Nothing seems to warm the home as much as a loaf of fresh baked bread. On top of warming your home and impressing loved ones, it can also save you money.
Awhile back I quit my job in a moment of standing up for myself and what is right. Shortly after I got off my high horse, I realized that I had now put myself in a position of having considerably less cash flow. The first trip to the grocery store after quitting was an eye opener. My bread of choice was no longer on sale and I wasn’t about to start eating crappy white bread.
So I took matters into my own hands and headed to Google, then to the bulk section of my grocery store.
Buying bread flour in bulk can save you heaps of money. A 5lb or 2.25kg sack of packaged flour can cost as much as $5.00 in the U.S. In bulk, bread flour averages about $.30/lb, or roughly £0.19/kg, those small savings really add up over time. Buying in bulk also gives you the advantage of getting just what you need while reducing waste.
If you don’t bake frequently, you flour can go rancid or your yeast can die. Neither of which make a yummy loaf of bread, so be sure to start with fresh ingredients. If you plan on baking a lot, I recommend purchasing a jar of yeast and keeping it in the fridge to preserve it.
I found a recipe on Allrecipes.com for Simple Whole Wheat Bread by Nita Crabb and adapted it for BitchBuzz. This recipe yields three full 9”x 5” loaves, but I don’t have those pans so in my kitchen I get two miniature test loaves and two 1.5L full sized loaves.
What You'll Need
Metric listed in parenthesis
3 cups (710ml) of 110°F(45°C) water. Be sure to use a thermometer to check your water. Too cold the yeast won’t ‘wake up’, too hot and you’ll kill them.
2 packages of active dry yeast – if you’re going bulk use 4½teaspoons(14g)
1/3 cup (65g) sugar
5 cups (685g) bread flour
3 tablespoons (45g) butter – melted - measure before you melt
1/3 cup (80ml) honey
1 tablespoon (20g) salt
About 3½ cups(420g) whole wheat bread flour – This amount is not set in stone so don’t be surprised if you use less or more than what is recommended.
2 tablespoons (30g) melted butter to brush loaves with.
Directions
Start by mixing the warm water, yeast, sugar and 5 cups (685g) of bread flour together in a very large bowl or bowl of stand mixer if you’re lucky. Let the concoction sit for around 30 minutes or until the mixture is big and bubbly.
Then add the melted butter, honey, salt and 2 cups (about 240g) whole wheat bread flour. If you have a stand mixer, this is the time to attach your dough hook. No mixer? Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and keep kneading in flour until the dough begins to pull away from the counter/bowl, but is still sticky to the touch.
Grease a bowl with something (oil, lard, shortening, butter) and place the dough in the bowl. Flip it over once to coat the whole dough wad with the grease. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled in size, this usually takes an hour or so. While the dough is rising, grease your loaf pans.
Once doubled, punch the dough down. This is my favorite part of baking; I even have video to prove it. Just punch that sucker and knock the air bubbles out. Then separate into loaves. The loaves should only fill the pans about half way so be sure to give them space to rise. Let rise until the bread is 1” or 2.5cm above the pan.
Then stick in an oven set to 350°F(175°C). Bake the loaves for 25 to 30 minutes. If your oven is wonky like mine, err for 30 minutes, 25 was just too doughy. Once the loaves are out of the oven, brush the tops with the melted butter to keep the crust soft.
Remove the bread from the pans and let the loaves cool completely before storing in plastic bread bags.
NOM, NOM, NOM!
Image © Jenessa Hooper for BitchBuzz