honey wheat bread

Bread making is the ultimate study break and partner. It requires 10 - 15 minutes of attention every hour and while developing the dough, there's plenty of time to study. My friend Michelle had requested a bread recipe that she could make and I decided today was the day to fulfill her request.

This Honey Wheat Bread is fluffy, sweet and amazing for sandwiches. The whole wheat is nutritious and adds fiber while the honey adds a touch of sweetness and chewiness that just melts in your mouth.

If you're looking to use this in another recipe, I suggest visiting Kevin at Closet Cooking. It's an awesome blog with great recipes. Definitely worth a visit.

Honey Wheat Bread
Originally by Me

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves)
- 4.5 teaspoons yeast OR 2 packages of active dry yeast
- 0.5 cup lukewarm water
- 0.33 cup honey
- 0.25 cup (4tbsp) of butter
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1.75 cups lukewarm water
- 3 cups what flour
- 3 cups AP flour

**Being the good baker I know you are, you may be wondering why AP instead of bread flour? We don't need the extra protein from the bread flour because we're using whole wheat and combining the whole wheat with the AP flour gives rise to a wheat bread without the dense/heaviness.

1) Activate your yeast if using active dry. Combine the yeast and 0.5 cup of warm water with a pinch of sugar. The sugar gives the yeast something to feed on while being activated. I actually had a packet on hand so here's what it'll look like when you combine.


This is what it looks like after 10 minutes. If your yeast didn't rise like this, either a) the water was too hot and you killed the yeast or b) the yeast is too old and can't be used anymore

2) In a mixing bowl, combine the whole wheat flour , AP flour and salt. I recommend using the King Arthur's brand but any will do.

3) To the dry goods, add in the softened butter, honey, remaining warm water and the activated yeast. It should look something like this:

4) Using a wooden spoon, incorporate everything together while rotating the mixing bowl. Think of the spoon as a hook and the rotation of the bowl as a mixer. Of course, if you have a Kitchen-Aid Mixer, it makes this process so much easier. Add more warm water (1 tablespoon at a time) if you feel that the dough is way too dry. Adding water 1 tablespoon at a time will prevent you from ending up with pancake batter (which is extremely difficult to fix).

You'll end up with a rough dough looking like this after a few minutes:

Place the dough onto your counter. If you're using the Kitchen-Aid, you can leave it in there for the kneading process. Actually, you can't take it out and knead by hand. It'll taste better in the end. Trust me.

5) After about 10 - 15 minutes of kneading, you'll end up with an elastic, tacky dough looking like this. If you didn't listen to me and you used the Kitchen-Aid, it should be done in about 8 - 10 minutes.

Lightly grease a container/bowl and spray some oil on top of the dough as well to prevent a hard surface from forming. Cover and let this ferment for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
6) After an hour, the dough should've doubled in size and look like this. Beautiful isn't it? Degas the dough lightly to distribute the gas that's been trapped inside.

7) Now, you can get creative here with the shaping. You can make dinner rolls by forming boules, baguettes by forming bâtard, etc. I decided to experiment and divide mine in half, flatten it and roll it up.

So they looked like this in the end:

8) Lightly grease the loaf pan and the top of the dough as well to prevent a crust from forming. Let it proof for 1 more hour or until doubled in size.

9) After 1 hour, the dough will rise like this. I topped my doughs with oatmeal before letting it proof. You can also dust it whole wheat flour, regular flour, sesame seeds, or whatever you want. Now, depending on how you shaped your bread before proofing, you may need to score the bread at this point. If you have a lamé, by all means use it but a simple serrated knife will do. I didn't have to score mine but if you're making baguettes or a traditional shaped loaf, you'll have to score it about 0.5 inches deep into the dough. Scoring allows the bread to expand in the oven and prevents it from falling on itself.

10) Preheat your oven to 375°F and place your loaves in. The baking times will differ depending on how you shaped it but for loaves. It will take about 40 - 45 minutes. The outside should be a dark brown and when tapped, it should come back with a hollow sound. Obviously, the smaller the dough, the faster it will bake so make sure you watch your dough if you didn't shape it into a loaf. It'll look like this once it's done:

11) Cool AT LEAST 15 minutes before slicing. I know it's tempting but if you try to eat it now, you'll end up burning your mouth and the protein/carbohydrate complex inside the bread needs time to cool down and set into place.