Bread: the staff of life!

We eat a lot of bread.  Without it my children might have starved, or at least been malnourished, since their other favorite food group is sweets.  Since it is a staple at our house I often make it, that way I know just what goes into it.  After several years of doing this they have learned to eat wheat bread and even like it! 

 

 

This is how it looked a little while after coming out of the oven, and a short while later the loaf was almost gone.  

Here is the recipe I use.  It might look like a long process but when you make it regularly you get the process down and it is not difficult at all.

Whole Wheat Bread 

7 cups wheat flour     (* see note at the bottom about wheat flour)
2/3 cup wheat gluten
2 1/2 Tablespoons yeast,  I use saf-instant

mix that all together in your mixing bowl.  

Then add 5 cups very warm water  (110-115 degrees)
Mix well  for a minute and then let it sit for 15 minutes or until it starts to rise up in the bowl.

Then add the rest of the ingredients:

1 1/2 Tablespoon salt
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup honey or sugar if you are out of honey
2 1/2  Tablespoons dough enhancer
2 or 3 cups wheat flour

Mix it all up until it is thoroughly combined and then add white flour (about 2 to 3 cups) until you get it to a good bread consistency.  If you are using a bread mixer the dough starts to pull away from the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Keep mixing it in the mixer, or kneading it,  for 6 to 8 minutes.

Dump it out on a lightly floured countertop and form into loaves.

 

Put in greased pans, cover and let rise until it's over the top of the pan. This batch made 4 regular loaves and one smaller loaf.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.  

* I have a wheat grinder and for this batch I used hard white wheat.  The white wheat doesn't look as "wheaty" so my kids like it better.  I grind a lot and keep it in the freezer because I don't like the grinding and the less often I have to do it, the easier it is to make bread.  You can use all wheat flour instead of combining wheat and white flours.