Bread Experiment

White Wheat Bread/Red Wheat Bread

Perhaps I'm clairvoyant.

Perhaps Its just coincidental.

Perhaps I'm just a wee bit insane.

It seems like lately when I do something, within an day or two I find the rest of the blogging world had the same idea.

A few months ago I was on a quest for the perfect chewy choc chip cookie recipe. I spent all day making cookies and altering recipe for perfection and then taking photo after photo to blog about my findings.

Then to my surprise, as I sat down to blog, I found several people had the same idea that week.

Lately I've been making my own bread, have been documenting the different loaves and outcome so that I can blog about the perfect bread. I get online and suddenly everyone is making their own bread now. Even members of my fam are baking bread.

I HAVE noticed that everyone has been adding wheat gluten, and dough enhancers to their recipes. This is the reason their breads have turned out so fabulous. I HAVE NOT BEEN.

The reason I am making my own bread is because I want to know what goes into my food. I am on a quest for the best recipe with clean and pure ingredients.

One of the best breads I have ever tasted has nothing but wheat, water, honey, yeast, salt.

Here is the recipe I have been experimenting with:

Combine and dissolve:

2T water and 1T yeast

Ad to the dissolved yeast:

1 1/3 c Water or Milk

1/3 c Honey

1t Salt

1/4 c Oil

3 3/4 c Freshly ground wheat

(I have used RED or WHITE- they both are fabulous)

Knead for 10-15 minutes

until the dough comes clean from the bowl.

Rise until double.

Squish and knead the ever-living-love out of the dough.

Squash it like you have never squished anything before!

Press it out and roll it up into a log tighter than a mummy bag.

Make it into a very tight loaf size ball of dough.

Place in a greased pan.

Let rise 'til at least double in size

(Once I let it rise in the fridge and got the best texture EVER!)

And I don't know why!

Bake for 35 minutes at 375 deg.

Remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

Other tips:

I originally tried it without oil and the crumb is very big - oil makes a more even texture with a smaller crumb.

I have tried adding an egg - egg makes the crumb moist but it is still big and crumbly.

I substitute 1/4c of the flour with 1/4 rolled grains or cracked grains - yummy, makes it a bit chewier.

I have added raw sunflower seeds. Yummy.