Whole Wheat Bread

This recipe comes from my dear friend, Carolynn.  I have tried a number of whole wheat bread recipes in the past, but they seemed to lack in taste and texture.  If you're looking for a whole wheat bread recipe with all natural ingredients that tastes amazing and has a soft-as-white-bread texture but with all the health benefits of whole wheat, look no further!

1 c. warm water
2 Tbsp sugar
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1/4 c. oil
3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp vital wheat gluten
**Note** I double this recipe every time

For Christmas my husband let me pick out my own present, and I chose a grain mill.  I thought it would be nice to reap the benefits of whole grains straight from the kernel rather than through a package of flour from the grocery store.  I have thoroughly enjoyed using my bread mill and in this post, will take you through the entire bread-making process...from the kernel of wheat to the finished product.

Before buying my grain mill, I did some quick research on brands.  I didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I did want to buy something that was of decent quality.  I ended up buying a middle-of-the-line mill, the BlendTec.  So far I have been very pleased with it and the quality of flour it mills.

People are often surprised when they see the size of my mill.  They think it is going to be a huge piece of equipment, when in reality, it's not much bigger than a toaster oven.

If you have the mill, you need to buy the grains to go in it.  I started out buying small amounts of grains from a local store just to see what I liked and didn't like.  I found I really liked the hard red wheat--it makes a great loaf of bread.  I ended up purchasing a 50-pound bag of organic hard red wheat (along with rye, but that's food for another post! ;)) online at a time when I could get free shipping.  I keep the wheat in a large, plastic bucket with a tight lid and scoop out a bagful at a time for use in the near future.  I store my bag of wheat berries in the freezer as I have read that the mill can heat up the grains as it grinds them, which in turn, can spoil some of the nutrients.  I don't know how much of a difference freezing the grains makes, but it can't hurt.

Hard Red Wheat berries:

To make flour, all you have to do is put the grain you are using in the top portion of the machine, plug the machine in, and turn it on.  In a matter of minutes you have freshly-milled flour in the bottom container.

Freshly milled whole wheat flour:

At this point, it's time to prep the yeast.  Fill your measuring cup with very warm water.  (Not hot water, as that will kill the yeast.)  Add sugar to feed the yeast, and then add the yeast itself.

Give it a slight stir, just to get the sugar dissolved and feed the yeast more effectively.

Let the yeast proof for about 5 or 10 minutes.  During this time, you can go ahead and get the remainder of your ingredients ready to go.  You'll notice that this recipe calls for vital wheat gluten.

Vital wheat helps heavier breads (such as those made with whole grains) to rise better and have more elasticity and a softer end product.

Place the flour, salt, and vital wheat gluten into your mixing bowl and give it a quick whirl.

About this time, you might notice that your yeast mixture has changed a bit...in 5 minutes, it might look something like this (notice the height of the yeast on the spoon now):

After 10 minutes, it changes even further and is ready to be incorporated into the flour:

This recipe calls for vegetable oil, but I prefer to use coconut oil.  There is a light coconut flavor to the finished product, but it does not stand out.

Next, add the coconut oil (in liquid form, of course) to the flour in the bowl:

Then add the yeast mixture:

Turn the mixer on and watch as the dough goes from sloppy and sticky to smooth and elastic over the course of about 4 or 5 minutes.  (Make sure to mix your dough for at least 4 minutes to make sure the gluten is activated).

Notice that the dough no longer adheres to the sides or bottom of the bowl:

After 5 minutes of mixing:

Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  I usually spray the underside of the plastic wrap with non-stick spray as this dough tends to rise quite high.

Place the dough in a warm place and allow it to rise for an hour.  Where I live, temps are not at all warm...in fact, we've been sitting well below zero.  So I usually heat my oven to about 100 degrees, turn the heat off, turn the oven light on, and then place the bowl inside.  It works quite well--see for yourself!  The dough has more than doubled in size.

Next, pour the dough out of the bowl and onto the counter.

I use a bench scraper tool to divide the dough in half:

You now have 2 similarly sized lumps of dough that happen to fit just perfectly inside a greased, standard-size loaf pan.  (As an aside, I prefer a narrower, taller loaf pan--like the white one in the photos--to a wider, lower size like the glass pan...it makes a nicer shaped loaf.)

Just like before, cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rise for one more hour.

After an hour, your dough should have noticeably risen:

Now is the time to place the dough in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake it for 30 minutes.  When the loaves have finished baking, remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.  After 5 or 10 minutes, turn the loaf out of the pan so that the bread does not become soggy and continue to allow the bread to cool at room temperature.

It's tempting to cut a slice of bread right away, but it slices so much more easily if you can wait just a little bit for it to cool.  Then it's time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Nothing beats a homemade loaf of bread and nothing beats the experience of making it from start to finish from scratch!