Whole Wheat Bread

Everyone and their dog was making wheat bread this week, and the pressure got to me.  This is something that I've been meaning to start doing for awhile (bread making that is), following the example of my mom.  She made bread almost every week of my life, and I hardly ever remember eating bread from the store.  The bread here has been found lacking for the prices they charge, and after a pep talk from the sis, I pulled out the wheat flour.  Steven loves this stuff (as do I) and I think I'd have a revolution if I were to go back to store bread.  Here's to a lifetime of making bread! (Note: I halved the amounts I wrote in the recipe below.  The recipe below yields 5 loaves, I made three with half the ingredients. Also, do not attempt the full recipe unless you have a bosch mixer.  I have a kitchen aid, and the engine is not as big as a bosch, so can't handle the large amounts of dough. Thus, I halved the recipe.) 

Step one: Mix 8 cups hot water, 10 cups wheat flour, 2 tbs salt, 1/3 cup oil, and 4 tbs *brown sugar in your mixer on low for 3 minutes.  Turn off the mixer, place the lid on, and let it sit for one hour. (The sitting for one hour is the secret folks! It lets the wheat flour absorb the liquid and get nice and moist) *You can use honey and sugar, or just honey instead of sugar.

Add 5 level tbsp of instant yeast and mix for a couple of minutes.  I didn't have any instant yeast on hand, so I did it the old fashioned way and had to adjust my water amounts, etc to allow for the extra water I used to activate my yeast.  See my yeast rising? It turned into a monster.

Turn off your mixer and add 4 cups unbleached white flour. Mix for a few more minutes, then add 2 more cups of wheat flour.  Mix on the highest speed for 10 minutes. After five minutes of your ten, turn off the mixer and add one more cup of wheat flour.  Mix some more.  At around 7-8 minutes of the ten, turn off the mixer and punch the dough to check how sticky it is. If it sticks to your hand, then add 1/2 cup more of wheat flour.  Finish off the 10 minutes of mixing and turn off your mixer. 

Take your dough out and place on a greased and floured surface.  Form into 5 loaves and place in greased loaf pans.

Place your loaves in a warm, dry place to rise until they have doubled in size.

They doubled! Now cook at 325 for 35 minutes.

When they are done cooking, take the bread out and let cool IN the pans for 5 minutes. Knock them out of the pans and let rest of their side to finish cooling. Note: Don't put them on a granite counter top, because they will sweat while cooling. You don't want your bread to sweat and get soggy. Gross. Place in bags and freeze everything you are not currently using.

Take a slice of the fresh bread and slap on some of that jam you just made and enjoy!