Thursday, January 29, 2009

Whole Wheat Bread Recipe!


Here is my bread recipe that some of you asked for it. It is Marilyn Moll's Famous recipe. I have been making this exact recipe for about eight years. It is our standard every day bread. I do make many variations of this recipe, seven-grain, cinnamon swirl, cinnamon raisin, rye-whole wheat, millet ect. I have tried many, many different recipes over the years and this is by far the softest, fluffiest and prettiest! My family assures me that looks don't matter (when a batch flops a little), I assure them that it does!


I do grind my own wheat with the Whisper Mill, and the Bosch Universal does all the work for me!

I also have been playing with adapting it to a 'soaked' bread recipe. I have not had great success, YET! Here is Marilyn's "soaked" two-stage recipe that has been adapted to more fit the Nourishing Traditions guidelines.


Marilyn's Famous Whole Wheat Bread


2/3 C honey

2/3 C oil

6 C warm water

3 TB Saf Instant Yeast

1 1/2 - 2 TB Real Salt

16-20 C fresh whole wheat flour

3 TB Dough Enhancer
3 TB Gluten Flour

Combine the warm water, yeast, and 2 Cups of fresh whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl. Allow to sponge for 15 minutes. Add the honey, oil, dough enhancer, salt and 12-16 C additional flour until the dough begins to clean the sides of the mixing bowl. Do not allow the dough to get too stiff (too dry). Dough should be smooth and elastic. It is a common mistake for the beginning bakers to add too much flour.


I hope to post our yummy 'light and fluffy' whole wheat hamburg buns.

6 comments:

Homemaker Ang said...

HEY GIRL! I use the first recipe of Marilyns as well and it has never done me wrong! I just found out I can buy my wheat right up the street at the amish mill, grown less than a mile from here and they will grind it for me :) I am geeked!

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Oh! This bread looks so good!

cooperkelly4 said...

I saw how you usually soak your grains. I also saw Marilyn's post about 2 part soaking for yeast breads. I would really like to try this recipe. My kids have been gluten free for 1 year and I have considered adding gluten back in (but in a healthy whole grain way. I know this is the Lord's prompting me) I am concerned about all of the whole grain not being soaked. Help, any suggestions?!

Michelle (She Looketh Well) said...

CooperKelly,

I know what you mean. I do not want to be eating whole grains not soaked. I still have not been as successful as I want with soaked bread. Of course, we haven't had any bread in a long time, though just recently we are adding it back in. I am dabbling with sourdough, have a ton on my counter right now. I did bake three perfectly brick like loaves last nigh! LOL Should be good for toast, or a doorstop ;-)

I would encourage you to not cave in and serve non-soaked bread, like I have lately. I know it can be done, just stick to your guns!

cooperkelly4 said...

Hi Michelle, Thanks for your quick response! I am making a smaller version of the recipe (call for 6-7 cups whole grains) and I researched a little bit and after grinding my grains, I decided to soak 6 cups and go from there. I am soaking it with the water/oil/honey and adding the tablespoon per cup of kefir. Thanks for your encouragement. =0) I have also been looking into sourdough bread...I must admit it is the starter is a little daunting. I got Nourishing Traditions from our library and am slowly (but steadily) changing how we eat. Oh I am stickin' to my guns for sure.
ps feel free to call me Kelly. =0) I'll let ya know how it turns out.

KarenL said...

I'm always on the hunt for 'better' bread (soaked flour) and ran across your blog.

Marilyn's recipe is the one I started with perhaps two years ago and have had success with it.

I grind my own grain (white or red hard wheat). I warm 2 cups filtered water and add 2 T apple cider vinegar.

In my mixer, I start with 5 cups of freshly ground flour then add in the warmed water/ACV. I then add enough flour to make a thick dough (I start it out in the Kitchen Aid but have to switch to hand). Then I cover it with plastic wrap and leave it for 24 hrs.

The next day, I heat up (to "warm") 1/3 c unsalted butter, 1/3 c honey, ~2 tsp sea salt. In a little heat-proof cup, I warm up 2 T water then add 2 tsp SAF yeast, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp honey and let sit for 5 minutes till its foamy.

I add both of those to the dough and mix it thoroughly by hand. I have extra flour at hand and sprinkle some on the counter once the majority of the liquid is incorporated in to the dough. Then I knead it (on the counter) for 8-10 minutes, adding more flour as needed.

I smear butter all around the kneaded dough and plop it back in to the bowl and recover with the plastic wrap and let rise, in a cool place, till double.

Punch down and knead for a minute or so to get all the air bubbles out. Shape in to two loaves and place in two well-buttered 8x4 pans.

I place these directly in the refrigerator until the next morning. In the morning, pull them out (I like to place them on a cooling rack so the room temperature has contact with the whole pan) and let rise till double in a cool location. (We've learned that letting dough rise slowly gives better flavor plus I like how long it all has to 'soak'.)

Place a shallow pan in the bottom of your oven and add about an inch of water. Pre-heat oven to 350*F.

Put loaves in oven, set timer for 3 minutes then open oven door to let some heat escape. Do this a couple of times during the first 10 minutes of baking. What this does it keep the top crust soft(er) which allows the bread to continue to rise before that top crust thickens and hardens.

Then finish baking (~28-30 minutes) till the internal temp reaches 180-190*F. Turn out on to cooling rack.

...Now...this worked fine when I was using virtually all hard red wheat; I finally got white wheat and I have not had much success with this recipe/method since using the hard white wheat! It just won't rise much in the loaf pans. I've got pics of it being gorgeous bread when I used hard red (which I'm now out of and can't afford to replace at the moment!).

so...there ya go. :-)

Karen