Whole Wheat Bread

I have a friend who has the most amazing whole wheat bread recipe. I know it is amazing because I tried her bread last summer when I was visiting her. Mike and I were so amazed that bread could taste that good. Ever since then I have told myself that I was going to start making my own bread. Well, life got in the way and after too many excuses of not having time I finally caved in today with all of my cooking and got out my wheat grinder. This recipe calls for either white whole wheat or a mixture that my friend came up with. This mixture of wheat includes white whole wheat, kamut, and spelt. Mike was able to find the kamut and spelt flour in a health food store in Tacoma. Both Kamut and Spelt can be ordered online but for the sake of trying to make this bread for the first time we decided to buy a smaller quantity. I have a Wondermill grain grinder and I love it. The Wondermill claims to be the world's #1 grain mill. It can grind 9 cups of grains which yields about 12 cups of flour at one time. It was fast and I didn't notice a lot of flour dust everywhere which was nice. Everything was super easy to clean. My friend has a Nutrimill and she loves hers as well. These are the two best wheat grinders on the market right now. Check this out for a comparison of the two grinders.

I don't have a Bosch Mixer...YET...so I halved her recipe to come up with something I could mix in my Kitchen Aid mixer. It was relatively easy to make. The bread turned out so yummy, however, it was a little too dense for my liking. I'm sure I didn't let it rise long enough. I will have to play with the amount of flour I put in and how long I let it rise to get the perfect consistancy and size in each loaf. The taste was amazing though. My kids have been eating it non-stop. YEAH...SUCCESS!! Eventually we will only eat this bread for our sandwiches and toast. I have one more wheat bread recipe I am going to try. It has a mixture of whole wheat and white wheat. I will post that one when I make it. For now here is the halved version:

7-9 c whole grain flour mixture (white wheat, spelt, kamut)
1 ½ tbl yeast
3 c warm water (almost hot to the touch)
1/2 c raw honey
1 tbl sea salt
1/3 c olive oil
3/4 c potato flakes
1 ½ tbl vital wheat gluten
2 ½ - 3 tbl apple cider vinegar (can substitute lemon juice)
butter for greasing

Grind your grains. Keep any leftover flour in your freezer. Add 4 ½ c of flour and yeast into your mixer. Mix until combined. Add water. Mix until smooth.

Cover and let sit and sponge for 15 minutes. Grease your pans.

Turn mixer on low and add remaining ingredients. Add the flour last 1 c at a time. Add only until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Mix on medium speed for 5 minutes.

Grease your hands and divide dough into 3 equal parts. Knead several times with your hands on a clean greased surface. Put loaves in bread pans.
Cover and let rise until double in size. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Put pans in a cold oven. Be careful not to let the pans touch. Turn oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Begin checking at 30 minutes. They should be golden brown and sound hollow when you tap on them. Brush the tops of loaves with butter.

Let loaves cool on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Shake loaves loose and finish cooling out of pan on rack. Store in bread bags in the freezer. The bread will stay fresh in the freezer for weeks. Once your bread is at room temperature it is best if eaten within 3 days. Do not store in the fridge.