Thursday, April 10, 2008

Yummy Homemade bread

I have been making homemade wheat bread for the past few weeks (I know, I'm Donna Reed), I thought I should share the recipe since it has just been so yummy. It's chewy not crumbly like all the other breads I have made and that makes me happy. It has a few ingredients I didn't have on hand (one I had never heard of) but I found them easily at Smiths. These are the questionable ingredients:
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The vital wheat gluten was kind of expensive ($6.29), but the recipe is for 3 loaves and it only calls for 1/2 a cup, so that bag will last a long time and it's worth it, I think that is what gives it it's chewiness.
I got this recipe from "allrecipes.com" by the way

Westrup Whole Wheat Bread

1 1/2 T. active dry yeast (that's 2 envelopes)
2 3/4 C. warm water
3 C. whole wheat flour
5 C. bread flour, divided
1 C. wheat bran
1 C. wheat germ
1/2 C. vital wheat gluten
1/2 C. brown sugar
1 C. dry non-fat milk powder
2 T. sesame seeds (I've actually never added these. It sounds weird.)
1 T. salt (I make it a heaping, it improves the flavor)
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 eggs
I add a 1/4 to 1/3 C. of honey too (We like it sweeter- you can do whatever you want)


1. In a small bowl dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 mins.

2. In a large mixing bowl (I use my kitchen aid) combine the whole wheat flour, wheat bran 3 C. of the bread flour, wheat germ, milk powder, brown sugar, wheat gluten, sesame seeds, and salt; stir well. Mix in the yeast mixture, oil and eggs.

3.Add the remaining bread flour, a half cup at a time stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, start kneading it until it's smooth and elastic. About 8 minutes. (Ok, the first time I did this, I used my Kitchen Aid kneading hook (I may be Donna Reed, but I am not a pioneer), and about a minute and a half my mixer was REALLY STRUGGLING! Then it started to smell bad, so I turned it off and finished kneading by hand. The dough is very tough! I recommend just kneading it by hand. You can skip your bicep workout for the day. I say that like I actually work out my biceps! Or anything else for that matter)

4.Lightly oil a large bowl. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about an hour.

5.Deflate the dough and turn it out onto the counter and divide into 3 equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into three lightly greased bread pans. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume about 40 minutes. (I let mine rise longer, it makes the bread less dense.

6. Bake at 375 for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

7. Slice it right away and eat it with lots of honey butter.

I added the last step myself, but it is as important as all the other steps. The first time I made this, I tried to half it and it worked fine, but the bread was gone very fast. I have since just made the full recipe and the other two loaves freeze well, so it's worked out great. Bread is like pie, if you are taking the trouble to make one, you may as well make a lot and freeze!

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Here is today's handy work

peace out

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Super yummy! I'm going to try it. And that Charlie Bit Me thing...hilarious. I'm actually sweating from laughing so hard. I'll bet you $30 bucks and a jar of homemade grape jelly Bruce would have smacked Annabel right in the head if she would have done that. Charlie's got a good brother.

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