Easy Peasy Wheat Bread: Bread Baking for the Rest of Us

Move over, Sara Lee. There's a new bread in town.
In an attempt to bake up a bread that could replace Sara and her laundry list of ingredients I can't pronounce (azodicarbonamide...what's that?), I've baked up wheat bread. Lots of wheat bread.

Correction.

I've baked up BAD wheat bread. Lots of BAD wheat bread.

The thing is, for many years, I've been baking all kinds of other kinds of breads. Rolls, biscuits, artisan loaves, breadsticks, quick breads, white bread, international breads. You name it, I've baked it. No problem. But wheat bread? I've been chasin' the illusive "perfect" wheat loaf for three years...yep...three.

I've tried tons of recipes. Even the ones from a few BIG NAME food bloggers. {ahem!} Now I'm not gonna name names, but those picture-perfect loaves floating around Pinterest have always turned out

Dense.
Tasteless.
Crumbly.

Sometime amidst all my failures, it donned on me that the science of the PERFECT LOAF was less about ingredients and more about how they were all put together. It was right about that time that I found a fabulous recipe from Amy of Raising Arrows that altered the traditional mixing method of yeast, wheat, and whatnot. (By the way, from one sister to another, her blog is as fantastic as this bread! When you have a minute, be sure to pop on over. But I digress. Back to bread...) I tweaked the flour proportions slightly to my taste and baked myself a loaf of bread that was worth making again...and again...and...

No more Sara Lee.

Ingredients:

• 2 T. yeast
• 1 T. sugar
• 3 c. hot water
• 5  c. wheat flour 
• 2 to 2 1/2 c. white flour (You could use ALL wheat, but I prefer some white.)
• 1/3 c. oil of your choice
• 1/3 c. honey
• 1 T. salt
• additional oil for greasing 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to a very low temperature. I usually shoot for 200˚. Once you know that the oven has reached 200˚, turn it off.

In a small bowl, make a yeast mix. Combine 2 T. of yeast with 1 T. of sugar and 1/2 c. of hot water. (The hot water activates the yeast and the sugar gives it something to feed on.)

Stir this mix thoroughly and set aside.

In a mixer, whisk together 1 1/2 c. wheat flour and 2 1/2 c. hot water.

 

Whisk until well combined.

 

Add 1/3 c. honey, 1/3 c. of oil, and 1 T. salt. Whisk on medium speed.

 

By now, your yeast mix should be tripled in size and should look like...well...a batch of foamy goo.

Replace the whisk with a dough hook and add the yeast goo. If you don't have a dough hook, a heavy-duty wooden spoon is a suitable PLAN B. Mix for a few seconds.

Now, add 3 1/2 c. wheat flour.

 

Mix.  

Then, add 2 to 2 1/2 c. of white flour. Mix. (By now, if you are using a wooden spoon, your hand might feel like it's ready to fall off. Are ya' ready to buy a dough hook yet?)

Once all the flour has been thoroughly combined, you can turn the dough out onto a surface to manually knead it for 20 minutes OR, if you're a busy multi-tasking momma and you have a sturdy-enough mixer...and a dough hook {wink}, you can let the hook do all the work while you clean up the kitchen.

I choose the latter.

Mix/knead the dough on high for 4-5 minutes and on medium for an additional 4-5 minutes.

 

At this point, the dough should be very stretchy and tacky to the touch.

 

Grease two large OR three medium loaf pans.

Pour a few teaspoons of oil onto a clean working surface.

Then, turn the dough out onto the greased area. (I like to roll the whole wad of dough over once to completely cover it with a light layer of grease. It becomes less sticky and more manageable.)

Form the dough into one big ball and cut it into 2 (or if you are using three loaf pans, 3) even pieces.

 

Form into two loaves and fill the bottom of each pan.

 

Place inside the slightly warm but TURNED-OFF oven. Let it rise for 20 minutes.

 

Remove it from the oven and set aside. Now, preheat your oven to 350˚. (At this point, your dough should have risen to at least the top of the loaf pan, if not slightly higher.)

Once the oven has reached 350, return the dough to it and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Brush the top of the finished loaf with butter and set aside until the pan is cool to the touch.

DO NOT...and I mean DO NOT be tempted to cut off a hunk of steaming hot bread and chase it down with a glass of milk. If there is one thing I've learned after three years and dozens of dud loaves later it's that you have to let it cool before you attempt to cut into it. Most yeast breads need at least 15 minutes of cooling time to finish the baking process. If you disregard my stern...but well-intentioned warning...you'll end up with a smooshy loaf of bread that is only mostly done. Trust me. I've been around that block a time or two hundred.

While baking the perfect loaf was the natural end to my three-year-long course in wheat-breadology, during that season of trial and error, I also learned a few tricks of the trade that have come in handy for this rarely-any-store-bought-breads life of mine.

Be sure to head on over and check out a few Bread Baking 101 tips.