Baking up Whole Wheat Bread

Last night I helped my 13 year old son make brownies. His brownies turned out really well. I’m not use to having a boy wanting to bake. I have two older sons and all they wanted to learn to cook was pancakes and grilled cheese sandwiches. My son has made a jelly roll, an angel food cake, friendship bread and he made brownies and chocolate chip cookies with one arm while he had his cast on! So, I enjoyed sharing the kitchen with him last night, but now it’s my turn to bake, so today I’m making whole wheat bread.

I’ve baked all of our bread for the last few years, usually I make whole wheat bread, but I have to add some white bread flour to keep it fluffy. I was peeking around the internet the other day and I found this recipe for one hour wheat bread. (sorry I can’t remember where I found it) I thought one hour, that’s impossible for 100 % whole wheat bread, but this bread turned out amazing! It’s moist and fluffy and it has stayed fresh in my bread drawer for days! I did a little research and I found that lemon juice and vinegar are things that have been added to bread for ages, but I’ve never seen it in a recipe before. They are both acids, so you can use either. I have a huge cookbook selection and several of them are bread books but none of the recipes call for an acid. You can also use potatoes or vital wheat gluten to make your bread better. Here are some measurements for adding these –

1-2 Tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten for every cup of flour in the recipe

¼ cup potato flakes for every loaf the recipe makes

1 Tablespoon Vinegar or Lemon Juice for every cup of water

These are just estimates, so play around with it and see what works good. Here’s the recipe-

1 Hour Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups whole wheat flour

1/3 cup gluten flour or vital wheat gluten, I used dough enhancer

1 ¼ Tablespoons yeast

2 ½ cups very warm tap water

1 Tablespoon salt

1/3 cup oil

1/3 cup honey or molasses (you can use ½ c sugar, molasses gives it a darker color)

1 ¼ Tablespoon bottled lemon juice

2-2 ½ cups whole wheat flour

Mix the first 3 ingredients in a mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Add salt, oil, honey or sugar and lemon juice and veat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup.. Beat for about 6-10 minutes or until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes a very soft dough.

Preheat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top, divide, shape into loaves and place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until the dough reaches the top of the pan. Do not remove bread from oven, but turn the oven up to 350 degrees F and bake for 30 minutes, that’s 30 minutes from the time you turn the oven up to 350 degrees. Remove from pans and cool on racks.

I lost 170 pounds a few years ago doing a low carb diet, and so I don’t eat breads and things now, but I do taste them and this bread is so good, it’s a good thing I don’t do more than taste, because I could seriously eat the whole loaf!