Whole Grain Wheat Bread

Submitted by fresh fanatic

"This bread is surprisingly easy. Unlike some whole wheat breads, this recipe has a soft, tender texture. The original recipe, which comes from the book "Feeding The Whole Family", calls for barley malt or maple syrup where I have used honey. This makes good rolls."

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 13
• Yields: 2 loaves
• Serves: 24

ingredients

• Starter Dough

• 2 cups cooked barley (or other whole grains)
• 2 cups water
• 1⁄4 cup cold-pressed vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon dry yeast
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (more or less)

• To Make Bread

• 1⁄4 cup honey (or other sweetener)
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 -4 cups unbleached white flour or 3 -4 cups whole wheat flour

• To Bake Bread

• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 teaspoon honey (or other sweetener)
• 1 teaspoon cold-pressed vegetable oil
• 1⁄4 teaspoon sea salt

directions

1. Starter Dough: Blend cooked grains and water in food processor or blender until creamy; pour into a large mixing bowl. Mix in oil, salt, and yeast. Add enough flour to make the mixture look like thick cooked cereal. Cover thee bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave for 12-24 hours at room temperature Once starter dough is fermented, it can be refrigerated up to a week before making the bread.
2. To Make Bread: After the 12-24 hours, add sweetener to starter dough and stir. Add whole wheat flour, stirring it inches As you add the white flour, the mixture will be too difficult to stir. Knead it by hand on the bowl and continue to add white flour. When dough is lees sticky, transfer it to a floured surface an knead 10-15 minutes or until dough is soft and springy, but not too sticky. Wash and dry mixing bowl and oil it. Place dough in bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
3. To Bake Bread: Mix water, honey, oil, and salt in a small cup and coat the top of each loaf with this mixture. (Makes about 3 loaves) Cover and let rise in greased pans for 45-60 minutes until the loaves have doubled in size. Test the bread for readiness. If you press the dough and it wants to stay in, but still has a little spring, it's ready to bake.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.
5. Bake 45-50 minutes. Bread will come out of pans after cooling 5 minutes. Let cool 30 minutes until slicing (if you can wait!).
6. Omit the honey for non-apian vegetarians/vegans.

Reviews

[Holly Blackwell]

I halved this recipe and only got 1 small loaf. Hmm. I also didn't have 12 hours for the starter dough to rise, so I added an extra teaspoon or so of yeast and gave it 7 or so hours. I think I should have given it more time, because it was kind of dense and small. But delicious. I'll have to try it according to the directions.

 

[QueenBee49444]

I made one pan of rolls and two loaves of bread. To make this recipe, I used 2 cups white flour, the rest of the flour was whole wheat. This recipe takes a little planning - not last minute because of the starter dough but the end result is definitely worth the wait. The bread & rolls are light and fluffy and taste yummy. Thank you for posting. Made for PAC, Spring 2008