Soft Whole Wheat Bread--Easy & Good

Want a really easy and good bread? Try this one. It's easy if you have a stand mixer to do the kneading for you. I haven't used all whole wheat flour yet, but I did like the half & half ratio to start with (half white, half wheat). Some of you have asked: I like using whole wheat pastry flour because it tends to give a tender, crumb-like result when baking. But, I believe that Nancy (where I got the recipe-thanks girl!) used just regular whole wheat flour with excellent results. Here's her post.

To turn this dough into dinner rolls, just break the dough into pieces and put them next to each other in bread pans. To make pizza dough, divide it in half and roll it out. Here's the recipe for the pizza dough that I posted on a few months ago.

SOFT WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

-recipe via Nancy Simmons, via Kelly at http://domesticbydesign.com/

6 cups flour (I used half bread flour and half whole wheat pastry flour-but you can use just all purpose flour or half whole wheat flour and half regular all-purpose flour to start out with)
2 1/4 cups water (recipe states temperature should be about 110-115 degrees--but I didn't test mine)
1/3 cup oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, but you can use safflower or canola)
1/3 cup honey
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 tsp. salt

If you have a good mixer-you don't have to knead it by hand. Just combine the water, oil, honey, and salt into the mixer. Mix until well blended. Next, add half of the flour. Mix until just blended. Add the yeast, mix again until just blended. Add remaining flour and mix until just blended.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Then, knead the dough, by machine or by hand, for 6 minutes.

Put it into greased loaf pans (I used two) and let it rise in a warm oven (about 170 degrees), covered, for 45 minutes or so.

Remove covers. Turn oven up to 350 degrees, and bake for 25 minutes or so (until the bottoms are golden brown).

To cool, loosen with a butter knife and place on cooling rack on their sides.

Yield: 2 loaves (well for me anyway--ended up freezing one of them). It makes really great sandwich bread.

NOTE: If you want a nice soft crust (I did not): Use a pastry brush to brush a little butter over the tops.