Whole Wheat Bread

Ryan and I recently got a hand grinder and some wheat so that we can grind our own wheat flour and make homemade bread with it (hand grinders are cheaper than electric, so we thought we'd get a hand grinder now and save up to get an electric grinder later). Then my parents decided to let us borrow an extra electric grinder that they weren't using. They've had the grinder for a long time, but it still works which is the only thing that matters. :) I tried one recipe for bread, but never could get it to work out. I don't know what went wrong. Then I decided to ask a friend, Katie, for the recipe she uses for her homemade bread. She sent me two recipes which are posted below. The first is her grandma's recipe and the 2nd is her dad's recipe. I've tried them both and they are both good! I really like the taste of the 2nd recipe though--with the butter and powdered milk and the mixture of honey and brown sugar. It's delicious! Thanks Katie!


Ingredients:
3 c. hot water
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. yeast
2 c. flour
2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. oil
1 Tbsp. gluten (optional)
1 Tbsp. lecithin (optional)
5-8 c. flour

Directions:
Mix water, sugar, and yeast. Add the 2 c. flour, salt, oil, gluten, and lecithin. Then add remaining flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (it should still be slightly sticky). Knead until smooth. Let rise about an hour. Form into 2 loaves and put in buttered pans. Let rise until loaves fill pans. Bake at 375 for 30 min.


For the recipe above, I added all ingredients except the lecithin because I didn't have any. I used a hand mixer and did it all by hand since I don't have a bread machine or any other type of mixer. You can use all whole wheat, half whole wheat and half white, or mostly whole wheat with a little white. Whatever you prefer. :)


Ingredients:
2 c. + 1/4 c. hot water
2 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 tsp. yeast
4 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. dry milk
3 tsp. salt
3 c. bread flour
3 c. whole wheat flour

Directions:
Mix water, honey, sugar, and yeast. Add butter, dry milk, salt, and bread flour. Add whole wheat flour until dough pulls away from bowl (should still be slightly sticky). Knead until smooth. Let rise an hour. Form into 2 loaves and place in buttered pan. Let rise. Bake at 350 for 30 min.


Again, I only let it rise once in the pans. It seems to turn out better when I do that. Also, I don't have bread flour, but I found this website that explains how to make bread flour with all-purpose flour. Just add 1 Tbsp. wheat gluten for every cup of flour.


If you have a bread recipe you'd like to share, please do! I've been experimenting with making bread by hand. Eventually I'll be a pro at it. :)

If you are new to making your own bread and you want to experiment with homemade white bread first, go HERE for a good and easy recipe.