17 April, 2020
Honey Wheat Bread
I can’t emphasis enough how I love the smell of freshly baked bread. I remember the first time I attempted a yeast bread recipe that required 2 rises and thinking “OMG this is taking FOREVER!” But now I’m a little older, and a little wiser so I start my breads first thing in the morning. Don’t let yeast bread recipes be intimidating! Once you venture out of the banana bread comfort zone there’s a whole world of bread waiting for you.
Ingredients:
- 4 cups Whole Wheat flour
- 5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 3 1/4 cups warm water
- 1 Tbs salt
- 4 1/2 tsp fast rising yeast (or 2 packets)
- 1/4 cup honey (+for Vegan sub Maple Syrup!)
- 3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (+ more for greasing pans and brushing over loaf)
In a medium to large bowl mix whole wheat flour and all purpose flour with a whisk to combine and set aside.
In a large bowl (like the bowl of your mixer) combine warm water, salt, yeast, honey and olive oil and let it sit for 5 minutes until its nice and foamy.
Start out by adding 5 cups of the flour mixture to your mixer bowl and stir at a low speed to combine. (This dough comes together so fast and easy that I’m using a rubber spatula to mix it.)
Once that is incorporated (it will be about the consistency of pancake batter) continue to add flour 1 cup at a time, until the dough gets too firm to stir. Doing it by hand, it happened at around 8 cups.
Now with only about 1 cup of flour remaining in the bowl sprinkle half of it down onto your work surface. (I’m using my glass kitchen table.) Dump out the dough and sprinkle the rest of the flour on top.
Kneed it by hand for at least a couple of minutes until it all comes together nicely. It should be soft and a little tacky, but not sticky. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, toss to coat, and cover with a towel. Let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and pat and press it into a large rectangle. (I use my bread pan as a measuring reference here. if you don’t have a large bread pan like this one the dough can be divided into two loaf pans.) Roll it into a tight cylinder. Pinch and tuck the ends. Carefully place it into your well greased pan (or pans) seam side down. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.
Position an oven rack at the lowest setting and preheat the oven to 400° F. Brush loaf/loaves with oil and bake for 30-35 minutes rotating pan(s) halfway through.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before de-panning. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Bread can be stored in air-tight container at room temperature for 4 days or frozen up to 1 month.