Wheat Bread, by Jen

 

(makes 2 loaves)                                                                            

1.            ¼ cup honey

               2 ½ cups hot water

               3 tsp yeast (or 1 packet)

2.            3 tbsp dry milk

               3 tbsp potato flakes

               2 tsp salt

               3 tsp gluten flour

3.            4 cups whole wheat flour (or sub part white)        

4.            ¼ cup Canola oil

5.            1-2 cups white flour (or bread flour)

Use hot water from tap (as hot as it will go—or microwave for 2 minutes). Measure honey into mixer bowl. Add hot water to bowl by pouring into measuring cup used for honey; this will cool the water and clean out the rest of the honey. Stir to combine honey and water. Test water with finger to make sure it isn’t too hot for the yeast.  Add yeast and let sit for 10 min. 

Combine milk powder, potato flakes, salt, and gluten. Add to bowl; mix. Add 4 cups of (wheat) flour; mix again until combined. Add oil.  Knead until all ingredients are moistened, then about 5 more minutes. Add 1 cup white flour. Continue to knead until dough forms a ball, and cleans side of bowl (adding more white flour as needed, ¼ cup at a time); then knead an additional 1-2 minutes.

Spray oil to coat new bowl; place dough in bowl and turn to coat w/ oil.  Cover with clean towel, or plastic sprayed w/ oil. Let rise until double (45 min-1 hour). Punch down, and recover. Let rise until double again (30-45 min). 

Spray oil to coat bread pans. Punch down dough, knead briefly, divide and shape into 2 loaves.  Place loaf in pan upside down; press firmly into pan. Remove and turn right side up. Cover loaves with clean towel, or plastic sprayed w/ oil. Let rise to about an inch above rim (about 30 min).  (should still look round and tight, not like a balloon--if rises too much there will be lots of holes in the bread and it will shrink in oven; if this happens then knead briefly, reshape and let rise again).

Heat oven to 350 F. Remove towel/plastic. Slit top of loaf with sharp knife down center. Bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from pan immediately, let cool on wire rack.  Brush top with butter or lightly coat with cooking spray while still hot. Cool completely before storing.

Tips:

·    Don’t let dough over rise. If need to leave at any time put dough in fridge to rise. Punch down before leaving.

·    Punch down and let rise additional times—the more the bread rises the better developed the flavor and texture will be (be sure to not let over-rise at one time before punching down, this will suffocate and kill this yeast). But, if there is a time restraint only 1 rise (the very first one) is sufficient.

·    When using a towel to rise the bread it tends to dry out slightly on the top. I usually just make sure it is sufficiently coated in oil. But you can slightly moisten the towel before covering, to prevent drying out.

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