Whole Wheat Bread

Posted by Grace in Breads
This is one of our best loved recipes. We’ve been making bread for years and we’ve never gotten tired of this airy, 100% whole wheat. It freezes beautifully and makes the best toast. We grind our own flour (hard red wheat berries) and using the warm fresh ground flour to make the bread is the best.  Oh, another thing, we add our leftover hot cereal (oatmeal, oatbran, farina…) into the bread, no real measurement here, just add some in, too much will make the bread gooey!
Ingredients: 
4 cups water, 110 degrees
2 tablespoons yeast
1/4 cup honey
5 cups whole wheat flour 
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup gluten flour  
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
4-6 cups whole wheat flour 
Directions:
Dissolve yeast in water.  Stir in 1/4 cup honey.  Stir in 5 cups whole wheat flour.  Cover and let sit 45 minutes to sponge (get big and bubbly).  Stir to punch down.
Add rest of honey, gluten flour, olive oil and salt (and hot cereal if using).  Stir to blend.  Add more whole wheat flour by 1/2 cupfuls, while running electric mixer until the dough cleans the side of the bowl or mix by hand.  Knead for 8 minutes.  Place in a large, greased bowl.  Cover and let rise till doubled (apx. 1 hour).
Punch down dough.  Divide into four parts.  Form loaves, mini loaves, rolls, hamburger buns, cinnamon bread etc.  Place in greased pans.  Cover and let rise 30-45 minutes.
Bake as follows:
One recipe=
4 regular loaves                                   Bake at 350 for 25 minutes (30 minutes with hot cereal)
16 mini loaves                                     Bake at 250 for 15 minutes
4 pans (square or round) regular rolls     Bake at 400 for 18 minutes
2 pans (9 X 13″ pan with 15 big rolls)     Bake at 400 for 18 minutes
2 pans (9 X 13″ pan with 18 small rolls) Bake at 400 for 18 minutes
1 pan (12 X 16″ pan with 35 rolls)          Bake at 400 for 18-20 minutes
Remove from pans immediately.  Top with butter if wanted. 
Gluten Flour (from wheat), added to other flours in bread recipes, gives the dough extra elasticity and protein, resulting in a finer quality bread. When using gluten flour for this purpose use 1 Tablespoon or less per cup of other flour.

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