Give Me Your Dough

reflection
Originally uploaded by emira

Or more correctly, your recipes. Anyone out there have a tried and true recipe for a wholewheat-ish bread they'd like to share?

I've scoured my cookbooks, my mom's and even one a friend's mom brought all the way from New Foundland (well it's a Newfie cookbook, but she brought it from Ontario). I've decided to take a break from the Multigrain I've been making to try out something else. I can of course get a recipe from the library or ye olde internet, but I'd love something others can vouch for.

So, here's what I'd love, but I'll be talked out of this if your argument is persuasive enough, a recipe for bread that is:

- Not too full of sugar, all the olde fashioned recipes my mom had laying around used like 1/4 or a 1/3 of a cup of sugar. That seems like too much too me. If it were honey or molasses in those quantities I'd probably feel better.
- Has a fair bit of whole wheat flour or some non-traditional grain. I don't like using too much white flour.
- Is a yeasted bread, and preferably not a sourdough starter. I feel like I'm not quite ready to graduate to sourdough starters, but again I can be talked out of that.

Other than that, I'm open to your wisdom. Help me fill that lovely new vintage bread box!

Comments

[Heather]

Okay, so there's no yeast, but this recipe is divine:
http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2005/11/beer-bread-update-whole-wheat-version.html

I have tried a number of foodiefarmgirl's recipes and have loved every single one.

This recipe seems in line with what you are looking for (although I have not tested it):
http://bakingbites.com/2005/08/honey-whole-wheat-bread/

[Emira]

Heather, I too have made and really enjoyed the Farm Girl Beer Batter Bread. Yum! I'm more into the process of making yeasted breads these days though. That Baking Bites site is a wealth of bread recipes. The one you've suggested looks great and there are so many others! Thanks!

[renee]

try subbing honey for the sugar, instead of the called for amount of sugar use just under that in honey. The equivalent is 7/8 cup of honey for every cup of sugar.
Use about 2 teaspoons less of another liquid in the recipe just so it doesn't end up too fluid.
I just used that equation to make honey sweetened banana nut muffins and they were sooooo good (and moist!)

[ashamanja babu]

With bread, especailly with yeasted, whole wheat bread, method is more important than an ingredient list. Here are a couple tips:

All liquids should be bloodwarm, never hot. Test a drop on your wrist, like infant formula. It should not feel warmer than your skin. Hot liquids will kill your yeast.

The more you knead, the lighter your bread will be. A lot of older bread recipes just say "knead until smooth and elastic," but you should really knead constantly for at least ten minutes or more.

Don't cut into the bread until it has fully cooled. The inside of the bread continues to cook as it cools, and if you cut it while it's hot, you may wreck your loaf by letting the heat out.

That being said, here's my favorite basic, everyday bread recipe that works well by hand or in a machine.

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 Tsbp sunflower oil
2 Tbsp molasses or honey (this will affect the color of the bread, so it's based on preference)
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup water
3 tsp dry yeast (I like to use Saf-instant yeast http://waltonfeed.com/yeast.html)

Put the white flour, 1 1/2 cups of the whole wheat flour, the salt, and the yeast in a bowl and use a whisk to blend. Add all the wet ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed. Add the rest of the flour and knead in. Knead the dough well, for at least 10 minutes. Leave to rise, covered with a cloth, for an hour.

Punch the dough down and knead for a few minutes, shape into a loaf or put into a loaf pan, and leave to rise, covered, for another hour.

Bake about 40 minutes at 375 F, until it looks dark golden and crisp on top. If you like a soft, chewy crust, you can brush the loaf with butter while it's still hot.

I hope this helps you!

[Jill - GlossyVeneer]

I just made the 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from the King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking book and it was awesome. I don't know if anyone has posted the recipe online, but the entire book is pretty awesome.

[Anita]

Well, I'm kinda partial to my own recipe. http://mangiamo.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/light-wheat-bread/ It's one that's developed over time, tweaking here and there as I find interesting information along the way. Try it and let me know what you think. :-)

And as Jill mentioned, the King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book is awesome! But they still use more sugar than I would like in a lot of their recipes and I often cut back on their measurements.

[rachel]

I have a never-fail spelt bread recipe that I learned from a German baker. The result is a very dense loaf - it has a hard crust & chewy insides. It's very German & 100% whole grain. (Also, spelt doesn't contain any gluten, so it seems to be gaining in popularity. I buy it at Kroger, Whole Foods, & a local bulk foods shop.)

Because the recipe is German, you need a metric scale to measure ingredients...

1 Kg. spelt flour
1 pkg. dry yeast
1/8 Tbsp salt
800 mL warm water.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Combine all ingredients in a mixer, using the dough paddle. When combined, put in a greased loaf pan & bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

A nice addition to this bread is is coating the top of the unbaked loaf with sesame or sunflower seeds - you'll need water to make them stick.

I make what the German's call "Fladen" with this dough. By putting the dough in toaster-sized rounds on a baking sheet & reducing the baking time to about 30 minutes, you can have a freezer-full of whole grain "bottoms" that are defrosted in the toaster & can be topped with butter & jam, cheese & garden tomatoes, or anything else.