One of my own personal Holy Grails... the elusive homemade wheat bread. One that isn't heavy, condensed, rock hard, flat, underdone in the center or any other undesirable finished product.
It only took me, oh... about 15 years!
Apparently all I really needed to do was grind my own wheat berries. Bingo. I did it. I got a homemade wheat bread with no chemicals or preservatives of store bought bread.
NOTE: I grind my own wheat now using organically grown, heirloom non-genetically modified wheatberries. I have soft white, hard white and hard red berries on hand; I use hard white for this one or 3/4 hard white with 1/4 soft or red mixed in.
Wheat Bread
double loaf
3 c warm water
1 T instant/quick yeast
1/3 c oil
1/3 c honey or sweetener
1 T salt
6 c hard white whole wheat flour mixed with;
1/2 c rolled oats or quick oats
1/4 c vital wheat gluten with vitamin C
Combine water, yeast, oil, honey and salt. Add about 5 cups of the flour and star to mix slow in a heavy duty mixer with a bread hook. Add 1-2 cups more flour as needed so it forms a nice ball of dough. Let it knead about 8 minutes. Coat your hands with a bit of oil and turn dough out onto an oiled or parchment lined surface. Divide and form 2 loaves. Place in greased bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and let raise in a warm area for about 45 minutes until doubled in size. Bake breads at 350 for 25-30 minutes in a regular open bread loaf pan or about 45 minutes for a heavy duty, restaurant style pan with lid. Remove and cool. You can rub butter on the top surface of the bread in the 'open' traditional style baking pans for a softer crust with a nice flavor.
