I do love some homemade bread, which is cheaper and healthier than the store-bought stuff. And with this recipe, it's easier than traditional knead and rise breads. Win-win!
This recipe makes 2 loaves, depending on the size of your loaf pan. Mine is 9" x 5" and made one large loaf and one small loaf. This recipe comes from the awesome book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
- 1 1/2 Tblsp (or 1 1/2 packets) yeast
- 1 Tblsp + 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- 5 Tblsp oil
- 6 2/3 cup whole wheat flour
- Mix the yeast, salt, honey, oil, milk, and water in a large bowl or food-safe container.
- Mix in the flour until thoroughly incorporated.
- Cover (but not airtight) and let sit in a room temp area of the house for about 3 hours (to rise and flatten).
- At this point, you can either use the dough or refrigerate it for up to a week.
- When baking the loaf, use wet hands to scoop out 1/3 or 1/2 of the dough (about 1 1/2 lbs), in order to keep it from sticking to your hands.
- Shape it into a loaf-ish ball (by tucking the edges to the bottom) and drop it into a greased loaf pan. You'll want it to fill the pan a little more than half full.
- Let the dough rest in a room temperature area of the house for 1 hour and 40 minutes (or 2 hours, if you forget, like I did).
- Lightly dust the top of the loaf with flour, and slash it (1/2" deep, using a serrated blade- this allows the dough to rise as it bakes).
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Put the loaf pan in the center of the oven (middle rack) and bake for 50 minutes.
- Let cool completely before cutting into it.
Want a crispier crust? Put 1 cup of hot water into a broiler pan, and when you put the loaf into the oven, put the water-filled broiler pan on the rack below it. This will steam the loaf as it's baked, and make it crustier.
Labels: baking, bread, DIY, no kneading, recipe, sandwich, wheat
