Whole Wheat Fennel Bread

ellie_'s Note:

Hearty bread goes great with soup and stew. Recipe source Bon Appetit (January 1982). Prep time includes 3 rises.

• Total Time: 5 hrs
• Prep Time: 4 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Yield: 1 loaf

• 1/3 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup Crisco or 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups hot water
• 4 cups white flour
• 4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cake yeast, dissolved in
• 1/2 cup warm water (or use 1 envelop yeast disolved in 1/2 cup warm water)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed

Directions:

1. Grease large bowl and set aside.
2. Combine first 3 ingredients (molasses-salt) in large bowl.
3. Add hot water and beat with an electric mixer until well blended.
4. Add 2 cups white flour and 4 cups whole wheat flour, blending at medium speed or stirring with a wooden spoon until well blended.
5. Add dissolved yeast and fennel.
6. Stir in enough remaining white flour to make a stiff dough.
7. Gather dough into a ball and transfer to floured bread board and knead for several minutes.
8. Gather into ball and put in prepared greased bowl, turning to coat both sides of ball.
9. Cover with plastic wrap or damp towel and let rise in draft-free area (I use an unheated microwave) for about 2 hours or until doubled.
10. Punch dough down and reshape into ball.
11. Let rise again until double (1 hour).
12. Grease 12-cup bundt pan and set aside.
13. Turn dough onto floured bread board and roll into a cylinder (24 inches long).
14. Put cylinder in prepared pan, pinching ends together to seal.
15. Let rise for 30 minutes.
16. Preheat oven to 375- degree oven.
17. Bake loaf for 1 hour or unti lightly browned.
18. Let cool on rack before slicing.

Reviews

[Ms*Bindy]

This really is a hearty bread. The recipe makes a HUGE loaf of bread. I mixed and did the first rise in my bread machine, and it kind of overflowed. I kind of suspected it might, with 8 cups of flour, but I was expecting the bread to be a little more dense, so I miscalculated a little there....lol...Anyways, the bread baked up nicely, and we enjoyed it. Thanks for a lovely recipe.