Recipe: Tony’s Mostly Whole Grain Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached white flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup bran (oat or wheat)
2 packages quick rise yeast
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups combination water/milk
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup margarine or butter, cut in pieces
1 egg
1 Tablespoon vital wheat gluten

Instructions: In a mixing bowl, stir together 1 cup white flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup rolled oats, 2 packages quick rise yeast, and 2 teaspoons salt.  Set aside.  To a sauce pan add the 2 cups of liquid (note: I use mostly milk), the honey and the margarine. Using a cooking thermometer, heat the liquid mixture until it is 125 degrees F, stirring constantly (the margarine doesn’t have to melt, but it usually does). Add the warm mixture to the mixing bowl, and use a dough hook to mix the dough together. Add the bran, the egg, and the vital wheat gluten and continue beating. Add the second cup of wheat flour and the second cup of white flour and continue beating. You’ve now added 6 cups of grains. Add the extra 1/2 cup wheat flour. If dough is still sticky, add the 1/2 cup of oats. If your dough is typical of mine, it’s now close to being ready, but not quite. Add 1/4 cup white flour and continue beating. If the dough is no longer sticky and is completely wrapped around the dough hook, it’s ready. If not, add another 1/4 cup white flour and beat once more. Now pull all the dough out of the bowl and off the dough hook, and set on a floured surface. Knead by hand until you have a smooth dough. It should look like what you see below. Then cover it with a towel and let it rest (and raise) for 20 minutes.   During the break, grease two 8 1/2 x 4 inch loaf pans.

 (bread dough unraised)   (bread dough raised)

 (bread dough rolled out)   (unraised loaves)

 

 (raised loaves)   (finished bread)