My husband loves to eat homemade bread. He can eat an unbelievable amount of toast for breakfast and his favorite is homemade. I make bread for him because I love him. I can't say it's always been great bread but over the years I've finally found a fairly fool-proof recipe that my family really enjoys. I got it from the local Bosch store. Needless to say, I also use a Bosch mixer to make our bread.
I used to have an old Kitchen Aid that I inherited from my grandma. Kitchen Aids are a good all-around mixer and is probably fine for a small bread recipe that makes one or two loaves (it's been so long that I can't remember how it worked out). But if you want to make more at one time, then you really need a Bosch. Of course, people have been making bread for thousands of years without a Bosch. Mixing and kneading by hand is very doable and I have done it myself. Just be aware that it's easy to add too much flour when you knead by hand so you'll want to use some oil to keep it from sticking to the counter after you get the right amount of flour in.
A few people have asked me to show them how to make bread and I'm always happy to share. Here's my recipe:
Take 8 cups of whole wheat flour (hard white wheat makes a lighter bread and I really prefer it--sadly I have a bunch of hard red wheat I still need to use up) and put it into a Bosch mixer with the dough hook attachment. I grind my wheat with a Nutrimill grinder and I'm pretty happy with it, although I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so loud. But it's a big improvement over the wheat grinder we used to have.
I add 6 cups of warm water (not too hot that it kills the yeast, but not too cold that the yeast won't grow) and 2 1/2 Tbsp. yeast. (I buy yeast in large packages and store it in a jar in the fridge.) I mix for about a minute.
Next, add 2/3 cup honey, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp salt and 2 Tbsp wheat gluten. The gluten makes the bread less crumbly and helps it hold together a lot better. With all the bad press that sweeteners are getting lately I'm thinking about decreasing the amount of honey I use to see how that affects the bread.
Start mixing, then gradually add about 6-7 cups more flour as the dough hook kneads the dough. If I am using flour from hard red wheat, then I will use 1-3 cups of white flour to lighten up the dough a little. The critical part is not to add too much flour. The amount of flour is quite variable because it totally depends on how dry your climate is and how dry the flour is. In our Utah climate, we definitely use less flour than you would elsewhere because the flour is so dry that it absorbs the liquid more quickly. You want the dough to still be a tiny bit sticky but not so sticky that you can't work with it. The dough should pull away from the sides. Then you (or the Bosch) knead it for 6 minutes.
You can see from the picture below that when I touch the dough just a tiny bit sticks to my hand. I call it the Goldilocks texture: not too sticky, not too dry, but just right.
After you knead it, you put a tablespoon or so of oil on the counter and your hands and you take the dough out of the bowl and place it on the oil. Using a little oil on your hands helps the dough not stick to your hands and means you don't have to use too much flour. Too much flour dries out the bread.
Next, you pat down the dough and then divide it with a knife into 5 equal parts. The parts aren't usually exactly equal--if you want more exactness you could use a kitchen scale, but to me, it's not worth the extra step to do that.
The next step is to roll out each individual piece. You don't have to use a rolling pin; I have done it both ways without the same results. It should be rolled into a rectangle. Then you start rolling it up.
I pinch all the ends and sides together and then place it pinched sides down into a greased loaf pan. I have a couple of different loaf pans. My favorite is the Kaiser brand that is about 9"x3". I got it from the Bosch store (you won't find it in a store like Target) and I wish all my pans were like these ones (do I sound like an advertisement for the Bosch store?). You can see it in the picture below.
It's finally time to bake the bread. The oven is preheated to 375 degrees and I bake it for 25-30 minutes. This bread might have been baked a shade too long but I really dislike bread that is not completely baked so I frequently overbake. Remove it from the loaf pans and cool on a cooling rack. I like to spray each loaf with a tiny bit of cooking spray to give it a nice shine. My kids love to eat this as a snack when it's hot. Fresh bread is definitely delicious. And when you make it yourself, you know exactly what the ingredients are.
I used to have an old Kitchen Aid that I inherited from my grandma. Kitchen Aids are a good all-around mixer and is probably fine for a small bread recipe that makes one or two loaves (it's been so long that I can't remember how it worked out). But if you want to make more at one time, then you really need a Bosch. Of course, people have been making bread for thousands of years without a Bosch. Mixing and kneading by hand is very doable and I have done it myself. Just be aware that it's easy to add too much flour when you knead by hand so you'll want to use some oil to keep it from sticking to the counter after you get the right amount of flour in.
A few people have asked me to show them how to make bread and I'm always happy to share. Here's my recipe:
Take 8 cups of whole wheat flour (hard white wheat makes a lighter bread and I really prefer it--sadly I have a bunch of hard red wheat I still need to use up) and put it into a Bosch mixer with the dough hook attachment. I grind my wheat with a Nutrimill grinder and I'm pretty happy with it, although I wouldn't mind if it wasn't so loud. But it's a big improvement over the wheat grinder we used to have.
I add 6 cups of warm water (not too hot that it kills the yeast, but not too cold that the yeast won't grow) and 2 1/2 Tbsp. yeast. (I buy yeast in large packages and store it in a jar in the fridge.) I mix for about a minute.
Next, add 2/3 cup honey, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp salt and 2 Tbsp wheat gluten. The gluten makes the bread less crumbly and helps it hold together a lot better. With all the bad press that sweeteners are getting lately I'm thinking about decreasing the amount of honey I use to see how that affects the bread.
Start mixing, then gradually add about 6-7 cups more flour as the dough hook kneads the dough. If I am using flour from hard red wheat, then I will use 1-3 cups of white flour to lighten up the dough a little. The critical part is not to add too much flour. The amount of flour is quite variable because it totally depends on how dry your climate is and how dry the flour is. In our Utah climate, we definitely use less flour than you would elsewhere because the flour is so dry that it absorbs the liquid more quickly. You want the dough to still be a tiny bit sticky but not so sticky that you can't work with it. The dough should pull away from the sides. Then you (or the Bosch) knead it for 6 minutes.
You can see from the picture below that when I touch the dough just a tiny bit sticks to my hand. I call it the Goldilocks texture: not too sticky, not too dry, but just right.
After you knead it, you put a tablespoon or so of oil on the counter and your hands and you take the dough out of the bowl and place it on the oil. Using a little oil on your hands helps the dough not stick to your hands and means you don't have to use too much flour. Too much flour dries out the bread.
 |
| Sorry, the oil is pretty hard to see in this picture but it really is there! |
Next, you pat down the dough and then divide it with a knife into 5 equal parts. The parts aren't usually exactly equal--if you want more exactness you could use a kitchen scale, but to me, it's not worth the extra step to do that.
The next step is to roll out each individual piece. You don't have to use a rolling pin; I have done it both ways without the same results. It should be rolled into a rectangle. Then you start rolling it up.
I pinch all the ends and sides together and then place it pinched sides down into a greased loaf pan. I have a couple of different loaf pans. My favorite is the Kaiser brand that is about 9"x3". I got it from the Bosch store (you won't find it in a store like Target) and I wish all my pans were like these ones (do I sound like an advertisement for the Bosch store?). You can see it in the picture below.
 |
| You can see that the loaf doesn't look completely smooth but after it rises and bakes, it will look better. |
After I get all the loaves made, I cover my little babies with a couple of dishtowels and let them rise for an hour, depending on the weather. If it's extra cold, then they might need longer. On warmer days, they might not need that long. The recipes frequently say "double in size" and that might be a good approximation. You don't want it to rise too much though because then they can collapse before you get them baked and that's always depressing. If that happens, you will want to put the dough on the counter, punch it down, roll it out and let it rise again, although it will be quicker the second time around. I have also just baked the collapsed loaf and it's still pretty edible although definitely not beautiful.
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| This is the dough after it has risen. |
It's finally time to bake the bread. The oven is preheated to 375 degrees and I bake it for 25-30 minutes. This bread might have been baked a shade too long but I really dislike bread that is not completely baked so I frequently overbake. Remove it from the loaf pans and cool on a cooling rack. I like to spray each loaf with a tiny bit of cooking spray to give it a nice shine. My kids love to eat this as a snack when it's hot. Fresh bread is definitely delicious. And when you make it yourself, you know exactly what the ingredients are.
The whole process takes about 2 hours from start to finish, but you don't have be actively doing anything for more than 20-25 minutes. Keep extra loaves in the freezer and when they're defrosted, they're almost as good as fresh.
Recipe:
Whole Wheat Bread
8 cups whole wheat flour
2 1/2 Tbsp. yeast
6 cups warm water
Combine in a Bosch mixer.
Then add ½ cup oil, 2/3 cup honey, 2 Tbsp. wheat gluten, and 1 Tbsp.
salt to the mixture and mix well.
Continue to mix (knead) while adding in additional cups of whole wheat
flour slowly. When the dough is pulling
away from the side and is just a little sticky, it is ready to be formed into
loaves. It should be kneaded about 6-7
minutes. Divide the dough into 5 parts
and form loaves, bringing the seams to the bottom. Let rise in greased loaf pans for one hour
and bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.
Spray with a little Pam for a nice finish.
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