Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
Sometimes people ask me about my bread baking. I bake several kinds, but whole wheat, Italian and artisan are my favorites. For those just curious, or for those who want to take the leap to bread made with fresh ground grains, here is how I bake my whole wheat bread. There are many recipes out there for this kind of bread, and my recipe has been tweaked a bit from a recipe I found through the Urban Homemaker. This bread is great just out of the oven and slathered with butter, makes wonderful toast and French toast, but it's not so great for sandwiches. The complete recipe is at the end.
Sometimes I use spelt or a combination of wheat and spelt, but today, I used just wheat. I use a grain mill to grind my own berries, but you can use store bought flour if you wish.
While that was grinding, I assembled my ingredients, put them in the mixer and greased 6 loaf pans.
The grain mill will grind almost all the wheat I need, and sometimes I just add white flour until I have enough, but today I wanted to go with 100% whole wheat, so I had to grind some extra. Here are all the ingredients mixing around in my mixer.
When it starts to look like this, it's time to take out the dough, separate into 6 loaves and put them into the pans.
In the pans, ready to rise. The nice thing about this recipe is that there is only one rise.
After about 45 minutes to an hour, they look like this. Not much has changed...
But after 40 minutes of baking, they look like this:
Now, grab some hungry kids and hot cocoa, and enjoy!
There, now wasn't that easy?
Hearty Whole wheat bread:
8 cups hot water
3 T yeast
3 T salt
3 T dough enhancer
3 T vital wheat gluten
2/3 C olive oil
2/3 C honey
20+ cups flour
From beginning (assembling ingredients and supplies) to end (bread resting in oven and kitchen cleaned up) takes me 25 minutes. Not bad!
Proof the yeast in the water in the mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the flour. Pulse a few times to mix. Start the mixer and add the flour a cup at a time, until the dough starts to easily pull away from the sides of the bowl. You may end up using up to 24 cups of flour. Transfer to a floured counter, and form into 6 loaves. Place dough into greased bread pans. Put them to rest in the oven. If you added white flour, it will rise faster than if you added 100% whole wheat, so check the loaves after about 30-40 minutes; when using all whole wheat, it can take an hour to rise. When they are ready, turn on the oven to 350; it's OK to let the oven come up to heat while the loaves are in there. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Alas, the bread lasts less than a week in my house!
One fun thing to do with one of the loaves is this: break into golf ball size pieces, roll in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar, and put into one of the pans. Let rise and bake with the rest of bread loaves.
Sometimes I use spelt or a combination of wheat and spelt, but today, I used just wheat. I use a grain mill to grind my own berries, but you can use store bought flour if you wish.
While that was grinding, I assembled my ingredients, put them in the mixer and greased 6 loaf pans.
The grain mill will grind almost all the wheat I need, and sometimes I just add white flour until I have enough, but today I wanted to go with 100% whole wheat, so I had to grind some extra. Here are all the ingredients mixing around in my mixer.
When it starts to look like this, it's time to take out the dough, separate into 6 loaves and put them into the pans.
In the pans, ready to rise. The nice thing about this recipe is that there is only one rise.
After about 45 minutes to an hour, they look like this. Not much has changed...
But after 40 minutes of baking, they look like this:
Now, grab some hungry kids and hot cocoa, and enjoy!
There, now wasn't that easy?
Hearty Whole wheat bread:
8 cups hot water
3 T yeast
3 T salt
3 T dough enhancer
3 T vital wheat gluten
2/3 C olive oil
2/3 C honey
20+ cups flour
From beginning (assembling ingredients and supplies) to end (bread resting in oven and kitchen cleaned up) takes me 25 minutes. Not bad!
Proof the yeast in the water in the mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the flour. Pulse a few times to mix. Start the mixer and add the flour a cup at a time, until the dough starts to easily pull away from the sides of the bowl. You may end up using up to 24 cups of flour. Transfer to a floured counter, and form into 6 loaves. Place dough into greased bread pans. Put them to rest in the oven. If you added white flour, it will rise faster than if you added 100% whole wheat, so check the loaves after about 30-40 minutes; when using all whole wheat, it can take an hour to rise. When they are ready, turn on the oven to 350; it's OK to let the oven come up to heat while the loaves are in there. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Alas, the bread lasts less than a week in my house!
One fun thing to do with one of the loaves is this: break into golf ball size pieces, roll in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon sugar, and put into one of the pans. Let rise and bake with the rest of bread loaves.
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