Homemade Whole Wheat Bread - Recipe

It has finally cooled off and we have snow on the peaks. We had a big frost this morning. It was beautiful. The sun finally made an appearance after a week of cloudy days. This is a big event for us, since we live off grid and solar is our power source. We had to run the generator to offset our lack of sunshine, so I decided to go ahead and bake bread. The oven uses power to ignite the gas, so it was perfect timing.  

I have been waiting for the cooldown, so I could bake bread without making it uncomfortable in the house. This usually isn't an issue , but this year was the hottest for the longest amount of time we have ever seen. It happened when things should have been cooling off. We had a great Summer with nice rains, but then it got hot and dry. Then the rains just disappeared.  Normally, it would have started cooling down in September. Strange times that we are living in, don't you think?

I bake bread in cast iron loaf pans made by Lodge. They are made in America and they have the highest industry standards. I purchased two of them several years ago when my other bread pans bit the dust. My recipe was making huge beautiful loaves, but the bread slices were too tall for the toaster, so I decided I needed another cast iron bread pan.

When I started looking into purchasing another loaf pan I ran into the "out of stock" problem. That was nearly two years ago. I was finally able to purchase one from Wal-Mart at a reasonable price. It was $19.90 and I got free shipping because I had other things that I needed to order, so I met the free shipping requirements. I think I paid $14.99 for my other two. That's a pretty big price hike. They were about the same price when I started trying to find one. Just another example of inflation. I digress...

Ingredients:

2 C Milk

1/2 C Warm water

2 Eggs

1/3 C Oil (I use peanut oil or vegetable oil)

3 Tsp Yeast

4 Tbs Honey

1 Tbs Salt

6-7 C Whole Wheat Flour

In a large mixing bowl add yeast, honey and warm water. Let sit for 10 minutes.

In a small sauce pan warm milk and add salt. 

Add warmed milk mixture, eggs and oil to the proofed yeast.

Mix

Start adding whole wheat flour one cup at a time while mixing.

Once dough is formed and does not stick mix for 8 minutes adding small amounts of flour if needed. 

Form into ball

Place in oiled bowl and turn until dough is coated in oil.

Cover and let rise one hour in a warm place.

Punch down and knead for 3 minutes.

Form into a ball.

Divide into three equal pieces.

Form into loaves.

Place seam side down in well oiled bread pans. Turn to coat. 

Cover and let rise 45 Minutes.

Preheat oven to 400* for 15 minutes.

Place in preheated oven.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove from pans and cool covered on a wire rack.

Let cool completely before slicing.

Fits perfectly in the toaster...

Enjoy,

Mrs. Smith