The Infamous Bread Post...Finally!!

The recipe. I found this at The Family Homestead. Crystal has a ton of great healthy recipes. I taped this to the inside of my cabinet door for easy access. The cast of characters. Salt, extra virgin olive oil, whole wheat flour, yeast, gluten flour, and raw honey.
In a large bowl combine 2c warm water, 1/3c honey, and 1T yeast. Let sit for a few minutes to let the yeast start working. I keep my yeast in the freezer so a little while before I make the bread I pull the yeast out and allow it to warm up a little.

Add 2t salt, 1/3c olive oil, 1/3c gluten flour (you can find this on the bread aisle. I get mine at Walmart. It makes the bread softer), and 3-4c of whole wheat flour. I keep my gluten and my ww flour in the fridge. I take them out to warm up a little before making the bread.

Here is a pic of my measuring cups. I think I need to organize them a bit, huh?
This is me trying to show the 1/3c of gluten. Too bad you cant see the 1/3 markings.

I measure flour by spooning it into the cup and then leveling with the back of the spoon.


With 3 cups of flour I had a gloppy mess still, so I needed to add 1 more cup of flour.

You add flour until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and it it not sticky to the touch.
Move onto a floured surface. Now most people say lightly floured but I have never had any luck with lightly floured. Unfortunatly I have to use quiet a bit of white flour to knead the dough.

Now the hard part. If you have a Bosch mixer, which I will have in my golden years, forget the RV Im getting a Bosch, you can let your Bosch mixer knead the dough for 4 minutes. Mrs. Miller says in another mixer knead for 7-10 minutes. Now, my Kitchen Aid never kneaded very well, so I just hand knead. Hand knead for 10-15 minutes. WOW! thats a long time. I usually am done around 8-10 minutes. I use this time to either talk to the kids or do some oral review work with them.

Plop the dough in a bowl, cover and let rise to double. I usually let rise for 30-45 minutes.


Remove to floured surface.


Cut dough in half. I use my trusty pizza cutter, works perfect every time!

Roll out one half of dough. I just roll until its flat enough to roll up. By the way this is my Pampared Chef roller and I L.O.V.E. it. Oh its awesome. I will never use a different roller.
Roll up starting at small end and tucking in as you go.
Grease two loaf pans. I use a stick of butter and rub it on the bottom and sides.

Place in warm oven for about 15 minutes. Now warm is you turn the oven on until you can feel the heat and then turn it off. After 15 minutes turn the oven on to 350 degrees without taking the bread out. Bake for about 30m.

Here is the finished product. Ummm... I used a little too much white flour to roll out the loaf on the right but it was still very yummy!

My two best friends for bread making. My electric knife and my bread slicer.
The bread slicer helps me to make even size cuts and the knife makes for less crumbs. Its a beautiful thing!
Put some butter on and watch it melt!
ENJOY!!




Here is the whole recipe:

2 cups warm water

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon yeast

1/3 cup olive oil

2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup gluten flour

5-7 cups whole wheat flour

In a large bowl or in a large mixer combine the water, yeast, and honey. Let sit for a few minutes to give the yeast a chance to start working. Add salt, oil, gluten flour, and 3-4 cups of whole wheat flour. Continue to add more flour until the dough does not stick to the side of the bowl and does not feel sticky to the touch. Knead for 4 minutes in Bosch mixer or 7 to 10 minutes in other mixers or 10 to 15 minutes by hand.

When dough has finished kneading let it rise once until doubled in bulk (unless you are using a Bosch type mixer and in this case you can skip the 1st rising). Punch down dough and divide it into 2 pieces and form into loaves and set in bread pans.

Let it rise in a slightly wam oven ( this means that you turn the oven on for just 2 or 3 min or until you can feel the heat and then turn it off, if it is too hot then it will kill the yeast) for 15-25 minutes or until the dough is 1/2 inch above top of pan. (Julie: my bread never rises above the pan. I gave up trying to get it to.) Turn oven to 350 (without taking bread out) and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Warning: My family never liked whole wheat bread. Until we found this. The first two times I made it the loaves turned out AWFUL, but now its tried and true!! We can eat two loaves in two days easy!