Thursday, January 19, 2012

Oven Baked Bread

Brad and I have been baking our own bread for quite some time now.  This is our go-to recipe that we make pretty well week after week.  The recipe has been slightly altered from this one on Summer Harms' blog.  It's so delicious!  We love it.  Especially all the seed-y, grain-y goodness.  It's perfect for sandwiches and stays fresh for so long.  Plus, nothing beats the smell of bread baking in the oven.

 Multigrain Bread

1 1/2 c warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 c honey
2 1/4 c multigrain bread flour
2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c ground oats
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter, very soft

Mix water, yeast, and honey in a large bowl and let sit for 20 minutes.
Combine flours, oats, salt in a med bowl.
Add dry ingredients and melted butter to the large bowl in one or two dumps and use dough hooks on handmixer to mix.
After a few minutes, dough should have pulled away from the sides of the bowl and come together in a large ball around the hook.
Pull dough off, dough should be easy to handle. Slightly sticky is fine.
Put dough in a large oiled bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for 1 hour.
After first rise, punch down, form into a loaf and place in a greased loaf pan.
Cover and let rise 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

I'd like to play around with the flour mixture a little more.  I was only just told that bread flour is a mixture of white and whole wheat (I had assumed it was all whole white since we bought the multigrain variety).  This recipe uses that plus the additional all purpose flour that is white, which is too much white in my opinion.  I am always worried to use too much whole wheat flour and have it not turn out though.  Any suggestions?

Do you have a bread recipe to share?

2 comments:

  1. I have been making our bread for over 2 years now and here is my go to recipe. Warning it makes 6 loaves! Good for a family like mine. I am sure it can be halved or quartered though.
    Mix together:
    1 1/2 cups ground flax seed
    2 cups wheat bran
    2 cups ww flour
    4 Tbs instant yeast
    2 Tbs salt
    2 Tbs molasses
    1/2 cup oil

    After this is mixed, add 7-8 cups water. I usually do 8 cups. Mix well

    Mix in ww flour to make dough, it should not be sticky, but not too stiff. I have never measured this but I'm guessing about 8-10 cups. Occasionally I make 1-2 of the cups white unbleached flour. Usually the last 1-2 cups as it blends in easier than ww flour.

    Knead dough for 10 minutes. I do this with white flour for the same reason as above.

    Let rise in warm place, covered by a cloth about 45 minutes to an hour (until doubled). I put it back in the bowl I mixed it in.

    I dump it out on the counter, divide into loaves and put in greased loaf pans. Cover and let rise again about 45 min- 1 hour. Then Bake at 375 for 30-45 minutes.

    So yummy! You can also add seeds to this recipe. I enjoy them, my children not so much!

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  2. i just use less flour when i'm using whole wheat. i'd keep using the multi-grain flour even if it includes white, and then replace the all purpose flour with ww. start with one cup and keep adding a bit more until the texture is right. i'm guessing it will take 1.3-1.5 cups of ww. ww is quite dense so using less keeps it a little lighter.

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