Baking Bread

Getting our kids to eat anything is a trial. They've started getting a little better, but it still amazes me how someone can throw that big of a fit over such a small portion of vegetables.

So it is bizzarre to me that all four of our kids are crazy about the wheat bread we've been making. Shannon Doan shared her recipe with us. It is good stuff.

Here's a picture of the girls and me making a couple of loaves.

They did a really good job mixing everything, and they loved kneading it. They even stuck with it for the whole 15 minutes of kneading time.

Our big mixer is on the fritz - I think we stripped its gears out making 4 loaves at once, so we've been doing it by hand.


Here's the recipe we use. It makes 4 loaves, so we half it sometimes.

Ingredients:

4 1/2 C hot water
2 T active dry yeast
2 T sugar
1/2 C bulgar wheat
1 T wheat germ
1 T ground flax seed
1/2 C rolled oats
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 C honey
1 C powdered milk
1/3 C wheat gluten
3 T dough enhancer
1 T salt
4 C bread flour
8 C whole wheat flour

Instructions:

Place a pan of water in the oven and set it to warm. This makes a nice, cozy place for the dough to rise just before baking.

Mix the water, yeast, and sugar together and let sit for 3-5 minutes. The yeast should get foamy.

Add all of the remaining ingredients, mixing everything together well between each addition.

Knead the dough for 12-15 minutes

Divide the dough into equal parts and form it into loaves. Place each loaf in a glass bread pan that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Turn off the oven that has been set to warm. Wet a towel with hot water and wring it out well. Place it on top of the loaf pans and place the loaf pans in the warm oven.

Let rise for 30 minutes and then remove the damp towel. Let rise for another 30 minutes.

After letting the bread rise, set the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Yum!