First of all, head down to your local grocer and pick up some White Whole Wheat Flour (at Wal-Mart we get "Wheat Montana" Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat Flour). It is ground from a whiter kernel than your regular whole wheat flour, so it's lighter and less bitter. This recipe makes one loaf of bread. If your mixer can handle it, go ahead and double or triple it (or more if you're especially blessed with an industrial strength mixer!). :)
WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Combine the following dry ingredients in a bowl:
3 Cups + 2 Tbsp Whole Wheat Flour
2 Tbsp Wheat Gluten
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Yeast (SAF Yeast is the best. We get ours at the Bosch Kitchen Center)
(Add 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds here if you like nutty bread. We highly recommend it!)
Combine in another bowl
1 and 1/4 Cup + 1 Tbsp Hot Water
2 Tbsp Applesauce
1 Tbsp Honey
Mix dry and wet ingredients together in mixer, then allow mixer (if yours is strong enough) to knead dough for 5 minutes. If you don't have a strong enough mixer (like me), then just hand-knead your dough for 5-10 minutes. Grease your bread pan with butter, then mold your dough into the bread pan. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for 1 hour (2 hours if making nutty bread).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Pop bread into oven for 30 minutes. Remove bread from bread pan promptly after taking it out of the oven so that it doesn't sweat and get soggy as it cools. Cool on its side on a cooling rack. Slice, slather with butter, and enjoy this guiltless creation!
