No-Knead Bread Goes Whole-Grain

When I wrote about Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois's first book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day, I was promptly deluged in emails, which I passed on to the authors. A surprising number were from people asking how to translate the pair's no-knead recipes into whole-wheat or other whole-grain versions. And a surprising number, Hertzberg and Francois told me this week, were from people thinking they could just substitute whole grain flours for white flour, cup for cup. Sadly, baking doesn't work that way.

Hertzberg, a physician, and Francois, a pastry chef, have always jumped to answer reader questions on their blog, but now they're back in print to take on the issue in full, in 313 pages of recipes and commentaries and techniques. Their new book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day, translates their core concept (doughs that come together quickly, in large quantities, stored in the refrigerator to bake as you wish) into loaves and pizzas and pastries made with whole grains. There's plain old whole wheat flour, but also spelt, flax, barley flour, graham flour, and more.

The biggest requests they got from readers, they told me Tuesday before setting off on their book tour, was for whole grain breads, followed by requests for gluten-free breads (which they also included, consulting with Shauna Ahern and Danny Ahern).

After experimentation and testing, their secret ingredient? Vital wheat gluten, a product that's commonly used in industry baking, but has only in recent years become widely available in supermarkets. Whole wheat flour has less gluten than white flour, and it needs a boost from the added wheat gluten, which helps the bread rise and maintain an airier texture. Without it, they couldn't have made doughs that could be stored for so long. "Ten years ago, we couldn't have written this book," Hertzberg said, as they try to stick to ingredients that are easy to find.

"Healthy" bread is about more than whole grains, though. They added some information and advice on nutrition, and incorporated fruits and vegetables into some of their doughs, such as red beet buns and a zucchini flatbread. The federal government recommends eating nine servings of fruits or vegetables a day, Hertzberg noted. "I've got a friend who says he can't even name nine vegetables."

The book's breads are a homecoming of sorts for Francois, who grew up in a Vermont commune, eating whole grains and no refined sugars, before attending the Culinary Institute of America. "I went to culinary school to learn the food science, so I could adapt recipes for healthy desserts," she said, but instead she graduated eating white sugar. Now, she's gladly baking the pumpkin pie brioche she developed for the book, using honey and a mix of whole wheat and white flour, turning the dough into sandwich loaves and Indian spice donuts and caramel rolls.

"It took me all this time to kind of get to where I had originally wanted to be."

-- Rebekah Denn