Whole Wheat Bread that Even an Idiot Can Make
There is nothing better than the yeasty smell of freshly baked bread except for biting into a slice of said bread still warm enough to melt the butter. I grew up making french bread that I learned to make as a teenager, but whole wheat bread was a challenge that took me a long time to conquer. Try as I might, every recipe fell a little short. It was either too dry, too tough, too flat, or too tasteless. However, I’d had many slices of marvelous whole wheat bread so I knew it was possible. I just couldn’t figure out why mine missed the mark when I used the same recipes as some great bread makers. So, I determined I must be an idiot and it was up to me to create a foolproof recipe. I came up with two: whole wheat potato bread and honey whole wheat bread.
The whole wheat potato is wonderful for sandwiches. It’s soft but it holds together nicely when it’s surrounding copious amount of meats, cheeses, and veggies. It also has a very mild flavor that doesn’t get in the way of the filling. My honey whole wheat, on the other hand, is a little meatier and has a tantalizingly sweet honey flavor. I love it toasted with honey butter, but it’s equally good with plain butter for all you purists out there.
One secret I discovered is that it’s essential to use fresh ground flour. I use a Kitchen Mill by Blendtec that I’ve had for years to grind my flour and I do a fresh batch every time I make bread. I also found that white wheat has a more mild flavor; closer to white bread. If you love a hearty, nutty flavor, then, by all means, use red wheat. They are both delicious. I hope the coming cool weather will motivate you to try your hand at making homemade bread. Let me know how it turns out!
Whole Wheat Potato Bread
3 cups warm water
1 ½ tablespoons instant dry yeast
½ cup sugar
1 cup potato flakes
⅓ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
7-9 cups whole wheat flour
Servings/Yield: 3 loaves
Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm (not hot) water and let it sit until the mixture is frothy. About 10 minutes.
Mix in:
Sugar
Potato flakes
Oil
Salt
Add all but one to two cups of flour and mix with a dough hook until the dough pulls cleanly away from the sides of the bowl. Feel free to add additional flour if necessary. Remember, I hate following a recipe. Think of this as more of a guideline.
Knead the dough with a dough hook or by hand on a lightly floured surface for about eight to ten minutes. By now it should be smooth and elastic. Form the dough into a ball.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl, turning once to coat both sides. Cover the bowl with a cloth and place it in a warm location to rise until the dough has doubled in size.
Once it has doubled, take out a little aggression by punching the dough down and form it into three loaves. Place the loaves in loaf pans coated with non-stick spray and then cover and let them rise again.
Bake at 350o for 25 to 30 minutes until brown. The bread should sound hollow when you tap on it or so I’ve been told. I’m no good at determining the doneness of bread. I’ve eaten many undercooked loaves in my life. Instead, I figure out how long it needs in my oven, 26 minutes to be exact, and I stick to it.
Whole Wheat Potato Bread
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
3 cups warm water
1 cup honey
1 ½ tablespoons instant dry yeast
1 tablespoon salt
9-10 cups whole wheat flour
Servings/Yield: 3 loaves
Combine the water, honey, and yeast and let the mixture sit until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is frothy.
Add the salt and all but one cup of the flour and mix until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and appears smooth and elastic adding additional flour if needed.
Knead the dough with a dough hook or by hand on a lightly floured surface for about eight to ten minutes. Form the dough into a ball.
Place dough into an oiled bowl, turn it over to coat both sides, and cover the bowl. Let the dough sit in a warm location until it has doubled in size.
Punch the dough down and form into three loaves. Place loaves into oiled loaf pans, cover, and let rise again until double in size.
Bake at 350o for 25 to 30 minutes.
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
Both recipes make three loaves, but if you aren’t the glutton that I am, and you don’t want three loaves at once, cook what you want and wrap the remaining loaves individually in plastic wrap and freeze. When you’re ready for them, place the frozen loaf in a sprayed loaf pan and cover loosely with the plastic wrap to thaw and rise and then bake as usual.