Life on Food: Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I have a love/hate relationship with bread. I love it when it is good bread. A sandwich on good bread. Toast on good bread. Amazing!

Bad bread can and will ruin anything. I never want to have bad bread. I have had a lot of homemade bread in my life so when it comes to grocery store bread it just doesn't work for me.

Last year I made a resolution to make bread once a week. That lasted about 3 weeks. I know better than to make it a resolution now but I am still trying to work more homemade bread into my baking plans.

This recipe is simple and sweet. It is literally full of honey and makes very moist bread.

I had this mostly as toast topped with different nut butter spreads. It definitely fell into the good bread category.

Note that if you have bread making experience this dough is very sticky after the initial knead. I was nervous at first but trust me it works out in the end.

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

by Emily Morris

adapted from: Find It Love It Share It

Prep Time: About 5 hours with rise time

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Keywords: bake bread

Ingredients (1 loaf)

1 1/2 Tbsp instant yeast
2 c. warm water
1/3 c. honey
3 - 4 c. whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions

Combine yeast, water and honey; let sit for 5 minutes or until frothy and bubbly.

Add salt and 1 1/2 cups of flour. Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until you get a soft dough. At this point the dough should barely pull away from the sides of the bowl and it will still be sticky.

Scrape out dough onto a floured surface and knead working in more flour until the dough is less sticky. You can also knead for 4 minutes on low adding a bit more flour in the stand mixer. Place dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

Punch down and shape into a large loaf (spray hands with cooking spray).

Put in a greased loaf pan and let rise again until doubled.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.