Rating: 8
Non-quantifiable rating: I bet my bread could arm wrestle Sara Lee's bread.
When I was little, I had a friend whose mom made sandwiches with Wonder Bread. Since my adorably health-conscious parents never had anything other than Brownberry bread at our house, getting Wonder Bread sandwiches in the late 1980s was even more exciting than a Fraggle Rock marathon on TV.
Now that I'm baking a lot (and expecting my diet to get me through endurance sports), I appreciate the value of whole grains (belated apologies and thanks to Mom and Dad). However, it's freakin' hard to find a whole wheat yeast bread recipe that is both reasonably easy and doesn't taste like insulation. Plus, a lot of the time a recipe will claim to be whole wheat when all they did was toss in a tablespoon of whole wheat flour. Dirty, dirty cheaters.
This recipe, courtesy of "Ridgely" on http://www.recipezaar.com/, is ridiculously easy as far as yeast bread goes, and it makes awesome sandwich bread. My husband has test-driven this bread for lunch along with my spiced dutch apple jam (recipe forthcoming) and the gloriousness that is Better n' Peanut Butter (review forthcoming) and seems to think it's pretty good.
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Recipe makes 1 9x5 pan
INGREDIENTS
2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup gluten flour
7/8 tablespoon instant yeast
1 2/3 cups steaming hot tap water (120° to 130°)
2/3 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup oil (I totally forgot the oil once and it still turned out fine)
1/4 cup honey OR 1/3 cup sugar
7/8 tablespoon bottled lemon juice
1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
DIRECTIONS
1) Mix together the first three ingredients in mixer (use a dough hook if you have one).
2) Add water all at once and mix for one minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
3) Add salt, oil, honey or sugar and lemon juice and beat for one minute or until combined.
4) Add last flour, a little at a time, beating regularly.
5) Beat for 6 to 10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl
6) Preheat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and then turn it off.
7) Turn dough out onto oiled surface; shape it into a loaf and place in an oiled bread pan.
8) Let rise in warm oven 25-30 minutes or until dough reaches top of pan
9) Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until bread is a golden brown.
10) Remove from pan and cool on rack
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