Today I planned to bake a smoked ham in the solar oven and decided a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread would go very, very with the ham. (I use the - All American Sun Oven
) So out came the wheat berries and I had a beautiful container of freshly ground wheat to work with.I can't honestly say how this recipe works with store bought flour or if you were to use white flour instead of fresh ground whole wheat - fresh ground wheat flour is primarily the only flour in our house except at Christmas time when I do 1000+ different cookies and bars for gift-giving. We also don't have regular cows milk in our home so I make it with a mixture of unsweetened almond milk and heavy cream.
This bread is a GREAT TEXTURE. Easy to slice straight, even slices that are great for sandwiches or grilled cheese or even just toast. The cool thing about this bread recipe that it not only makes a great slice, but it almost has a 'toast' flavor to it... even before it's toasted! It's not a sweet bread at all but if you are used to store bought breads, which have a lot of sugar or corn syrup in them, you may want to put a teaspoon or so of sugar in yours if you wish.
Homemade Whole Wheat Bread for Sandwiches
1 1/3 c milk - (1 cup unsweetened almond milk, 1/3 c heavy cream)
1 heaping T instant yeast
1/4 c molasses or honey (3 T molasses with 2 T sugar free honey sweetener)
1 3/4 t sea salt
1 1/2 T canola oil
4 c fresh ground wheat berries (hard white ground on bread setting)
2 heaping T vital wheat gluten
Microwave your milk or mixture of milks for a minute to take the chill off and warm. Put the yeast and milk in the mixing bowl and let set 5 minutes until foamy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix in an electric stand mixer with a bread hook, on low, scraping down the sides if needed. When it comes together, increase speed to high (9 or 10 on a KitchenAid) after a couple minutes, take it out of the bowl, knead it by hand on the counter or on parchment paper for a minute, then return to bowl and continue to beat a couple more minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl, form a ball and place it in a well oiled bowl. Cover lightly with a clean towel, plastic or parchment and let rest until it doubles. Punch down. Roll into a loaf shape and place in an oiled loaf pan. Cover and let rise to double. Bake at 375 approximately 28-30 minutes or at 350 about 35 minutes or until it's dark golden brown and sounds hallow when tapped. Remove from oven, rub butter over the top of the bread. Let cool in pan about 2 or 3 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool.
