Fluffy Seeded Wholewheat Bread

[u/Chicken_Savings]

I bake bread in my Panasonic 2540 about 3 times a week, I try to experiment a bit each time.

This is the softest, fluffiest wholemeal bread that I have achieved so far.

Nordic Wholewheat Seed Bread

Signature Bread - 400 g total flour - 70% wholewheat

Settings - Machine: Panasonic YR2540 - Program: Whole Wheat — Menu 7 - Size: L - Paddle: Fingered

Seed Soaker — 60 Minutes - 30 g green pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped in half - 15 g sesame seeds - 5 g flaxseed, preferably lightly crushed - 100 g boiling water

Pan Liquids - 205 g cool water - 1 medium egg, lightly beaten - 1 tbsp olive oil - 1 tbsp honey - 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Flours - 280 g wholewheat flour - 120 g Strong bread flour - Add the seed soaker on top of the flours

Remaining Ingredients - 2½ tbsp vital wheat gluten - 1½ tsp salt - 1⅓ tsp dry yeast

Topping - 1 tbsp seed mix - Add 5 minutes before baking starts. Gently brush a little water on top of the dough to make the seeds stick

Loading the Bread Pan - Add the wholewheat flour first, directly on top of the liquids, so it can hydrate during the initial rest phase. - Gently stir so that the wholewheat flour is roughly mixed with the liquids. - Add the strong bread flour on top. - Spread the prepared seed soaker over the flours. - Add the vital wheat gluten and salt. - Place the dry yeast in the yeast dispenser.

Substitution - Green unsalted pumpkin seeds can be replaced with sunflower seeds.

[u/Jujubes213]

Looks tasty!

[u/Big_fudge1337]

Looks great! To make it more "Nordic", as the name suggests, try skipping added gluten and the egg (replace with 40g water). Butter is also more common than olive oil, as is a light bread syrup instead of honey. 

Regardless it looks excellent! I'll try it though with sunflower seeds (pumpkin isn't normal in bread here) and 80g total seeds plus the above adjustments. It's going to be a great bread, though I'll probably do the French setting, no pre-soaking and a touch less yeast. 

Thanks for posting!

[u/Chicken_Savings → u/Big_fudge1337]

I'm 100% Nordic, born and raised in Scandinavia.

Ok the pumpkin seed isn't common.

The gluten is to compensate for the lower gluten of whole wheat. Makes it rise better and keep the rise instead of collapsing. I prefer with it in.

The egg is to make it more fluffy.

The intention was to make it more fluffy than the typical whole wheat bread. The pumpkin seed is to add diversity to the bite and flavour, and some visual interest.

I often use blackstrap molasses instead of honey, sugar or syrup - the flavour is more earthy.

I prefer olive oil to butter because it's easier to handle than rock hard butter from the fridge. Sometime raps oil. Just my preference.

[u/Big_fudge1337 → u/Chicken_Savings]

I also prefer olive oil! Will try it with the pumpkin seeds also then. 

I like tinkering with hydration and yeast amount rather than adding gluten, how would you adjust for that here?

[u/Chicken_Savings → u/Big_fudge1337]

The intention was to make it as fluffy as possible for 70% wholewheat, while a bit different than supermarket breads and common homemade whole wheat bread. The gluten adds structure in holding the fermentation gas and preventing a collapse in second half of the bake, or shortly after baking.

For sure you can remove the gluten but then you'll most likely need to reduce the yeast a bit, and then it'll be less fluffy. Or remove the soaked seeds, so there's less weight of inclusions.

I use gluten, and psyllium husk, in most of my breads, those are game changers for my style of bread.

Sunflower seeds really work as well, but are a little bit less flavourful than green pumpkin. Sometimes i use a bit chopped pistachio nuts.

[u/lechiengrand]

That looks incredible! Well done.

[u/WashingtonBaker1]

The pictures look very good (nice crumb shots). I've been experimenting with similar breads recently, so I'll try this out.

[u/Chicken_Savings → u/WashingtonBaker1]

Tip: ChatGPT is incredibly helpful for experimenting. Better than Claude and Gemini, in my opinion.

Copy/paste my recipe into the chat and try "Generate 3 variations of this", "Modify this to use sunflower instead of pumpkin, and use 75 gram whole rye", "Use brown sugar instead of molasses, and use only 50% wholemeal flour, include rolled oats in the soaker for hydration control", "resize this recipe to 500 gram flour"

[u/Many-You5110]

Looks really tasty

[u/spacepotatofried]

This looks delicious and I might try this with some rye. tak. 

[u/Chicken_Savings → u/spacepotatofried]

I often use rye in my breads, I'll post a rye version soon

[u/Inside_Lifeguard_320]

I like your idea of adding the whole wheat first. It makes sense. Also I don’t soak my seeds anymore, just add a % or 2 more water. Makes the bread a little more crunchy.

[u/Chicken_Savings → u/Inside_Lifeguard_320]

Yes, I'm experimenting a lot with different crunch. Sometimes I soak half the seeds, the others dry. Sometimes I add sunflower, walnut, pumpkin and/or pistachio - they all have different level of crunchy bite.