I don't know how you feel about home made, whole wheat bread. Oh, it smells so good while it's baking! And nothing beats a piece fresh out of the oven with a thick layer of butter on top. Of course, it's better for you, without all the additives found in store-bought bread. And you know it's 100% whole wheat. So, what's the hang up?
Well, for me, the hang up was, once the bread cooled, and especially once it was a day old or so, it was coarse, dry, and crumbly, hard to make into sandwiches without making a mess and needing to cut thick slices just so the bread would have a semblance of holding together. It had to be at least 1/2 white flour to combat that, and preferably more. Plus, it took time to make. As a mom with young children, I don't have any extra time just waiting to be used!
But recently I've found both a recipe and method to combat both problems. The method is to use a bread machine. At some thrift stores you can find them for relatively cheap. I'm on my third machine now. The first one, an Oster, simply quit, and the second was making a racket and the thermostat seemed to be giving out. The machine I have now (Regal Kitchen Pro) does a 2 pound loaf, which is bigger than either of my others, and I really like that. A 2 pound loaf is actually enough to split in half and make two decent size, regular loaves. I used to just let the machine do everything for me. What could be simpler? Pour in the ingredients, and out comes a hot loaf a few hours later! I still do that when I'm in a pinch for time. But the loaf pans are rather an awkward shape, and my husband didn't like it too well. So for now I simply add the ingredients, and put the machine on the dough setting. It takes about 5 minutes, including grinding my own flour in my Vitamix! Two hours later, the dough is ready. I divide it in half, and put it into two loaf pans. After letting it rise for 30-45 minutes (depending on how warm the spot is where I leave them!) I pop it in the oven till I can smell that it's done. I know, I should use a timer, but my nose hasn't let me down yet--and children like to fool with timers! Part of the reason this is such a time-saver is because it really cuts down on the dirty dishes/counter you get when making it by hand. You wash the bread machine pan (which usually ends up quite clean by the time the cycle is done anyway) and the loaf pans if you go that route. Done. No messy, sticky flour on the counter or batter on the whisk or sticky dough on the mixing bowl.
So, now for the recipe. It really is the BEST recipe for 100% whole wheat bread. It has never once failed, except the time I forgot about it and it sat in the machine for hours rising, then when my husband reminded me of it we were already in bed, so I jumped up and stuck it in the fridge overnight--and didn't get around to making it until the next evening. It had gotten tired of rising and tasted a little tart. My fault, not the recipe's! Anyway, it is a soft and flexible bread even a couple of days later, and we can easily cut fairly thin slices without it going to pieces on us. I use my Vitamix dry container to grind the flour on the spot as a general rule, but have used whole wheat flour from the store and it works fine. So, are you ready? Here it is!
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tablespoons soft butter
1/4 cup molasses
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons vital wheat gluten
4 cups flour
1 3/4 teaspoon active/bread machine yeast
Put ingredients in machine in order listed, or mix by hand if you don't have a machine as you would any other bread recipe.
A couple words of warning. If you use freshly ground flour I found it tends to be wetter than store-bought. Users of store bought whole wheat flour, you may need to add a Tablespoon or two of water more so that the dough is moist enough. Also, I only use hard white spring wheat. It's sometimes hard to find it in a flour already, but it is just the best for bread. Hard red wheat, the "normal" whole wheat variety, is courser and makes a courser bread. For any other Vitamix owners out there, 1 1/2 cups of wheat berries will grind into about exactly 2 cups of flour. I rarely measure my flour any more, just grind up two batches of 1 1/2 cups of berries and dump it right in. Plus, in that amount the machine seems to do a better job than when I max it out with the full 2 cups berries it can handle.
So, enjoy your bread! And please, if you try it out, leave me a comment so I know how it turned out. I'm curious if others will have the same success I do.
