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One of my culinary resolutions for 2010 was to make all of my bread at home. So far I’ve done great. I haven’t bought a single loaf at the store. However, I ran into the problem that Jon wasn’t eating it. His excuse was that the beautiful artisan bread wasn’t good for sandwiches. I made a couple of white bread loaves for sandwiches, but that didn’t work because we love the Nature’s Pride 12-grain bread, but the few times that I tried making whole-wheat bread it didn’t turn out soft and light, like Jon likes it… until I realized I was doing it all wrong.
I was missing a very important ingredient to make my whole-wheat loaves soft, fluffy and light: gluten. When I read that I could buy gluten separately to make better bread, I literally ran to the store and bought a package of the stuff. Oh my, that’s been one of the best decisions this year so far. Now I can make at home whole-wheat bread just like the one they sell at the store. Jon’s verdict was that “this is good bread [for sandwiches]”.
- •2 cups warm water
- •1 packet of dry active yeast or 2¼ tsp
- •1 TBSP agave syrup or honey
- •6 cups whole-wheat flour
- •2 TBSP olive oil
- •1 tsp salt
- •6-8 tsps gluten
- •2 large eggs
- •1 cup rolled oats
- •1/2 cup ground flexseed
- Mix syrup and warm water together. Add yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- In the meantime mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.
- Add water and mix well until all the ingredients are incorporated.
- Knead for 10 minutes by hand, or 3 minutes at low speed in a mixer and then 5 minutes at medium high speed.
- Transfer dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic and let double in size in a warm place (about 50 minutes)
- Punch the dough in the middle and turn it over a lightly floured surface.
- Divide in 2 and, with a rolling pin, roll each half to form a long rectangle.
- Roll the dough tightly to form the loaves. Tuck the ends under the loaves and place them on rectangular bread pans. Cover with plastic and let them rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.
- Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
- With a sharp knife or razor make a long cut along the top of the loaf. Brush water all over the top with a pastry brush.
- Place a baking pan with about 100 ml of water at the bottom shelf of the oven.
- Place loaves in the top shelf and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. You know the bread is ready when the tops are golden brown and they sound hollow if you tap the loaves.
- Let them cool down on wire racks before enjoying.
This is only the latest recipe I’ve come up with using gluten and whole-wheat bread. I get so excited when I am baking a new bread that Jon and the cats look at me like I’ve finally snapped and gone crazy, but this is how much I’ve been enjoying my bread and my new KitchenAid mixer. It looks like I am going to be able to keep my resolution of not buying bread at the store this year.
Lamb Update: I mentioned on my last post that I am going to create a lamb dish for a dinner on Sunday. A friend and I have been brainstorming ideas and we are leaning towards roasting a leg. The glaze would be tart/sweet/spicy, but that’s still on the works. However, this lamb souvlaki that Peter posted on his blog yesterday looks delicious. I should make a decision by tomorrow, because I need to start shopping soon, before we get another big snow storm…
¡Buen provecho!
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30 comments
It's excellent 🙂
Great job Ben. The bread looks beautiful and I bet it's delicious. I've been making my bread at home too. What a difference it makes. 🙂
Interesting to note that gluten makes all the difference here…Ben, I have to say the bread looks beautiful. I’d love to see more.
I love this resolution! (So much in fact that it is my resolution as well. The book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day has revolutionized my life). Gluten is definitely key! This looks fantastic!
what a gorgeous loaf! When you can make such a beautiful bread, there's really no need to buy it anymore!
Cheers,
Rosa
I can smell that bread through my screen. Mmmmmmm
aha, thats interesting.. my home-made whole wheat bread rarely compares to the store-bought one.. may be I should try the added gluten. Do you find it in regular supermarkets? thanks for sharing.
PJ, like Claire said, larger supermarkets should have wheat gluten by the flours. I didn't find it at the supermarket I usually shop, but the one down the road from it had it.
Beautiful photography as always, Ben! I'm a recent convert to vital wheat gluten in bread baking, too.
PJ, larger supermarkets should have vital wheat gluten in small boxes near the flour. The brand I usually see is Hodgson's Mill.
This looks fantastic ! I'm going to try it, but in my bread maker …
I learned something new today Ben.
What a wonderful bread. I've been trying to improve my "bread-making" skills for a while now 🙂 I have to try to get the gluten. I see why you don't need to buy bread!
Great looking bread Ben! I've got to try that gluten trick soon if I want to make another bread. I am sort of still a homebread baking virgin (that's a weird sentence isn't it??) but while it is unlikely that I will be making all my bread myself I do want to increase it for sure!
I need to eat more whole wheat. Looks wonderful!
If at first you don't succeed try, try, again! This bread looks great!
Your loaf looks lovely – I especially like that you can see the whirl where the dough was rolled to form a loaf. 🙂 I just put a batch of this through the mixer and it's on its first rise in a warm oven as we speak. The dough was a little finicky in the mixer, but I'm hoping that's just the wheat flour and the gluten coming together.
Just a question: your recipe suggests 6-8 tsp gluten, but when/how do we know to use more or less? I've never used gluten in homemade bread before, and the box suggests 4 tsp. Any tips/advice? thanks!
The box suggests 4 tsp per loaf and since this recipe makes 2 loaves I used 8 tsps the first time and 6 the second, there's not a big difference, I guess it's just a matter of guessing, haha.
Your bread look perfect…nice texture…I am sure that taste great as well 😉
Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day has us using gluten as well to get lighter loaves & it really does seem to work
That's perfection there Ben.
Great looking bread, I'm sure it tastes just as good. Lovely.
I have been looking for exactly the same type of sandwich bread — soft, but with the heartiness of 100% whole wheat. I finally made a loaf tonight, but with a few tiny adjustments — I used buttermilk instead of half of the water, canola oil instead of olive oil, and instant yeast instead of regular dry. It came out beautifully and even my boyfriend (who doesn't normally like sandwich bread) thought it was great. Thanks for sharing this recipe — I think I will be using it a lot!
That bread looks perfect, Ben!!!!
I had just baked this! Only after I had kneaded the dough I remember I had forgotten the eggs! I baked them into 1 regular loaf and 2 mini loaves. Even without the eggs, the minis baked well and rose high. But the regular loaf didn't do as well, I think the lack of eggs sabotaged the structure and it didn't rise too well, definitely not anywhere as pretty as yours. I will love to give these another try, now with the eggs of course!
What an eye opener. The picture looks amazing and the loaf so…so…professional! You can go into a bread making business with this one! Thanks for the tip on gluten.
P.S. I think you mentioned in a later post about using this same recipe as pizza base? Does it not rise too much?
Hi Ann,
Yes, I do use the same recipe to make pizza pie but I don't let it rise a second time. I either use it immediately after the first rise or store it in the fridge until I am ready to use it, usually the same day because the cold only slows down the process.
Thanks for the visit and the comment 🙂
hi,
excuse me but what the ground flexseed is ????
thank you and sorry for my ignorance
virginiebalijon@gmail.com
You can read more about them here http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspic…
Cheers!
ok thanks a lot !!
cheers
virginie
This is a great recipe for tasty sandwiches and breakfast toast. Like you, except for the occasional loaf like a nice baguette from a bakery, I quit buying grocery store bread years ago. It started with a bread machine back in 1999, but then I discovered how fun and easy it is to make by hand. I lived in London from 2006-2008 and I found more interesting breads in my grocers. I bought Duchy Organics (one of Prince Charles’ personal businesses) whole meal loaves occasionally and they were good if a bit pricey.
I like experimenting with different flours. I used to buy something called Swiss Health Bread at Agata & Valentina on New York’s upper east side and it was amazing. I’d love to have that recipe. It was a small, heavy and dense loaf and we used to eat an entire loaf in one day.