20 Feb 2018
Consumers are getting increasingly conscious and critical of the health benefits of the foods they eat. As a result, wholegrain bread is becoming more popular at the expense of white bread. Research shows that many bakers have adapted to this trend. In new bread product launches ‘wholegrain’ is the number 1 claim.
Many consumers have a preference for ingredients that are both tasty and healthy at the same time. We call these power ingredients, and wholegrain is one of them. That makes wholegrain a real sales booster on the ingredients list of your bread products, followed closely by ‘no additives/preservatives’. But what is wholegrain exactly? What are the challenges in baking it? And how can you overcome these challenges?
What is wholegrain?
Wholegrain products include the entire germ (the nutrient rich inner part), endosperm (the starchy middle layer) and bran (the outer layer) of the wheat grain. Grains that have been subjected to processing such as milling or grounding are also included in this definition, although these are often labelled as ‘wholemeal’ on the ingredients list.
Challenges in making wholegrain bread
Making the perfect wholegrain bread can be quite a challenge. To create breads with the perfect volume, long-lasting freshness, a natural appearance and the perfect taste, it’s necessary to:
- Avoid any hard grains
- Select the right grain and seeds
- Avoid off-flavour
- Keep optimal dough tolerance
- Obtain a consistent result batch after batch
- Achieve volume and oven jump
- Avoid crumbliness
You will face these challenges more often when you use ordinary grain mixes. They can lead to hard, unpleasant grains in the bread which soak up the water. Doing your own soaking can easily lead to undesired off-flavours and grains that stay hard.
How can you overcome these challenges?
Baking wholegrain bread made easy
To overcome the challenges of making wholegrain bread, Puratos has developed two innovative products: Softgrain and S500 Wholemeal.
Softgrain are tender sprouts, grains and seeds that have been infused with liquid sourdough. They enable you to create healthy and tasty grain breads from a wide variety of doughs. Softgrain has a perfect, soft bite and releases the delicate taste of sourdough.
S500 Wholemeal is the first Clean(er) Label improver that’s specifically crafted for wholemeal and grains & seeds bread applications. It has lots of benefits compared to standard wholemeal. Its unique enzyme structure provides additional dough tolerance and security throughout all stages of the bread making process. It overcomes variations in flour quality more effectively. And it gives more volume, cohesiveness and freshness to your bread.
