Bread Making

In my process to becoming the unexpected hippie I have been trying to make as much food from scratch as possible while working full time. This became necessary when we thought that the possibility of Madelynn having a dairy sensitivity was causing some of her sleep and ear issues. After reading many food labels I realized that the food industry has managed to sneak dairy or a dairy derivative into almost all processed foods. To start my fight against processed foods I began making our bread. I found this recipe online and tried it because it is one of the few bread recipes that does not include milk. This is the original recipe:

Craig's White Bread – Makes 1 Loaf

1 Cup plus 2 tbsp warm water (slightly warm to the touch)
1 tsp Sugar
2 ¼ tsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Warm the bowl of your mixer under hot running water. In a measuring cup combine water, sugar and yeast. Set aside.
Measure the flour and add to bowl with salt. Mix to combine.
Add oil to yeast mixture and pour whole thing into bowl with flour.
Using the dough hook of your mixer, combine on low (2) speed until dough forms a ball. This will take about 5 minutes.
Knead on low (2-3) for 10 minutes adding flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the bottom of the bowl.
Remove dough to an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Knead by hand about 1 minute, form into a loaf and place in oiled bread pan.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until 1 – 1 ½ inches above top of bread pan. No more than 1 hour.
Bake in 375 degree preheated oven for 35 minutes. Bread will sound hollow when done.
Remove from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.
To store wrap completely cooled bread tightly in plastic wrap. Will keep for about 1 week if it lasts that long.

Now this makes a wonderful white bread, but that was not good enough for me so I played around with the recipe, wanting to make it into a whole wheat bread but keeping the general texture. Not as simple as switching to whole wheat flour. Because of the more dense nature of whole wheat flour and less gluten content whole wheat flour does not rise like all purpose flour. There are two options for remedying this. One - used whole wheat bread flour (not available in all stores) or two – add vital wheat gluten to the flour. I went with the second option since vital wheat gluten is available on most baking aisles. After playing with the recipe for several weeks this is what I have found to work.

Whole wheat “white” Bread

1 Cup plus 2 tbsp warm water (slightly warm to the touch)
1 tsp Sugar
2 ¼ tsp yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 cup minus 3 tbsp unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
3 tbsp vital wheat gluten

Warm the bowl of your mixer under hot running water. In a measuring cup combine water, sugar and yeast. Set aside.
Measure the flour and add to bowl with salt and gluten (Add vital wheat gluten to the measuring cup then add unbleached flour to make measurement easier). Mix to combine.
Add oil to yeast mixture and pour whole thing into bowl with flour mixture.
Using the dough hook of your mixer, combine on low (2) speed until dough forms a ball. This will take about 5 minutes.
Knead on low (2-3) for 10 minutes adding flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to the bottom of the bowl. Dough should be slightly tacky when ready.
Remove dough to an oiled bowl, turning to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Knead by hand about 1 minute, form into a loaf and place in oiled bread pan.
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until 1 – 1 ½ inches above top of bread pan. No more than 1 hour. I place the pan on top of the stove to rise while the oven is preheating to ensure the proper rising temperature.
Bake in 375 degree preheated oven for 35 minutes. Bread will sound hollow when done.
Remove from pan and allow to cool on wire rack.
To store wrap completely cooled bread tightly in plastic wrap. Will keep for about 1 week if it lasts that long.