Tuesday, April 5, 2011

100% Whole Wheat Bread

This is my favorite wheat bread recipe.  I have compared it to other people's favorites, but it still comes out on top on my list.

This is the bread recipe that was our family's favorite. It is found in the Set for Life cookbook wriiten by Jane P. Merrill and Karen M Sunderland - you can find this anywhere, even at Desert Book (the authors are an LDS mother/daughter team). The book gives you three different sized batches of the same recipe, a regular batch, medium batch and small batch. I'm giving you the regular batch which makes 5-6 regular sized loaves; if you want the recipe to the smaller batches, just let me know.

14 to 16 cups whole wheat flour (1-0-12 cups whole wheat kernal)
2 rounded T. yeast
1/2 c. gluten flour
2 T. dough enhancer (sometimes I forget to add this and it works fine)
500 mg vitamin C (optional - I haven't ever added this)
6 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)
1/2 c. vegetable water
1/2 c. honey or sugar
1 1/2 T. salt

Grind your wheat into flour. Place 9 cups fresh flour into mixer bowl equipped with kneading arm (I use my Bosch). Add dry yeast, gluten flour, and dough enhancer. Pulse to mix well. Add water, and mix for 1 minute. Then turn off mixer, cover bowl, and let dough sponge (sit) for 10 minutes. This is very important if kneading by hand. Sponging makes lighter bread and reduces kneading time. Next, add oil, honey/sugar, and salt. Turn on mixer, and quickly add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, until dough forms a ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. The amount of flour needed may vary. Knead 7-10 minutes with Bosch-or similar machine. If mixing by hand, knead at least 12-15 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic.

Lightly oil hands. Divide dough into equal portions. Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Cover bread pans with saran wrap (spray saran wrap with pam - so as bread rises it doesn't stick to bread). Let rise until almost double in bulk, approx. 20-30 minutes. Bake in a preheated oven 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. When done, immediately remove from pans; let cool on wire racks. When it is cool, store it in plastic bags. I freeze my extra loaves. (Actually when I go to all the work of baking bread - I make a TON of it - because the clean up work is the same).

This recipe makes 5-6 loaves - 4" x 8 1/2".  It also makes great rolls. 

1 comment:

Marne said...

This recipe is identical to the one I use when I make bread. Only I got mine from a friend...who knows, maybe she got it from Set For Life. Here is the post I made about this recipe in 2009: http://wantitall4free.blogspot.com/2009/04/frugal-living-friday-homemade-bread.html

One thing I have noticed about this recipe is that the dough enhancer really makes a difference. Also, sometimes I put in just a couple of cups of while flour. Makes the bread better sometimes. And my mom use to put potato water (from boiling potatoes) in her bread..it was so good. Although I have never tried it.