What the dough should look like...

It's wet, sticky, ooey, gooey. I have a hard time with the sticky stuff, but you put enough flour on it and you're fine, really. Here's my brioche dough, just mixed. This is my first batch of brioche which will be used for either doughnuts or sweet rolls. I will also make a classic loaf as well.

Here is what my 100% whole wheat dough looks like when fully risen and a peek at the inside. It has lots of "gas" that we don't want to destroy with kneading or lots of handling. I also soak my freshly milled whole wheat flour in acidulated water (water with acid). I have lots of friends baking with freshly milled flour out there. That's where I got the idea to do it. However, there are some health issues involved. Whole grains have phytic acid in the germ, husk, and whole grain. Phytic acid acts like a magnet in your digestive tract and grabs minerals like calcium, zinc and magnesium. It also can cause intestinal distress. My two little boys were having chronic diarrhea when I used freshly milled flour. Now that I soak it, it is no longer a problem. Also, I'm osteopenic and I would rather keep all the calcium I ingest, thank you very much! By soaking the whole grains in acidulated water, an enzymatic process takes place that breaks down most of the phytic acid and the enzymatic process actually makes the bread more nutritional. I recommend the book Nourishing Traditions and this website for more information. I thank my friends Erin and Julie for the help in finding a solution to this problem!

If you are wondering what brought me to this, here's the deal. My hubby seems to be reacting to yeast, so I went on a hunt for a recipe that doesn't use too much yeast. It's hard to rise whole wheat dough without a lot of yeast. This recipe has approximately 1/3 - 1/2 a tsp of yeast per loaf which is significantly lower than my normal 1 Tbsp per loaf. This is my first batch of 100% whole wheat and I will bake up some bread for dinner tonight. I broke my own rules and already altered the recipe because their recipe assumed you don't soak your grains.

Just a side note...the pictures are not great because they are taken with my cell phone camera. We have a great camera, but what is required to get the pictures off and to my computer requires much more work than my cell phone. Sorry for my laziness.