Whole Wheat Bread

Our kids love this bread. It is soft  and doesn't taste like your average whole wheat bread. Most people who try it think it is a mix of wheat and white. I use white wheat and grinding your own flour makes a big difference in how it tastes.  This recipe makes 4 8/4 inch loaves.

7 c. whole wheat flour (grind your own if you have a wheat grinder)

2/3 c. vital wheat gluten

2 1/2 T. instant yeast

5 c. steaming hot water (120-130 F)

2 T. salt

2/3 c. oil

2/3 c. honey or 1 c. sugar (I like honey the best!)

2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice

5 c. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 8-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.

Pre-heat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top; divide, shape into loaves place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until dough reaches top of pan. Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks. This recipe can be halved to make 2 loaves.

Notes: 

The best pans to use are 8×4 inch non stick pans.

When the dough is put into the bread pans, squish the dough softly into the corners of your bread loaf pans. This will make your bread cook more evenly and not have the large lump in the middle of your loaf.

When you are done mixing the dough it should like somewhat shiny. This indicates that the gluten are well developed. If I don't see this after mixing it for 8-10 minutes then I add a few minutes to the mixing time.