Perfect Whole Wheat Bread

This is the only bread recipe you will ever NEED. Maybe not want, but need. So delicious and simple. Keeps for about a week at room temp too! No eggs or milk needed. No need to add white flour, or deal with a loaf thats heavy and dense.



You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups hot water 110* or just hot faucet water
• 3 tbs honey or more (other sweeteners work)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2-3 tbs course ground flax seed
• 3+ cups hard winter wheat berries (grind yourself in blender, use 3 1/2 cups of resulting flour) You must grind your wheat for this recipe. If you don't the flour needs drastically change depending on the brand/style of wheat flour you use.
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 1-2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp active yeast
• note: you can add other nuts/seeds or spices to change things up. We like to add raw sunflower seeds, millet, or whole flax. Or I add italian seasonings for spaghetti night.

1. In your large bowl (or breadmaker) add hotwater and honey until dissolved.
2. Sprinkle yeast on top of water and let set 10-15min in a warm place until foamy.
3. Stir and add oil and 1/2 cup of flour. Let set another 10min. Keep warm
4. Finally add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. At this point I let the bread maker or mixer with dough hooks do the work. Make sure to set the bread machine on dough only. If you take that route, skip to 7.
5. If you have the time to make it by hand, knead it well and then place in a bowl loosely covered for about an hour in a warm place.
6. Punch down and let rise again for 50min.
7. Pull out the dough and form into a loaf. Drop in a greased loaf pan and let rise for 40-45 min until it doubles in size.
8. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350
9. Bake the risen dough for about 40-45 min until the top browns and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap on the top.
10. Allow to cool 10 min, and remove from pan. Cool on a wire rack as long as you can keep people away from it.
11. Enjoy!