100% Whole Wheat Bread–Many photos!

It takes hours to make bread. But it is sooo worth it!

I’m fairly certain I’ve posted my attempts at bread on here. I used to be able to make beautiful white bread. It is after all not just about taste; it should look good, too. Well, that might not be true, it’s a nice thought anyway. I’ve never really had success with making whole wheat bread. I mean 100% whole wheat. Almost every recipe I can find for whole wheat is more white flour than whole wheat. I was determined today to find a recipe for 100% whole wheat, and make it successfully. Care to see how it turned out…?

First, I looked in various cookbooks that I have and finally found one in Laurel’s Kitchen (fitting name, dontcha think?). They call it Basic Whole-Grain Bread. It simply calls for water, brown sugar, active dry yeast, salt and whole wheat flour. In true *me* fashion, I edited the recipe:

• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 package dry yeast (~2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1/2 tablespoon salt
• 6 cups whole wheat flour

I substituted honey for the brown sugar because the b. sugar we have is really just white sugar with molasses. Although now that I am thinking on it, the honey tastes ‘diluted’ as well (do they even do that?). What can I say- I buy my foods at the ‘cheap’ store- you get what you pay for! The yeast I would have used the amount called for in the original recipe but I have the little individual sealed packs this time instead of the jar. It originally called for 1 full tablespoon of salt also and next time, I’ll follow that. I just don’t generally use much salt in cooking.

Also, there is no fat in this recipe! I’ve always used either butter or oil when I make bread. I wonder if I add it next time how it will affect it? Hmmm.

I’ll go through all my steps. I photographed every. single. step. I think. Even made two very short videos

Put warm water into a large bowl; mix in honey. Sprinkle the yeast on top. It will bubble shortly –within a few minutes at most. Make sure the water’s not too hot or cold. I usually pour it on my wrist. I like it a little warmer than I would make for a baby bottle. You could check what the ‘ideal’ temp is and go for that.

Note on the way I added the gluten: I put 1 tablespoon of it at the bottom of each cup I measured of flour so technically, I probably used 1 tablespoon less of the flour per cup than I say.

You can see the yeast bubbling in the photo to the left. Add 3 cups of flour to the mix and stir until it is nice and ‘smooth’. It wasn’t as thick as I thought it would be. Reminded me a bit of pancake batter.

Now add in 1 cup of flour (with the gluten) at a time, and the salt, and stir. I keep out the last cup of flour (and 1 tablespoon of gluten) for kneading –something my mom taught me.

I stirred it until it just stuck to the spoon and followed it around the bowl. Then I put some flour on the cutting board/counter to do my kneading.

I also sprinkled some of the 1 cup remaining flour on top of the dough to keep it from initially sticking to me. Kneaded the dough until it ‘absorbed’ the flour; then I sprinkled more on it. Eventually I used all of the 1 cup flour off the side.

Here’s a quick video of how I knead. Usually I use both hands but with one operating the camera, well… And here’s one of the elasticity of the dough after kneading. You want the dough to spring back when you press your finger in it.

After I kneaded the dough to the texture I was happy with (I could have kneaded it a bit longer now that I think about it), I put the dough back in the clean greased bowl I’d used to mix it earlier. I turned it once to coat both sides with oil to keep it from sticking as it rose. Covered it with a towel and put it in my oven with just the light on. I didn’t take a photo of the dough in the bowl but it filled it to about 2/3? I didn’t pay attention to the time either –oops- so I don’t know how long it took. Generally it’ll take at least 30 minutes unless it’s pretty warm where you put it. Oh, you don’t want it to be too warm, just free from drafts.

Here it is after rising to what I felt was double. Isn’t it pretty? And yes I do keep my sanitizing wipes wherever I am cooking. You just never know when you’ll need them…I’ll understand if you are concerned I poison the food if you come over to eat

Next I got two identical loaf pans –not a necessity, just I like to have the same so they bake the same –glass Pyrex. I greased them with oil.

Next I divided the dough semi-equally. I’m a little off After dividing them, I simply flattened them into the shape of the loaf pan. Just pressed them flat and squished so they would fit.

I pressed them into the loaf pans so that as much of the air bubbles were out. I don’t know if you can see the air bubble in the corner on the pan on the right, before I pressed it down more. The second photo shows that I at least gave it a good try to get rid of the air pocket.

I covered the loaf pans and put them back in the oven with just the light on to rise again.

Here they are after rising to just above the rim of the pans.

The lighting isn’t very good, sorry! But you get the idea I think I should have let them rise just a tad more…

Finally, I preheated the oven a few minutes before I wanted to bake the loaves, at 375*F. They baked for 37 minutes. Here they are freshly done.

I spread butter over the tops, sides and bottoms of the loafs after baking to help soften the crust.

I’ll admit that my loaves stuck and I worried I would have to share a torn up loaf but alas! it was released I used a butter knife to loosen the edges. Perhaps I didn’t oil it well enough; I used to use shortening.
Here are my loaves all done and ready to be eaten.

And who can resist a fresh baked loaf of bread? No one in our family! The first loaf (the smaller of the two) is about 1/2 gone already.

Success! It was mine!