Monday, June 15, 2015

My Whole Wheat Bread


Those who know me may not believe this, but it's the truth. I have been making bread for 20 years!
I am no expert, but when you start at a young age and several batches of bread each week for your entire growing up and adult life... you learn a few secrets of the trade. When it comes to Whole Wheat Bread, you want it to be as light as possible but still have that high fiber and homemade goodness, not like the store bought stuff that is full of air.

Here is my bread recipe.

1 T Active Dry Yeast
1 t Vitamin C Powder
1 T Salt
1 t Ginger
3 t Lemon juice
1 t honey
6 C lukewarm water
place in bowl and let yeast proof for 10-15 min
when done add
6-8 eggs
1 C oil
1/4 flax seed ground (if desired)
12-15 C WW Flour

Don't add all the flour in at once. you want to put in about 8 Cups first and get the ingredients mixing, then add the rest slowly as is mixes as well as adding up to 2 more Cup of oil (ish) as needed.
you're going to mix for about 7-8 min (so set the timer) and as it mixes add your flour and oil in till you have a nice soft stretchy dough.
I sometimes will stop the machine for a few minutes to check the dough's consistency and see how we're doing and how close we are to the end result.

Dump out into a bowl and let rise for 1/2 hr. (I like to put mine in the oven, with it off of course, and turn the oven light on. it keeps it warm in there and is a nice environment for the dough to rise in.)
Knead or punch down and let it rise again 1/2 hr.
Then it's time to put it in the pans and into the oven to rise the third time for 1/2hr then bake at 350 F for 30min.

if your loaves feel a little too soft or too light in color, bake them for another 10min.

Other baking...

Hints: finer ground flour will stick better. makes better bread. rises better.

            If the dough is too stiff, add more oil until soft

            If it’s too sticky, adding flower can help, but I’d also add oil so it doesn’t become too stiff

            Eggs will sometimes make the bread lighter and stick better

            DON’T FORGET SALT! I have found that forgetting salt will make the bread flatter and heavy! I don’t know why but it dose!

And you don't need Sugar!!! That's right, you don't need Sugar. All you need is Lemon Juice or Vitamin C powder or even Honey. I like to put all three in just for kicks, but anyone of these works great to give the yeast something to feed on.





2 comments:

  1. I just printed off your ww bread recipe. I would like to try it but have a couple questions first.
    What does the ginger do? Is it for flavor?
    Can you use instant yeast?
    Do you grind your own wheat?
    After the loaves have risen for the last time do you leave the loafs in the oven when preheating it?
    How many loaves does this recipe make?

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  2. Wow... good questions.
    I believe the ginger also helps the yeast proof... though it's been so long since we started making bread with ginger that I forgot what it was for... and sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I only saw this comment today!!!
    I have not tried instant yeast in this bread recipe, I'd have to experiment to see how it would do with such a big recipe and with whole wheat flour... etc..
    When I lived with my folks we ground our own grain, now I just use the whole wheat from Superstore.
    yes I leave the loaves in the oven as it preheats and starts to bake!
    and this recipe makes 5 loaves!

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