readily - they absorb water.

busydev

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 11:47 am

k thanks.

so is it possible that ww doesnt absorb oil as well as white bread flour?

Or is it 99% possible that I poured in to much?

Guess next time I make I will try doing a low 1/4 cup of oil and see if its better...

greenfire

Mon, Dec 30 2013, 3:54 pm

maybe ask martha stewart ... cause I'm thinking we each gave you different advice ...

only nobody ever hated me cause I couldn't bake