Homemade honey wheat bread …. with a little help from my friend

Day five of being snowed in called for something fun to keep myself from going crazy. We had some insane blizzard like conditions outside. Visibility was nil, and it was so windy that I feared we’d lose power.

 

So when my neighbor Sue mentioned she wanted to make homemade bread, I was all over it.

I’ve tried making bread before and I’ve never been 100% satisfied with the way it’s turned out. That is, until today. This bread was so freaking good, I can’t believe I didn’t buy it at a fancy bakery. Really. It’s that good. And what I like about it most is that it’s sweetened naturally.

We took the recipe from www.bigoven.com. It took us about 3 hours from start to finish to make it but it was SO worth it.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour divided
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon salt

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, combine 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour and yeast. In a saucepan, heat milk, water, honey, butter and salt to 120 degrees F-130 degrees F.

Add to flour mixture.

Blend on low speed until moistened; beat on medium for 3 minutes. Gradually stir in remaining whole wheat flour and enough of the remaining all-purpose flour to form a soft dough.  (We actually used a wooden spoon and our hands for this)

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.

 

Almost….

Done!

Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Shape into two loaves; place in a greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. (We placed them on my baking stone which I somehow forgot to photograph)

Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. We added some slits to the dough to make it look authentic..or something like that. Bake at 375 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

I don’t care who you are. You will LOVE this bread. I tried a piece with some butter, and a small sliver with some PB, and both were fabulous.  This would be good as a sandwich bread, eaten with eggs…you name it. And it has a slightly sweet taste from the honey, but not overbearing in any way. It’s a wheat bread but it’s not overpowering, so if you’re not a fan of wheat, you’ll still love it. Promise.