Bread is something I have been wanting to try homemade for some time now, especially since getting married. However, I don't have a bread machine and until last weekend, I didn't have a stand mixer. But of course I pinned some recipes on Pinterest and this one caught my eye from Eat Cake For Dinner's blog. It uses entirely whole wheat flour and she says that it comes out best when she uses her mixer instead of her bread machine.
Honey Whole Wheat Bread
1.5 tbsp instant yeast
2 cups warm water
1/3 cup honey
3-4 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp salt
1/8-1/2 cup add ins (oats, sunflower seeds, etc)
Combine the yeast, honey and water in the bowl of your stand mixer. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes until frothy/bubbly. Add in 1.5 cups of flour, the salt, and whatever add-in you would like to use. I added 1/2 cup old fashioned oats. Turn the mixer on low with the dough hook attachment. Continue adding 1/2 cup of flour at a time until the dough forms and barely pulls away from the sides (it will still be quite sticky). Continue to mix for another four minutes. When finished, place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and let it sit to rise for about an hour. Punch down with your hands when it has risen (literally push it down to collapse the dough) and place in a greased loaf pan. Let it sit to rise until doubled again (30-60 minutes). When fully risen, bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. The loaf should sound hollow when you tap on it. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for ten minutes before removing it from the pan to cool on a rack.
Here are some pictures for you!
Bread is pretty simple in terms of ingredients...
That's what your yeast should look like when it is ready!
Add in the oats, flour, and salt...
And start mixing!
The dough is starting to form..
There we go... It has finally formed a dough ball and isn't sticking to the sides anymore
Finished product!
Press it down into the loaf pan. May want to use a spoon so you don't get finger indentations..
Almost risen..
There we go!
Mmm! Hollow sounding when I tap on it.. perfect!
Ready to cool on the rack
Thankfully the finger dents pressed out :D
Looks great on the inside too!
A little butter...
And delicious!
The french toast we made with it this morning! So gooood :)
I told Judah I was nervous for how the bread was going to turn out because I'll be honest, it didn't smell all that delicious as it was baking. It smelled good, but not heavenly, like bread usually does. But once I tasted it, I knew I had success! My bread came out slightly denser than store-bought whole wheat loaves, but definitely in a good way. To store it, I wrapped it twice in plastic wrap and it did fine overnight.
Homemade bread takes a while simply because of the rising time, but if you're going to be around the house for 3-4 hours, it is definitely worth trying out! Hands on time is minimal and with a mixer, you hardly get your hands dirty :)
On a different note, I was very excited yesterday.. our 5x7 wedding/engagement prints arrived in the mail along with the pictures frames I ordered from Kohl's!
And now I am fully convinced Maple is pregnant. Look how round she is getting! You can tell (not in this picture) that she isn't fat, but has a definite round spot for the baby(ies)
She decided to crawl into the bag when I was trying to feed her the other day!
"Gee Mom, I only wanted some hay"
Too cute.. I ordered her a larger cage online. It should arrive by Wednesday hopefully. It will provide her over double the space she has now, which will make her much happier, and give her plenty of space for when the babies are born :)
Overall it was a very productive Friday, as I also cleaned up the house and organized. And we were very happy this morning when Judah got the call for a rain out and he doesn't have to work tomorrow. Two day weekend!!! So of course I'm sitting here blogging while he plays Call of Duty and Maple runs around on the floor :D
Readers: Have you ever made or eaten homemade bread? Do you prefer it to store-bought?
Hi Shel, Have made bread off and on for years. Don't use a mixer or bread machine. When you put your dough in the pan to bake shape it in your hands. Make the loaf as long as your bread pan, then fold the sides under making a sea on the bottom of loaf. Run your hands gently over the top and put in bread pan. Don't touch again.
ReplyDeleteBread when baking has a yeasty smell, which you may like or not. If you want a soft crust , you can
put some butter on the bread top after you take it out of the oven.
King Arthur flour is the best there is. They put out a wonderful catalogue.
Love to you both , Nana
That's a seam on the bottom of the bread. A senior moment Nana
ReplyDelete