Whole Wheat Bread

By MeanJean

Ingredients

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup coconut oil or butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 2-1/4 cups very warm water (110°F to 120°F)
• 1 cup Spelt Flour or white flour
• 1 cup Oatmeal
• 2 to 2 1/2 cups Bread Flour
• Butter or margarine, melted, if desired

Details

Servings 2
Preparation time 180mins
Cooking time 210mins
Adapted from musingsofahousewife.com

Preparation

Step 1

combine the ingredients:
Start your bread by combining the coconut oil, honey and 4-1/2 cups water in a small saucepan. Heat over the lowest heat just until the oil is melted. You do NOT want this to get too hot or it will kill the yeast. Ideally you want it to be between 110 and 120 degrees. (Sometimes I just heat the coconut oil and add the honey and water separately.)

While that is heating, place the whole wheat flour, yeast and salt in your mixer bowl. With the paddle attachment, mix about 15 seconds on Stir.

Continuing on Stir, add warm water mixture to flour mixture. Mix about a minute.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, and switch to the dough hook. Add the spelt flour and oats, stir on Speed 2.

Then add the bread flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between each addition. Mix about 2 minutes, or until dough starts to clean sides of bowl, adding flour as necessary.

Then knead the dough on Speed 2 for another 2 minutes, continuing to add a couple tablespoons of flour to get it to the right consistency. It should not be sticky so that it sticks to your hands, but you don’t want to get it dry to the point that it’s coming apart.

When it’s ready, it won’t be sticky. It will feel smooth and elastic.
At this point, dump the bread dough out onto a plate and grease the inside of the mixing bowl, all the way to the top.

Return the dough to the bowl, and turn over so that it is buttered on all sides. Then cover it with a clean towel and place it in a warm place to rise. I set set this bowl inside a another bowl filled with hot tap water. Or I heat my cast iron griddle and cover it with a towel. Then set the bowl of dough on the skillet (after turning off the heat to it).

After about an hour, it should be doubled in size.

Dump the risen bread dough out onto a large cloth or rolling mat. Punch it down, and then divide it into two equal sized lumps of dough. Roll each piece out, and then roll up into a loaf and pinch the ends.

Place into two greased bread pans. Cover and set in warm place to rise again. I fill a 13 x 9 cake pan with hot tap water and place the bread pans in that. Cover and rise for approximately 60-90 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25-30 minutes.