Yep. That is MY bread. Made from scratch, full of lovely honey-wheat goodness, and it only cost me about .50 a loaf to make it. My recipe for basic bread makes three loaves at a time, and I normally make it twice, in a row, and end up making 4 loaves of bread, one pan of rolls or a pizza crust, and then one full pan of cinnamon or caramel rolls.
All off the same recipe.
Then there are things like crackers (yes, you can make your own at home for far less than you would spend in the store--), or English Muffins (which our children LOVE with grape jelly smothered all over them, or as a base for a mini-pizza some fall days for lunch). Check back later this week for those recipes as I am making it the "theme" for the week.
Add those basic recipes to the master mixes we have for muffins, cornbread, biscuts, etc, and you will find that pretty soon you can make almost anything.
My bread recipe was passed down from my mom, and I have modified it to make it whole wheat, to use healthy sugars and such. You will find shortening listed as the main fat ingredient, only because I go back and forth between that and coconut oil depending on what I have on hand. It works very well with either one.
Farmer Bread
(oven at 350* will bake WW loaves for 25-30 minutes)
7 cups WW flour (or up to 8 1/2 if you are using a mix between white and wheat)
3 Tbs Yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water
3/4 cup shortening or coconut oil
3/4 cup brown sugar or sucanat
2 eggs, well beaten (This recipe can be made without, just gives a nicer texture)
2 1/2 tsp salt
I add the salt very last because salt inhibits the yeast rise. So it gets added after the rest of the ingredients while the dough is kneading.
- Take warm water and yeast, and proof (let it sit for 5 minutes) in the bowl you are using (I use my KA mixer). Add in the sugar, shortening/oil, eggs, and beat together briefly until well mixed
- Add 6 cups of flour and mix together with wet ingredients. Once that is incorporated, add another cup or so of flour, mix it in, and let it sit for 10 minutes so the flour rests and soaks up all the good stuff in your dough.
- It will be a wet and sticky dough. You can add up to one more cup of flour if you are using yeast, or up to 1 1/2 cups of flour if you are making it with mixed flours or bread flour. It needs to knead for about 10 more minutes. This is where you throw the salt in.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and cover it with a wet cotton towel, and let rise until it is double. This will make a rather large pouf of dough, so be sure to have plenty of space! One time I had crowded it and it poufed right off the counter and onto the floor!
- Once this is done, which takes about an hour, to an hour and a half, I punch the dough down, shape it into a large log, and cut it in three even pieces.
- Shape each piece into a roll of bread dough, tuck the ends under, and then place in a greased bread pan, cover with wet towel again, and set in a warm place to rise until double. I put mine in the oven when it is about 2 " over the top of the pan, and looking nice. It should rise a little further while baking, but not much. I slash the top of my bread, as you can see from the picture above. When I am doing special breads, like cinnamon, or something, then I slash it differently so I know it is not standard bread. I am sure you can come up with your own design as well! :)
- Bake each loaf for 25-30 minutes. If it is WW dough, then it will take around 30 minutes. A regular loaf of bread made with bread flour and WW flour will take a little less time.
Check back on Thursday for our three favorite Cracker recipes that taste just like wheat thins, and gourmet crackers that you can customize to your family's preferences!
Many Blessings to you and yours,
Heather
I am always looking for more tips on bread-making. Mine just never turns out how I want it to. Usually the texture is okay, but it never rises high enough! I love the idea of adding eggs, AND putting the salt in while kneading. I don't have a mixer so I would do this by hand. But I am absolutely going to try this recipe for my next bread-baking!
ReplyDeleteJaimie, for a good rise on your bread, check three things: Your yeast is good, your bread is covered with a wet towel, and you have it in a warm draft-free place. Those are the tips for success. :) Before I got my mixer I made this dough by hand, and it is fun. You may just find the dough is really sticky, so rather than adding more flour than as needed, make it the night before, let it rise in the fridge in a covered bowl, and take out what you need in the morning. It will be less sticky, and the longer it is in the fridge the better the flavor. :) Thanks for stopping by! :)
DeleteDoes WW stand for whole wheat?
ReplyDeleteI am definitely trying this recipe! Thanks for sharing.
Summer
yep--sorry Summer, it does stand for Whole Wheat. :) I grind my own flour, so it comes straight from there right into the bread. Makes for AMAZING bread! :) Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteThis is in the oven as I type and it looks amazing! Even though I've always done all three things you listed above for bread to rise, I've never gotten a WW bread to really rise well. The only substitution I made to the recipe was using veggie oil instead of the shortening (I don't have any coconut oil and don't like the idea of having shortening in the bread). I can't wait until it's out of the oven!!!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what kind of oil you used, Miranda, but most veg oils are the same as shortening. :) Just not solid. :) I am so glad it worked for you---if it looks good then I KNOW you are going to love how it tastes! :) thanks for stopping by!
Delete~Heather
Wanted to give you an update of the bread baking. I ended up cutting the recipe into thirds (since I don't have 3 pans and I'm not the type to run out and just get one, and any other type of loaf has never worked out for me), and it's still rising and baking beautifully! I have definitely found THE bread recipe for our family (after 1 1/2 years of searching for the right one!). Thank you so much for posting your recipe!
DeleteAlso, I was always told that the difference between veggie oil and shortening is the trans fat. Since shortening (I'm thinking Crisco) is a solid, it has partially hydrogenated oils (hence, the trans fat), whereas since veggie oil is a liquid, there's no hydrogenated oils, thus no trans fat. Yes, they do the same job, but are chemically different. :)
Thanks and I am so glad it worked for you! I will check into the shortening/veggie oil thing. :)
DeleteI'm gonna make this today, even though our temps are up to 106 outside! Is there a place to find your baking directions for cinnamon rolls with this dough? YUMMY!
ReplyDeletehere you go Shannon:
Deleteroll out one loaf worth of dough into a rectangle. Make sure it is as thin and even as you can get. In a bowl combine 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup shortening with 1 Tbs molasses, 1 tsp vanilla, and 3 Tbs cinnamon. Add 3/4 cup sugar. Mix until really well blended into a paste. Spread this paste over the rolled out dough to within 1/2" of the edge. Starting with the long side of rectangle nearest you, roll up, when you get to the edge, pinch it together with the roll. I try to stretch out the ends as best I can so that everything is even. Then take thread or dental floss, and mark out 12-14 rolls by pressing into the roll on top. Slip thread under the roll, cross ends over, and then pull. Thread will slice through the bread roll. Do this until all rolls are cut. Place in a greased 9X13 pan, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in fridge overnight. In the morning set on counter for 20m-1 hour to let rise and bake at 350* for 18minutes. If you want to make the huge cinnamon rolls, roll it from the short side of the rectangle, and cut 6-8 rolls. Frosting is just powdered sugar and butter with 1 Tbs of cold water mixed in--drizzle over the rolls when they come out. If you want caramel rolls, omit the cinnamon and use brown sugar in place of white sugar and add 1/4 tsp of almond flavoring. :) There you go! :)
~Heather
You've done it again, Heather. I've had my eye on this recipe for awhile, now, but I've had such bad luck at bread making, I was a little gun-shy. I made this bread today, and it's wonderful! Thank you, thank you!! for this recipe. I made 2 loaves and 1 batch of rolls (frozen dough in the freezer). Even my son the baker said it was good! I made it about 60-40 WW to white bread flour, but it's so tender and light, I think I'll try 100% WW next time.
ReplyDeleteDo you ever use vital wheat gluten in your 100% WW loaves?