Whole Wheat Bread...Who Knew?
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 1:46PM
I admit it...I’m a white bread, white rice, and white pasta kinda girl. Whole grain versions no matter how much Omega 3 or fiber haven’t really done it for me in the past. I tried and failed. Once in a while I’d get on a whole grain kick then would look at that whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce on it and miss the color and taste of “proper” white flour pasta. I know full well that brown rice and whole wheat this and that are better for one’s “system” but I still like the plain ole bad boy fiber-less, sugared up carbs.
Which brings me to this part of the story...I’ve been breaking out the bread machine a lot lately. Making lovely loaves of delicious white bread for the weekends when the house is full. It’s dead easy and so much tastier than those loaves packed on the store shelves that have expiration dates a month out (that can’t be good for you, whole wheat, high fiber or not!).
With my magical bread machine (it still amazes me the way it works), all I do is dump the ingredients into the pan. Press a few buttons and presto in 3 hours homemade delicious warm fresh white bread appears and the kitchen smells wonderful...well, that is until someone, in a rush – that would be me, picked up a bag of King Arthur whole wheat flour.
“Whole wheat flour? Really? I can’t believe I did that.” I said to myself at first, and then I looked at the flour, looked at the bread machine (lovingly), and thought...“Hmm, I’ll give it a go.”
So, I found a few recipes for whole wheat bread on the King Arthur website, tweaked a bit from one, added a bit from another and deleted a bit from the last one and came up with the recipe below. I used the same exact scientific process I always do...dump the ingredients into the pan, press a few buttons and presto in 4 hours a homemade healthier delicious warm loaf of fresh whole wheat bread appeared. And then I fell in love with the heartier texture and the sweet nutty flavor – it made scrumptious toast the next morning.
Now I’m not giving up my bad boy fiber-less pasta or white rice and I’m not going to get all healthy on everyone, but I am adding whole wheat bread to my repertoire. Next on my “to do” list is...oatmeal honey bread. I’m on a bread roll!
Ingredients
Makes 1 ½ lb. loaf
1 ½ cups luke warm water
2 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces
2 tablespoons demerara or light brown sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 ½ cups whole wheat flour
½ cup dry milk powder
2 teaspoons instant yeast
Set the bread machine for a 1 ½ lb whole wheat loaf with light crust. Place all the ingredients in the loaf pan in the order above. Make sure the yeast does not come into contact with the liquid. Press start and let the machine do its thing!
Reader Comments (1)
Yet another recipe to bookmark! I'm going to dust off the panasonic breadmaker this weekend!