Whole Grain Honey Wheat Bread (5 loaf batch)

I want to make my recipe available for anyone who is looking for a basic recipe for whole grain bread. I have two recipes. One for 5 small loaves that is meant to be mixed with a dough kneading machine (like a Bosch or K-tec Mixer) and a recipe for two loaves that can be made in a Kitchen Aid mixer. If you take the two loaf recipe and cut it in half you can use a food processor to mix and knead 1 large loaf of bread. I use 8-1/2 by 4 inch tin ware pans for baking which can be purchased on line from Urbanhomemaker.com.

Honey Wheat Whole Grain Bread
Large Batch (5 loaves)

Stage 1: Soaking
Mix and soak the following ingredients for 7 to 15 hours in a covered bowl on the kitchen counter. The dough should be a little bit stiffer than kids' play dough. Mix with a spoon until it becomes difficult and then knead in the moisture with your hands. Different flours absorb water differently. Spelt will absorb less water and Kamut(R) will absorb more. You can add extra water if you need to to make the flour uniformly moist.

1/4 c. yogurt or kefir whey
4 c. water
11 c. whole grain flour, made from high gluten wheat such as hard white winter wheat, hard red winter wheat, spelt or Kamut.

Stage 2: Mixing and Baking

2 1/2 T Red Star yeast
1/2 c. warm water
dribble of honey

Put 1/2 c. of warm water into the Bosch mixing bowl, dribble in honey and sprinkle in 2-1/2 t of yeast. With the dough hook in place, turn on the mixer for a couple seconds to mix in the honey, yeast and water. The yeast doesn't have to all dissolve, but it should at least be moist. Let this mixture sit for 5-10 minutes. If the yeast doesn't foam up it is no good and you need to make a run to the store for fresh yeast.

Add to the yeast mixture:
2 eggs
4 T vital gluten(optional)
5 t. Real salt
2/3 c olive oil or coconut oil (slightly warmed)
2/3 c honey
3/4 - 1 c unbleached white flour (organic preferred of course) or whole grain

Mix slightly then stop the mixer and add the soaked flour. Begin mixing the dough with the other ingredients, but keep extra flour on hand. You may need to add additional flour a tablespoon at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl. When enough flour has been added the dough will clean the sides of the bowl but will still be soft and wet. Note: If you do not add the 3/4 - 1 c. extra flour at this stage the liquid in the bowl will centrifuge up and over the edge of the mixing bowl. It still might a little even with the flour. Be sure to use the lid and catch the drips with your finger as they seep under the lid and run down the sides. I scrape it back onto the lid so it gets back into the dough. The extra flour creates friction that helps the oil and honey mix with the soaked dough. Mixing usually takes about 2 minutes. Once the dough is mixed and cleans the sides of the bowl set a timer and let the machine knead the dough for 10 minutes.

At this point if you use SAF yeast you can form your loaves and let them rise in the the pans for 45 min. to 1 hour and then bake the bread.

I prefer to use Red Star yeast and let my bread rise once in the bowl for 45 min. to 1 hour and then I knock down the dough using the machine before I transfer the dough to my floured bread board. (Sometimes I will let it rise a second time in the bowl before I shape the loaves and let them rise in the bread pans for a 3rd rise.) Once you transfer the dough to your kneading surface use enough flour to make the dough manageable and use a board knife to divide the dough into about 5 chunks. You will knead each chunk about 20 times on a lightly floured surface. If your dough seems too stiff use a wet surface and wet hands to knead and shape your loaves instead of flour.

I prepare my pans with PAM spray. Place the shaped dough into the pans and cover them with a damp towel. Let them rise to just above the top of the bread pans. This will take 30 -45 minutes.

In the mean time preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

After rising, place the loaves on the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 10 minutes at 400 to set the crust and then turn down the oven to 350 and bake for another 20 minutes. Be sure to allow a small space between each of the bread pans.

Cool loaves out of pans on their side on a cooling rack until completely cooled. Once cool you can bag the bread. If you bag the bread before it cools completely, it will trap in moisture and make the bread mushy.

The begining of my bread obsession

In 2006 I was introduced to whole grain baking at a tea party. My friend Priscilla served her guests fresh, whole grain, cinnamon rolls. I fell in love. After jotting down the recipe I went right home and pulled the ancient bag of whole wheat flour out of the pantry and proceeded to make rolls. The only ingredient that I didn't use was the dough enhancer since it contained soy lecithin and 2 of my 6 kids have a soy allergy. She said it was an optional ingredient. Unfortunately, her dough enhancer contained salt. Cinnamon rolls without salt taste a bit like sweet cardboard. Funny thing is that you can make lousy bread with rancid flour and put sugar and butter on it and kids will still eat it. Hmmm? Not good enough for me.

After networking with friends I found a local source of organic whole grains where I bought 3- fifty pound bags of grain. I figured that I could grind flour using my Vita-mix blender and try again. I was committed or maybe I should have been committed! Does 150 pounds of flour sound like a lot of baking to you? My second batch, and third and fourth were worse than the first. The ducks in the park wouldn't even eat my early attempts at whole grain bread. The kids swore it was a sign from God that I should go and buy bread. I called my friend Priscilla and she agreed that the problem might be that my grain was ground too coarse. I added some white flour to this coarse flour and my bread was lighter but still sat in my stomach like a brick. It just didn't digest well.

Priscilla to the rescue again, she sent me to Urbanhomemaker.com which was a huge help. On this website I found recipes, tons of advice, and was able to purchase pans, a board knife, and a K-tech grain mill. I also was drawn to the information in their catalog on the 2 stage method of making bread. This method involves soaking the freshly ground flour in water and an acid, such as yogurt whey, for at least 7 hours before mixing and baking the bread. Soaking the whole grain flour neutralizes a chemical called phytic acid which blocks the absorption of calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc and iron in the intestines. Unneutralized phytic acid, when consumed will eventually lead to mineral deficiency. Soaking also helps to soften the bran which can damage the gluten strands and breaks down the gluten which can be difficult to digest for some people. Breaking down the gluten makes the bread more digestible but also has the side effect of not allowing to bread to rise as light and soft as it might. This is a small trade off when you consider the enhanced nutrition and easier digestion.

My children eventually called my bread a success and claimed that it was as good as store bought! For a while I fed everyone who came over for coffee a slice of toast with butter. I found that I was holding little impromptu classes on a regular basis. I eventually decided to hold a monthly class in my home and teach others how to make this tasty whole grain bread. My classes have been going on for the last 2 years and have been very satisfying and fun. I am obsessed with bread and using the best ingredients and teaching how do-able it is. I considered creating a web site that would help teach others the skill of whole grain baking but I felt that there are others out in cyber space that share my passion and could help teach me and others so I decided a blog would be better.

Time to share making better bread.

Jaricia