Sunday, March 29, 2009

Basic Whole Wheat Bread

FORMULA:
6 Cups Warm Water (115 degrees - warmer than warm, but not hot)
2/3 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2/3 Cup Honey
2 T Salt
3 T Dough Enhancer
1/3 Cup Vital Wheat Gluten (Reduce to 4 T if you are using a Bosch)
3 T SAF Instant Yeast
Freshly Milled Whole Wheat Flour - Hard White Wheat or Hard Red Wheat (approx. 16-20 cups of flour) 1 cup of wheat = 1 1/2 cups of four

PROCESS:
In mixer bowl with the dough hook, place warm water, oil, honey, salt, dough enhancer, gluten, and yeast. Mix at medium speed. Add cups of flour (most within 30 sec) until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Do not add too much flour - the dough should be sticky at this point. Set a timer and continue to mix the dough for 8 minutes. As the machine kneads the dough, it activates the gluten and eventually pulls away completely from the sides and bottom of bowl. Activating the gluten meants that the dough will only require one rising befor baking.

Oil hands, remove dough from the mixer onto an oiled counter, and divide the dough into 2 lb. loaves. If using a regular size bread pan, you will ahve 5 loaves of bread. If using sandwich loaf pan, you will have 4 loaves of bread. As you shape the loave, slap the dough to relax it, and then drop the loaf into a well-greased pan (butter coated). Cover with dry towel and let rise until double in size (approx. 1 inch above the rim of the pan). This should take about 1 hour. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the inside temp. is 200. Cool on cooking rack before placing into bread bag.

Breadsticks: Roll dough into finger-thin ropes and cut to desired length. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with desired topping - Parmesan Cheese, Garlic Salt or Powder, salad seasoning, Italian Seasoning, Sesame Seeds. Place on lightly greased baking sheet. Let rise 10-15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-18 minutes.

Cinnamon Pull Aparts: Pinch dough off into walnut size balls. Dip in melted butter and then roll in cinnamon sugar misture (1 T. cinnamon to 1/2 c. brown sugar). Place balls in layers (2 layers deep) in regular loaf pan, bundt pan, or small bread pan. Let rise until double. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 min.

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