For the past several months, I have been making bread for my family. I received a grain mill for Christmas, and it has been a wonderful addition to my kitchen tools! After reviewing several recipes, I've come up with a recipe that, so far, has been working great for us. I'm sharing it on my blog so that I get it written down somewhere other than my brain, and so that whoever else might want it can have it. I've not tried it with regular flour, but I'm sure it would work fine. Some of you are probably wondering, why in the world I'm bothering to make my own bread. Some of you are also wondering how on earth I have time to get it done. First, I'm making bread so I can know what is in it. If you've ever tried to read the ingredients on packaged bread, you've probably noticed that there are far too many ingredients than are necessary to make bread, and half of them you can hardly pronounce and probably have no idea what they are! Second, I try to make bread on my day off from work. I run errands or do chores while it rises. It really doesn't add that much extra time to my day. If I'm not able to do it on my day off, Sunday afternoons work well, too. I can set it to rise while I'm at choir practice. Since the recipe makes 2 loaves, I freeze one to use later in the week. If I make bread on Monday, the loaf lasts until around Thursday or Friday. The second loaf will last until I make more loaves. There are schedule glitches every once in a while, but for the most part it's working well. I've also started making hot dog buns, but that is still a work in progress :)
Whole Wheat Bread (makes 2 loaves)
Ingredients:
4-6 cups freshly milled hard white wheat flour
1 heaping Tbsp instant yeast
4 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup honey
2 cups warm water (approx 120 degrees F)
2 tsp salt
1 egg
Directions:
In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, stir together 3 cups of flour and 1 Tbsp yeast until well combined. Add salt to warm water and stir to dissolve completely. Add to mixer egg, honey, and melted butter. Mix well. Slowly add warm water/salt combination and mix well. Switch to dough hook attachment. Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough comes away from sides and climbs hook. You can continue kneading dough in the mixer if you like, but I prefer to do the rest by hand. Remove rings :) Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, adding only enough flour to keep dough from sticking to hands and surface (approx 8-10 minutes). Place dough in lightly oiled bowl covered with towel (turn dough in bowl to lightly coat with oil so it doesn't stick to bowl or towel). Set to rise in draft free place until doubled in size (1-2 hours). Turn dough out and divide into 2 equal pieces. Roll each piece into rectangle, being careful to remove all air bubbles. Tightly roll dough into loaves, tucking in ends, and place in well-greased loaf pans. Cover with towel and let rise until doubled again, about an hour. Bake in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when thumped. Remove from pans and cool on cooling rack. When loaves are completely cooled, you can place in bags. This bread freezes well. I order my bread bags from Amazon. I highly recommend getting a slicing guide to help you if you are using the bread for sandwiches.
