Success!

For those of you have been keeping up with my kitchen-related posts, you'll remember that I've been working on a bread recipe, adapting it to my particular tastes, preparing to share it on here.

This morning, my fourth batch of this bread is in the oven, so I think it's safe to say this is a dependable recipe. It's turned out the same every time, except for the first, which is when I followed the original recipe. Thank to "Tammy's Recipes" for the inspiration!

I changed the recipe to have less added wheat gluten, less flour, a cup of oats, ...and I can't remember how else I changed it. I'll let you compare the two recipes!

Amber's Whole Wheat Bread:

2 cups warm water
2 tsp soy lecithin
4 tsp dry yeast
2 TBS milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
2 TBS wheat gluten
a capful of lemon juice
two dashes of ginger
1 cup rolled oats
6 cups whole wheat flour

Heat water until warm to the touch. Pour a little over half of it into a large mixing bowl. In the remaining water, dissolve lecithin, then yeast. Set aside. In the large mixing bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients in order, except for oats and flour.

Add the yeast water, and stir to combine. Now add oats and five cups of flour. Stir well. Add last cup of flour, stir briefly.

Now either knead by hand 600 strokes, or knead by machine for 15-20 minutes.

Form into ball in the bottom of the bowl and let rise in draft-free (not hot) place 1 hour. Punch down, divide dough in half, shape into two loaves, and let rise in greased bread pans for 15 minutes. At the end of that time, start preheating your oven, and let the dough keep rising 10 more minutes. After the 10 minutes have passed, bake loaves at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until well browned on the outside.

Immediately butter the tops of the loaves, and let sit in the pans for 5 minutes. At the end of that time, remove loaves to wire rack. Cover with two layers of dish towels to trap moisture as the loaves cool. I know it tastes best warm, but it slices best when cool!



These pictures were taken when the bread was 2 days old. (I can't believe it lasted that long, around my family!) But I've heard lecithin helps preserve bread. Maybe that's why it still tasted fine and fresh. The texture was the best I've had...I think.

Try it yourself, and let me know how you adapt my recipe! :)