Whole Wheat Bread

I adapted this from a recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Usually, I make one loaf from a single batch, but when I double it, I divide the dough into three and let the loaf I'm baking rise a little longer. It’s great as a base for pizza, too.

Melt

1/4 cup butter over medium heat with

1/2 teaspoon salt and

1/4 cup sugar, but don't let it boil.

When butter is melted, add

1 cup milk

While the butter is melting, put an egg into a bowl of warm water (unless you remembered to bring one to room temperature ahead of time.)

Pour

1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees on a candy thermometer)

into a wide, shallow bowl and sprinkle

1 pkg. traditional yeast over it. Let sit for 3-5 minutes.

Slide the candy thermometer into the butter and milk mixture and pull the pot off the heat when the temperature hits 120-130 degrees. I always let it get too hot and then I have to wait while it cools down again, with the yeast frothing up to the edges of its bowl the whole time. Don't do that.

Meanwhile, measure

1 cup whole wheat flour into the bowl of your mixer, if you have one with a dough hook, or any large bowl if you don't.

Pour the warmed butter and milk mixture into the mixer bowl along with the yeast and the egg, which you've beaten while waiting around. Stir it together and then

Add, mixing as you go,

3 cups all-purpose flour

If you have a mixer with a dough hook you can let it do the dirty work from here on in. Otherwise you're better off digging your hands into the dough than trying to work a spoon through it. When the batter is mixed, dump it out onto a lightly floured board or the counter and knead it just enough to round it out.

If you don't want to do the baking right away, put the dough into a buttered bowl with a buttered sheet of plastic wrap stretched tightly over top and find a place for it to sit in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Or wrap it in buttered plastic wrap and a freezer bag and freeze it for up to 3 months. The bread won't rise quite as high as it will if you bake it right away, but it will still taste amazing.

If you're making bread, form it into a loaf and put it into a buttered loaf pan with a buttered sheet of plastic wrap placed loosely over top: it'll rise in about an hour just sitting on the counter. If you're going for rolls, cut the dough into twelve pieces and put them in a buttered muffin pan with plastic wrap over top. While the dough is rising, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Bake rolls for 10 minutes or until they're light brown, or 25 minutes for a loaf. The top of a loaf can get too dark in 25 minutes though, so slip a piece of aluminum foil over the pan after 10 or 15 minutes if you're making bread.

>  Home