The Great Bread Experiment: Whole Wheat Bread #1

Well it's too early to declare a winner for the Whole Wheat category, especially since this is the first one we tried, but we definitely have a contender!

As with the white bread, I started with my Better Homes and Gardens "New Cook Book" eleventh edition. I made no changes to the recipe. I did, however, remember to take more pictures this time.

The Book:

The Bread:
Better Homes and Gardens Whole Wheat Bread
Ingredients:
3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package dry active yeast
1 3/4 cups water
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons butter, margarine, or shortening
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 cups whole wheat flour

 My gathered supplies *Kitchenaid stand mixer and saucepan not pictured

Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the all-purpose flour and the yeast; set aside. In a medium saucepan heat and stir water, brown sugar, butter (or margarine or shortening) and salt just til warm (120-130 degrees) and butter almost melts. Add water mixture to dry mixture. Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed for 30 seconds, scraping the sides of the bowl constantly. Beat on high speed for three minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour and as much remaining all-purpose flour as you can.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6-8 minutes total). Shape the dough into a ball. Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning once to grease surface of the dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place till double in size (for 1-1 1/2 hours).

3. Punch dough down. Turn dough out into a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Cover; let rise 10 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease two 8x4x2in loaf pans. (I used 9x5x2.5 loaf pans)

4. Shape each portion of dough into a loaf by patting or rolling. To shape dough by patting, gently pat and pinch each half into a loaf shape, tucking edges beneath. To shape dough by rolling, on a lightly floured surface, roll each half into a 12x8 inch rectangle. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting from a short side. Seal with fingertips as you roll.

5. Place the shaped dough in the prepared pans. Cover and let rise in a warm place till nearly double in size (45-60 minutes).

6. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40-45 minutes or till bread sounds hollow when you tap the top with your fingers (if necessary, cover loosely with foil the last 10 minutes of baking to prevent over-browning). Immediately remove bread from pans. Cool on wire racks. Makes 2 loaves.

The Result:
This bread was very easy. Easy to mix, easy to knead and shape. Since the first white loaf tasted too "Floury", I decided not to try to force the additional all-purpose flour into the dough. I probably used a 1/2 cup after the initial 2 cups between flouring my work surface and adding some in. Maybe that's why it was so much easier to shape. The baking time was spot on for this recipe, and I did use the foil for the last 10 minutes. The result was to beautiful (minus my inability to shape well) loaves.

The Review:
We all really liked this loaf! It tastes very close to a good whole wheat bread at the store, but is a little more dense. So far we've liked it on all of our regular sandwiches and warm with butter (we haven't had it toasted, yet). I'd say this one is definitely a possibility as our go-to sandwich bread!