My Food Storage Deals: My NEW favorite whole wheat bread recipe!!

My NEW favorite whole wheat bread recipe!!

>> Wednesday, January 7, 2009



















Okay...so I thought I could bake a pretty good loaf of whole wheat bread, until... I had my friend Emilies bread & WOW, she put mine to shame! For the longest time we couldn't figure out what the difference was in our bread. Mine was great right out of the oven, but hers was AWESOME out of the oven AND several days later. It was moist, soft & elasticy (is that a word??) like store bought bread. We compared recipes & realized she does three things different. First, her recipe has Vital Wheat Gluten in it, second, she 'sponges' her dough (I will explain this process below), and third she uses special bread pans (not really...just ones that acctually make your bread come out without ripping the sides apart!) These three additions to your homemade bread will make ALL the difference! So...here is the 'secret' recipe:

Emilie's Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 4 8/4 inch loaves.

7 c. whole wheat flour (grind your own if you have a wheat grinder)
2/3 c. vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 T. instant yeast

5 c. steaming hot water (120-130 F)

2 T. salt
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey or 1 c. sugar (I like honey the best!)
2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice

5 c. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 6-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.

Pre-heat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top; divide, shape into loaves place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until dough reaches top of pan. Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks. This recipe can be halved to make 2 loaves.

*She ONLY uses Bakers Secret 8x4 inch non stick pans (we could only find them at Smith's grocery store, strange enough).

**Another tip..when the dough is put into the bread pans, squish the dough softly into the corners of your bread loaf pans. This will make your bread cook more evenly and not have the large lump in the middle of your loaf.

Posted by Shandra at 6:19 PM
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20 comments:

Joyful Noise January 9, 2009 at 7:11 PM  

This recipe is very similar to mine, except for the bottled lemon juice. What is the purpose of the lemon juice? I have never heard of using that in whole wheat bread. Can you use fresh lemon juice? Bottled lemon juice has sulfite in it and I am allergic to sulfite.

Shandra January 11, 2009 at 10:29 PM  

The lemon juice just makes the dough softer & more manageable. If you are allergic to lemon juice, the vital wheat gluten will do about the same thing. This recipe is extra good because it has both ingredients but will be great without either one.  I have not tried it will fresh lemon juice. I would assume it would work, but I don’t know. I am sure the bottled lemon juice is listed because it can be stored in your long term food storage.

Karen January 12, 2009 at 9:05 AM  

Interesting use of lemon juice. I'd try it. Also, a note on pans....I only use Pampered Chef Stone Loaf pans(4). I have NEVER had bread fail on these pans, well worth the extra cost. I did buy them one at a time though because of the cost. Now I have a collection of them. I'm trying this recipe this week....it's a bread week. Thanks.

Livin La Vida Keto January 13, 2009 at 1:50 PM  

I like this blog. I stumbled onto it and am hooked! Food Storeage and preparedness are my favorite things. I wanted to give you some tips on the bread baking. I bake my own bread every week, 4-5 loaves. The trick to great bread that lasts is the sponge but if I may give you my recipe to try, you may find you get a lighter loaf and it is still 100% whole wheat. My recipe is similar, the difference is in the chemistry and the time.
5 cups hot water
3 tblsp yeast
2/3 cup of honey
Combine and let sit for 10 minutes to allow the yeast to grow.
Mix in to yeast growth 3 cups of wheat flour-I grind my own
and 2/3 cup of vegitable oil
Add 2 tblsp dough enhancer if you like-helps the texture a bit.
Let it sit for 1-2 hours to create the sponge. You can let it go for most of the day if you have other things to do. I leave my in my Bosch with the cover on and get about my day.
Add 2 tblsp salt and the remaining flour, about 14 cups total, until the dough cleans the side of the bowl but is still sticky.
I let the Bosch knead the dough for about 5 minutes in the machine then turn it out onto an oiled surface to divide and place in pans. I flatten the dough segments out and then roll them up and pinch the seam. Placing seam side down in the oiled pan I put the dough into a cold oven to rise for 30-45 minutes then turn the oven on at 350 degrees to bake for another 30 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread should be about 180 degrees.
I hope you will try this and let us know if you like it.

Jen @ tatertotsandjello.com January 16, 2009 at 9:29 PM  

Sounds wonderful! I am really trying to stock up on my food storage this year and figure out how to use it. I love your blog!

Thanks!

Jen

Suzanne January 17, 2009 at 1:23 PM  

Can these whole wheat bread recipes be made by hand? I don't own a big electric mixer, and I know there are some recipes that are just too hard to mix by hand.

Anonymous January 17, 2009 at 11:09 PM  

Is that a standard 4 quart Kitchen Aid mixer, or do you have the big 5 quart one?

It looks very nice!

Lisita January 20, 2009 at 3:40 PM  

Hi, I'm a new reader and really liking your blog! Sorry if I overlooked this but what kind of wheat do you find works best?

Lisita January 21, 2009 at 1:55 PM  

Ok, I just made this recipe last night and I LOVE it. Thanks so much for sharing it! Any tips on how you store the bread until it's all gobbled up?

Tori January 27, 2009 at 9:05 AM  

Can you use white flour instead of wheat? I have a hand crank grinder and that amount of flour would take a long time to crank. I was thinking of maybe doing half wheat/half white.

Brenda January 27, 2009 at 9:44 AM  

I tried the recipe and loved it. I have been wanting a recipe for whole wheat that wasn't dry (or that dried out fast). Thanks for sharing, and I'll pass it along to my sister in law.

Ashley January 27, 2009 at 8:56 PM  

OK I just have to tell you how much I love your site and how much I love this bread recipe! It is a lifesaver! I got a wheat grinder this year and all of my wheat but was frustrated when every bread recipe I tried didn't turn out quite as good as I'd hoped. I tried Emilie's recipe and WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAAM I love it! I have made it 3 times now (the halved version) and have loved it (except for when I had the water too hot and killed the yeast! Oops!) - just wanted to say thanks for your major efforts and kindness to let people like me share in your knowledge. It is much appreciated!

Emily February 1, 2009 at 5:37 PM  

I'm glad you liked the bread recipe so much that you posted it on your blog!!! I actually wanted to mention that the source of this recipe is not really not mine, although I would like to take credit, but from a published book called, "Emergency Food in a Nutshell" by Leslie D. Probert and Lisa L. Harkness. It's a great book I picked up at the BYU bookstore during Education Week.

Also, I have tried it with real lemon juice and it works...great, actually.

Shannon February 2, 2009 at 10:18 PM  

This is the same recipe I use and have been using for sometime. It always turns out and tastes great. I store mine in a bread bag and it will keep up to a week on my counter and I am sure longer in the fridge. Ours never stays around that long. It also freezes great. I use glass pans and spray them with pam really good and they turn out great.

April February 6, 2009 at 5:57 PM  

dumb question but you really use 5 cups of wheat flour at the beginning and then 7 cups of wheat flour at the end? Wow that sounds like a lot but I'll give it a try.
Love the blog.

mandy March 9, 2009 at 1:29 PM  

Hi, was planning to bake your bread today, but i think i need some clarification.
I'm new a bread making, so my knowledge is quite basic. But all the recipes i tried say to let the dough rise two times. Once after the kneading, right in the same bowl for 45 -60 min or more, and then second time in the pans for 45-60 min.
In your recipe you put the dough right in the pans and let it rise once.
Or did i miss something. Unless the first 10 min rise with the part of the flour was the first rise and then after adding the second portion of flour was the second rise?
As a newbie, i'm afraid that i missed something in the instructions.
My second question: in order to half the recipe, do i reduce everything by half or are there any special rules/tips concerning the yeast, lemon juice, honey, gluten?
thanks, cant wait to try the recipe

Amy March 9, 2009 at 5:26 PM  

I just finished mixing this halved recipe together and it is now baking...but the dough was pretty sticky. Is that how it is supposed to be?

I also use a Kitchen Aid mixer, but I seem to always have trouble getting the flour mixture at the bottom of the bowl to get mixed in with the rest of the ingredients...there is always flour left down there. Does anyone else have this problem and do you have any tips for me as to how to fix it (or do I just have to manually scrape in between mixings)?

Thanks! I'm super excited to see how my bread turns out!!!

Becky September 9, 2009 at 8:43 AM  

My family went nuts over this bread recipe! I had made it a few months ago, lost the recipe and couln't remember which site I had found it on. Thank goodness for google searches! I found the best whole wheat bread recipe out there, thanks for posting it!

TLeaves February 10, 2010 at 5:10 PM  

I actually made this by hand because I don't have a stand mixer -- but now I'm looking into getting one because BOY ARE MY ARMS TIRED!! Lots and lots of flour. But, I must say, the bread rose very nicely. The best I've gotten from any bread I've been making. Did let it rise about 10 minutes longer, just to over the lip of the pan, but it got much higher as it was baking. Very nice. I would also like to know what size KitchenAid you're using that can handle that much dough and not kill the machine. Love your site. -- Thanks From Snowy Pennsylvania

TLeaves February 10, 2010 at 5:21 PM  

Just wanted to say to MANDY that I also was doing the same thing: letting the dough rise twice. Mostly out of habit; partly out of not knowing any better. I finally checked out yeast types on the internet and realized two risings aren't necessary when using instant yeast. One rising is enough before baking. Check out yeast types on the internet to clarify.

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