Wheat Nut Bread with photos

I like trying a new recipe for bread.  

This one is wonderful and I'd only make one change. 

Be careful with how much flour you use.  The dough can get much too dry, so add your flour slowly and 

I'll explain as we go.

Wheat Nut bread

From The Complete Book Of BREADS
By Bernard Clayton, Jr.

2 (8.5 X4.5" pans)

Ingredients: 3 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups warm water (105-115 degrees F)

2 tablespoons or 2 packages of dry yeast

1 pinch of sugar

1/4 cup honey ( I used Agave syrup)

1 tablespoon salt

2.5 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup non-fat dry milk 

3 tablespoons of oil

1/2 cup walnuts broken

1/2 cup seedless raisins

Lightly grease your bread pans. 

In a large bowl

(I'm going to do the kneading in my mixer so I'll do all this pre-knead work

in my mixer bowl.)

Measure the whole wheat flour and make a well in the center.  Pour warm water in the well and sprinkle the yeast on top.  Stir yeast into the water with a metal whisk or fork to quicken the action.  Add the pinch of sugar and let stand for 3 minutes. 

You have not stirred in the flour you are working on top of the flour. 

with a large wooden spoon pull the flour into the yeast mixture-stir

until all of the flour is wet.

I let my kitchen aid mix this part up

Add the honey, salt and 1 cup of white all purpose flour and dry milk.

Stir in veggie oil, nuts and raisins.

  Beat until blended and smooth-about 100 strokes 

Add all-purpose flour a little at a time until the dough is 

stiff and cleans the side of the bowl.

Now is it ready for kneading.

This is where you have to be careful. 

Wheat flour can just gobble up moisture 

if you add too much flour the dough is much too dry.

I was very close to too dry on my batch

but I try to follow a recipe as is the first time

I only added 1 1/2 cups of the all purpose flour.  

I think I would have rather

cut the whole wheat flour by 1/2 cup 

and added a bit more white flour. 

Still the bread is wonderful and I think my changes

can only add to a great loaf!

Kneading:

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured board or counter top

and knead about 75 push-turn-fold-stokes. 

The dough will be stiff, bouncy but not as elastic as white dough. 

It may be slightly tacky but not sticky.  Keep flour on your fingers.

This is the beautiful kneading job the mixer did! 

Place the ball of dough in a large bowl which has been

greased with a little oil.  roll the ball around to coat it in oil 

wheat dough dries out very fast so make sure you oil it. 

Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm place 

until double in bulk. 

You can test if it has risen by poking a finger in it,

the dent will remain if risen.

Punch down the dough and knead for 30 seconds to press out the air bubbles.
  With a sharp knife divide the dough in two balls.  

Form each into a ball and let rest under a towel for 4 minutes.  

Shaping

Press ball of dough into a flat oval, roughly the length of the baking pan

Roll the oval up pinching the seam tightly as you go.
Tuck the ends under and place in the pan, seam down.
Repeat with other loaf. 

 This is where I can really see the dough is too dry to connect to it's self. 

Place the pans in a warm place, cover with wax paper and leave until 

the center of the dough has risen 1/2 inch above the level of the edge of the pan.  

This is about 45 minutes in a warm house. 

 

I always raise whole wheat bread nice and high!

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Bake loaves in a fully heated oven.  

When the loaves are dark brown and 

tapping the bottom of the crust yields

a hard and hollow sound they are done. 

This is about 40 minutes.  

Shift the pans twice during the baking period, starting at half the baking time)
so they can be exposed to the variations in the oven equally. 

Remove bread from the oven and place loaves on a wire cooling rack.  

I butter the loaves with a bar of butter rubbed all over the sides,

bottom, and top of the loaf.  This makes the crust nice and soft 

for the kids.  I learned this from my grandmother who made all
her bread, always, for her family of eight.  YIKES.

If you did get too much flour in your recipe count on the kids

taking the crust off because it gets very heavy and thick.

 

    See that hole in the right side of the bread that

was the dry dough not sticking to it's self. 

Very tasty, wonderful bread!  

You can leave out the nuts and raisins 

but they are the best part! 

If you have walnut sensitivity use sunflower seeds

They really are wonderful in bread!