One of my earliest memories was baking bread. Not with my Mom- she was more of a sweets baker. No, this was part of our church training. It began with cream puff shells and branched out into breads. Below is one of the recipes I made from many years ago.
I used a lightly colored honey and white whole wheat and it turned out just fine! You can also substitute the all purpose flour for bread flour if you like. I've done it both ways. But whole wheat doesn't have rise, so don't try to do it 100% whole wheat.
- 1 cup of warm water
- 2 1/4 cups active dry yeast or 1 packet
- 1 cup room-temperature milk
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 3/4 cups AP flour plus extra for kneading
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
- In a large bowl or the stand mixer bowl combine water and yeast and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the milk, honey, and oil
- Add the all-purpose flour and salt.
- Stir to combine
- Add the whole wheat flour and stir by hand or dough hook until dough forms- about 1 minute on low.
- Knead until smooth and springy, about 10 minutes on medium speed.
- Form into a ball and place in a large bowl coated with spray or butter.
- Turn to coat.
- Cover and let rise until twice the size (about 1 hour)
- Remove and fold out onto the lightly floured surface
- form into a large ball and divide in half
- Shape each into a 9 x 9 " square and fold the sides under to make a rectangle
- Put into lightly greased loaf pans, folds down
- Let rise another 45 minutes
- Place slashes or design of choice on top and place in the oven
- Immediately reduce the heat to 375 and bake to golden brown and sound hollow when thumped (around 30 minutes)
- Remove from pans and let cool completely.
Makes 2 loaves- try to resist cutting into it until completely cooled!