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I have been making bread, almost every week, for about 2 months now and a few things are starting to make sense.  I have not been brave enough to attempt artisan bread yet, but hope to soon.  I have written about many of our experiments including whole wheat bread, potato bread (still my favorite), cornmeal bread, oatmeal bread, whole wheat Irish soda bread, and now honey wheat bread.  Before talking about the recipe, I’d like to pass on a few things I’ve learned in case you are also a novice breadbaker.

I am happy to report that the slow rise problem has been solved.  We keep our house at about 60-62F, which is much colder than the ideal temperature (75F-85F) for dough to rise.  Reader and local cookbook author, Elin England, gave me a tip to put the dough in the oven with a pan of hot water.  Brilliant! Her solution worked perfectly.

Being a cook (not necessarily a baker), I was rather careless with the temperature of the water used to proof the yeast a couple of times.  Through a couple of failed attempts at bread, I learned that water that is too hot will inactivate the yeast and prevent the dough from rising properly (or at all).  Most recipes call for a range of 100F-115F for the water.  In my limited experiments, I have found that temperatures closer to 100F (like around 105F) work best.  I now use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water before adding it to the yeast.

Lastly, I have discovered that my KitchenAid mixer with dough hook attachment is much better at kneading bread than me.  I used this method for kneading the last couple of bread attempts and found a noticeable different in the texture of the dough.  It felt almost like velvet and was more uniform.

Enough of the bread lessons for today - although I am hoping you experienced bread bakers will leave me more tips in comments.  I am still trying to figure out how to divide the dough to end up with loaves of the same size.  Inevitably, one loaf is noticeably larger than the other.

After reading about Stone-Buhr’s “Find the Farmer” website in just about every newspaper the last week, I mosied to their website and found a link to recipes and decided to give one a try.  I used our hand-milled, local whole wheat flour hand carried from North Dakota.  (How’s that for a description of flour?)

The one difference in this recipe versus other bread recipes I have used is that it doesn’t use any sugar or honey to proof the yeast.  Instead, it calls for proofing the yeast with just the warm water and then add it to a honey/butter/lemon zest mixture and two thirds of the flour.  I will probably add a little sugar or honey to proof the yeast next time, just to make sure I am working with good yeast.

Honey whole wheat bread, from Stone-Buhr

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

1 package active dry yeast (2-1/4 tsp yeast)

1/2 cup warm water (100F-115F)

1/4 cup honey

2 Tbsp butter, softened

1 Tbsp lemon zest

2 cups milk, scalded and cooled

3 cups unbleached white bread flour

3 cups whole wheat flour

2-1/2 tsp salt

First, scald the milk.  Don’t worry, I didn’t know what scalding meant either.  To scald milk, heat it over medium heat, stirring almost constantly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom or create a film on the top.  Heat until it reaches 185F, which is just below its boiling point.  Remove it from the heat and stir it every minute or so to prevent a film from setting.  Set the milk aside to cool.

While you are scalding the milk, heat the water for proofing the yeast.  I typically put the tea kettle on and let it heat up for a few minutes.  Pour 1/2 cup of heated water into your liquid measuring cup and test the temperature.  If its too hot (hotter than 115F), let it sit until it cools down to below 115F and preferably to about 105F.  Meanwhile, empty yeast into a small bowl.  When water reaches the target temperature range, add water to yeast and mix with a small whisk. Allow to proof for 5-10 minutes, while the milk is cooling.  Meanwhile mix 2 cups bread flour with salt.

In a large bowl, combine softened butter, lemon zest, and honey.  Add the yeast mixture and milk to the large bowl with butter/honey/lemon zest after yeast has proofed.  Then add the bread flour/salt mixture and stir until combined.  Next add 2 cups of whole wheat flour, stirring until combined.  Last, add remaining flour incrementally until dough is soft and thick and doesn’t stick to the bowl.  This one is kind of tricky and just requires a little experience.  I didn’t use all of the remaining flour because the dough seemed right without the last 2/3 cup.  If you add too much flour, it can feel kind of tough and leathery, instead of soft and pliable.

Once the dough has been combined, knead it.  As mentioned above,  I have done hand kneading the KitchenAid kneading and prefer the results of the KitchenAid.  I simply put the dough in the work bowl, attach the dough hook and let it work.  This dough should be kneaded 5-10 minutes according to the recipe.  I let the KitchenAid knead it for about 7 minutes and then hand kneaded for about 2 minutes.

Place the dough in a large buttered bowl and turn it over so the dough gets coated with butter on all sides.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size.  As mentioned above, I put the bowl in the oven with a pan of hot water and shut the oven door.  If you decide to let dough rise this way, you will need to experiment a little.  I found that closing the oven door right away worked well, but Elin suggests letting it sit ajar for the first few minutes and then shutting it.

Once doubled in size, punch it down and separate into two loaves.  Place loaves in buttered bread pans.  Cover again, and let rise until doubled in size.  I put the covered dough back in the oven with a fresh pan of hot water.

After doubled in size, remove from the oven and preheat the oven to 400F.  Remove the plastic and place bread on the same rack in the middle of the oven.  Again, this will take some experimenting with your oven.  Some recipes call for putting the bread in the upper third of the oven, which caused my bread to brown on top too quickly.  I found that the middle browns and bakes the bread evenly.  Bake for 30-40 minutes.  For me is was just over 30 minutes.  Check for doneness by knocking on the bottom of the loaf.  If it sounds hollow, then it is done.  Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. This bread is great for toast or sandwiches.

Tags: Bread, Weekly bread