Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

It's very difficult to find good whole wheat bread in supermarkets these days. This recipe, given to me by my mom who has been making bread one or two times a week for many years, requires only a modest effort and yields excellent results.

I generally make a three-loaf batch every two weeks. I freeze two of the loaves and unthaw them as needed. This works well with basically two of us (my three year old son and me) eating bread daily.

I buy yeast and honey in bulk at Costco. My mom provided some loaf-size plastic bags which she bought at a health food store. (If you don't mind buying 1000 at a time, try here). My mom has also been kind enough to grind some whole wheat flour for me from time to time. If you're not grinding your own flour, try the Stone Buhr brand found in supermarkets. Whole wheat, gluten flour, and yeast should be stored in the refrigerator.

The major investment required is the stand mixer. I use a Kitchenaid 6-quart professional mixer, which is rated for an 8-cup whole wheat bread recipe, so it is slightly overloaded with this recipe. Also needed are three heavy duty bread pans, approximately 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" x 2 1/2".

Happy baking!

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 c warm water (approx 115 degF)
• 1/2 c canola oil
• 1/2 c honey
• 4 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp yeast
• 9 c whole wheat flour (include approx 3/4 c gluten flour)

Instructions

Measure oil into mixer bowl. Use same cup to measure honey into mixer bowl, but reserve 1 tsp or so. Add salt to mixer bowl.
	Proof the yeast by mixing reserved honey, water, and yeast in a separate bowl and waiting approx 5 minutes for the yeast to start acting on the honey and bubbling up 2 inches or so. If it doesn't do this, you have bad yeast or the water is not the correct temperature.
Add yeast water alternatively with flour (unsifted) into mixer bowl. Follow your mixer's instructions for kneading whole wheat bread dough. For modern Kitchenaid mixers, start mixer at speed #2 with dough hook, scraping sides with spatula. When dough starts to pulls away clean from the side of the bowl (about 2 minutes), mix another 2 minutes. If dough is very sticky, add a little four-grain cereal or flour, 2 tbsp at a time.
	Remove dough hook and cover mixer bowl with dry towel. Let dough rise until it is above the edges of the bowl.
Heat oven to 200 degF then turn off. Dump dough out on bread board and punch down to remove air. Rolling pin can be used if desired. Divide into three equal portions and form into loaves, pinching together the edges of any crevices.
	Grease three pans (I use spray-on olive oil) and put loaves in them. Put in oven (now off), middle rack, and cover with dry towel. You may spray a little olive oil on top of each loaf to prevent the towel from sticking. Let rise 20-25 minutes, until double in size.
Remove towel, set oven to 350 degF, and timer for 30 minutes (30 minutes includes oven warm-up time). Remove from oven and leave in pans for 10 minutes, then transfer to drying rack.