Years ago I purchased "The New Laurel's Kitchen", there was a companion book called either "The Bread Book" or "Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book", both were printed by Ten Speed Press. The first book is lacto/ovo vegetarian, the bread book is 100% whole grain breads. It doesn't have any recipes which contain any refined flours, and it also encourages home grinding.
One correction I'd like to mention - whole grain flour goes rancid because it contains the germ. The bran is the outer casing of the grain and has no fats to become rancid. The germ on the other hand, has the majority of nutrients, and the fat, which is the part that becomes rancid if improperly stored (cool & dark).
The bread book I mentioned does have recipes with honey and butter/low refined vegetable oil. Although the author does encourage the limited use of sweeteners (natural or otherwise) and fats.
The key to making whole wheat bread is the kneading. You have to knead a lot, as the bran acts like a knife to the gluten and works against it. The dough must be well developed (gluten) for it to acquire enough lightness to be accepted by an audience used to the lightness of refined flour. For every six cups of whole wheat flour, Laurel's Bread Book indicates 20 minutes of kneading, increasing the amount of kneading when the size of the recipe is increased. It sounds insane, but I agree. And I've kneaded a lot of bread by hand. I've found that unless you have a commercial sized mixer, the only effective way of kneading whole wheat breads is by hand. After you become efficient at kneading, you can reduce the time spent kneading.
If you want the 'tang', slowing down the fermentation is the key, or using a pre-dough. I made this pizza dough yesterday, and it's been a while since I"ve kneaded by hand. I make the breads for my restaurant and use a mixer pretty much all the time.
1/2 cup warm water
1 package active dry yeast (not the instant)
Mix together and allow to proof 5 min.
6 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp. salt
2 1/2 cups water (the cooler the slower the fermentation, the better flavor)
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp. honey
Blend the flour and salt, add the yeast mixture, water, olive oil and honey. Knead 20 minutes, or until smooth and silky, adding small amounts of flour if sticky or dip fingers in water to add moisture if dry. Form into a ball and place in a draft free spot, covered for 2 hours. Poke a wet finger in the dough, if it sighs or the hole remains, punch down, kneading briefly again and reform into a ball. Allow to rise 45 min., or until ready (as detailed above). Divide into 2-4 pieces (I did 4 nice sized pizzas), top with desired pizza sauce and toppings and bake in a blistering hot oven. I cheated and wired a 240V commercial pizza oven (about the size of a very large microwave), we don't use it at the restaurant, but I use it at home. It can heat up to 700 degrees F!!! Anyway, before I had this, I would bake the pizza on tiles, or the floor of my oven (gas), if electric, place it on the lowest rack you can, and crank it up to 475/500 degrees. The intense heat will allow the bottom to become crisp while the top bakes, you might need to practice a few runs until you find the right temp. setting and how long you bake it, as all ovens are different.
Breadman
