Bread Tips

I love homemade bread! If I never had to buy store-bought bread again I'd be happy. Here are some tips I've found:

-Spray the bread with cooking spray to keep the crust moist (other recipe books have suggested brushing with milk or butter, but I've never tried this).

-Slice your bread with an electric knife (turkey carver). It helps to not crush the bread and is so much less work (but does have a tendency to spray the crumbs further).

-Especially for bread machine bread, I've found it best to allow the bread to cool and then bag it up for a few hours before slicing. This softens the crust, keeps the bread more moist and also seems to help the flavor.

-Again, for bread machine bread, I often (thinly) slice off the bottom of the loaf because it is pretty tough. If you use an electric knife this is pretty easy to do without wasting a slice of bread. For breads with thick crusts I often trim the sides as well (the top is always fine).

-Store homemade bread in the freezer unless you plan to eat it in a day or two. It will taste fresh whenever you pull it out to eat it and easily defrosts in a fridge in a few hours. We make our sandwiches all at the same time and freeze them so it makes it much easier to prepare lunches for the work day.

Whole Wheat Bread

I finally found a whole wheat bread recipe that raises well, but doesn't take all day. I found a recipe on recipezaar.com and adjusted it for my needs (they seemed to have changed website host and their recipe a bit, but this is the closest I could find).

2 cups milk
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 Tbsp salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup warm water
2 packages active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
a little sugar (about 1/2 tsp)
about 7 cups whole wheat flour
cooking spray

In a Pyrex measuring cup, warm milk and butter in the microwave for about 3 minutes (don't let it boil or it will kill the yeast). While this is warming up, add yeast to the warm water. I like to add a little bit of sugar so that the yeast will foam and I will know if it's working (this will take a few minutes). When the milk is warm, add in salt, brown sugar, and molasses. Pour milk mixture and yeast mixture into a mixer. Mix until blended and add flour one cup at a time. When the dough begins to get thick change to a dough hook (around 4-5 cups of flour added). Continue to slowly add flour until dough pulls away from the sides (make sure dough is still moist) and allow mixer to knead your dough for a few minutes. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray. Pour dough into bowl, turn over (so that some cooking spray is now on top), cover and allow to rise for one hour (or until it doubles in size).
Spray two bread pans with cooking spray. Divide dough into two parts and place in bread pans. Allow to rise for one hours (or until doubled in size).
Preheat oven to 375. Cook on middle rack for 35-40 minutes (do not under cook).
Remove bread from pans, spray with cooking spray (to keep crust moist), and allow to cool.

Unfortunately, I don't think I have any pictures because I have started using my bread machine to make bread now, but I LOVE how well this rises and tastes delicious.

Changes I made:
-I found that the original recipe made the bread a little dry, but adding the molasses really helped that.
-The original recipe says to heat the milk in a saucepan, but I always had to keep a close eye on it so that it wouldn't get too hot. Then my mom suggested that I should just use the microwave and I knew she was a genius! :)
-I always halve the salt in recipes and my husband never complains about that in my baking (even though he loves salt).