(75%) Success!

Many of you know that I've been trying to perfect a whole wheat bread recipe for many months now. It all started when I bought a honey whole wheat loaf from Breadsmith and realized that 1) it was made from all normal kitchen ingredients (no preservatives or dough conditioners), and 2) it was delicious! Not a brick at all! The problem was, it was $4 a loaf. Eep. This got me to thinking: "Hmmm....maybe I can make my own organic whole wheat bread, save some money, AND it'll be healthier than the organic stuff I've been buying from the store because it won't have all that crap in it!" Light bulb moment!

So I started searching for good recipes. I tried several of them. One in particular involved me practically having to prepare days in advance, do a few incantations, run around a crazy obstacle course, and finally....end up with bread that was still solid as a rock and wouldn't rise. Back to the drawing board.

I finally consulted the guru of all that is food: the Joy of Cooking, particularly my wonderfully basic 1967 edition. It had a half whole wheat, half white recipe that looked promising as well as easy, and I decided to try it "in the meantime" until I could get a good whole wheat recipe down pat. Well, it was so yummy (with a few healthy modifications on my part), that I just kept making it instead of trying out new recipes. Eric was eating so much of it that I had to resort to economic logic to get him to slow down on his bread consumption: we were spending more grocery money on bread (ingredients) than we were when I was buying the store-bought kind. Oops.

Add that experience to another: I was perusing the flour selection at my local Meijer, looking for good quality flours (as any good cook knows, it's all about the quality of the ingredients), and after trying several of their middle-of-the-road products, I took the plunge and bought the king of flours: King Arthur's Organic Whole Wheat flour, which comes in at $6 for 5 pounds. Yep, ouch. But hey, it was worth a shot.

And the shot hit the bulls-eye. Folks, this is REALLY good bread flour, even though it's whole wheat. After using it in various baking adventures, I gradually started increasing the ratio of white to wheat flours in my bread recipe, and lo-and-behold, it's still delicious! Moist yet firm, flavorful but not woody, sweet but not too much so. We love it! And Eric figured out for me that it's costing us $2 a loaf, which is actually comparable to most of the whole wheat breads in the store, but a heckuva lot healthier.


I haven't gone "all the way" and used 100% whole wheat flour in it yet; I guess I'm nervous that we won't like it and I'll have wasted $4 worth of bread ingredients. So I'm still slowly adding more whole wheat and less ultra-processed white to the mix. As of today, I was at 6 cups of wheat to 2 cups of white -- 75%! And it's still absolutely scrumptious! My next batch will probably only contain 1 cup of white flour, and we'll see how that goes. At any rate, I'm pleased with the outcome so far.

So here you are....drumroll, please.....The Bread Recipe:

Mostly Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
2 tsp. yeast
1/2 c. hot water
1 T. sugar
1 beaten egg
1/4 c. melted butter, still warm
2 c. hot water + 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. sugar (or 1/2 c. honey)
6 c. King Arthur’s organic whole wheat flour
2 c. King Arthur’s organic white flour

Directions:

1. Mix yeast, 1/2 c. water, and 1 T. sugar in a glass bowl and let sit for about 10 min. or until foamy, while you mix the other wet ingredients.
2. Mix together egg, butter, water, salt, and sugar; add the yeast water. Add the flours and blend well.
3. Let rest for 10 min. Knead on a flat surface (or in a KitchenAid stand mixer with a dough hook) until smooth and elastic, about 10 min.
4. Place into a greased bowl and turn over. Cover w/ a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours, or until just doubled in size. (I put it in a slightly warm oven that has been turned off.)
5. Punch the dough and place it on a flat surface. Knead again for a minute or two.
   
6. Roll out the dough with a pin or your hand until about 1” thick. Fold the sides up, then fold the ends up to form a loaf pan shape. Place in 2 greased pans, sprinkle w/oats and cover with damp towels. Let rise another 45-60 min., or until almost doubled in size (again, in a barely warm oven).
7. With the bread still in it, turn the oven heat to 400 degrees. After 15 min., reduce heat to 375 degrees, rotate the pans, and bake 20-25 minutes longer. Test for doneness by removing from pan and knocking on the bottom; if a hollow sound emerges, the bread is done. Let cool completely on a wire rack before storing. (I refrigerate one loaf, and freeze the other.)

Good luck!