Homemade Honey Wheat Bread

I've come to realize that smells are very important to me. Smells of old books remind me of the many hours I spent in my home town's tiny library. A certain scent of Glade Plug-Ins will always make me a little nauseous because when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter it was the scent we were using when I had terrible morning sickness. The scent of apples and cinnamon and crisp air lets me know that Fall is arriving (my favorite season).

So, my first recipe just had to be one of the most wonderful smells in the world IMO! Fresh baked bread baby. Yum. Who needs fancy candles when you can fill your home with this?

First off, you need to start off with the ingredients, the easy part. I always like to pull mine out and set them together to make sure I have everything I need. Nothing is worse than starting a recipe and realizing you have 1 ingredient missing.

The ingredients for the bread will include warm water, milk, oil, honey, brown sugar, butter, salt, all purpose flour, whole wheat flour (or a 50/50 mix of white & wheat flour), and instant active dry yeast.

Add 1 tablespoon of milk, 2 tablespoons of oil, 2 tablespoons of honey, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt into your mixer and stir.

Next add 1 cup of each type of flour (or 2 cups of the 50/50 mix) and the yeast.

Use a dough hook on your mixer and mix up the ingredients listed above. Once the ingredients are mixed up, this is where things can be changed up a little. Different climates and temperatures can yield different results. The end product you are looking for here is soft to the touch, but not so sticky that the dough comes off on your finger when you touch it. At this point I usually add 1/4 cup of each type of flour at a time, letting the flour mix in, and continuing to test it by touch until is the right consistency. Once it is mixed well, and soft, continue at a low speed for 7-10 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic looking.

After you have mixed the dough put it in a lightly greased big bowl, turning once to coat outside of dough. Put it in a warm spot and cover with a towel for at least an hour. You want it to double in size. In the warmer months, it's easy to find a warm place, but in winter I usually turn on my oven while I'm mixing the dough and set the bowl on top of the oven (not inside, you don't want it to cook). Turn the oven off and let the bowl sit on the warmed up oven. So it goes from this:

To this. Yay, magic!

This is where my youngest, Audrey, comes in. She loves to punch it down. So, punch it down, or let your kids do it, and let it sit for another 10 minutes.

Then, roll it into a rectangle shape as my lovely assistant, Ella, shows us. If the dough is sticky, add some flour to the surface where you are rolling it out.

Once it is in the rectangle, roll the dough into a loaf shape, pinching the edges together and putting into a greased loaf pan, edge side down. If the edges will not come together easily, add a bit of water to your fingers.

Cover, once again, for about 30 minutes or until the bread rises to just over the top of your loaf pan. Then, it is time to turn the oven on and get cooking. You will want to turn your oven on to 350° and bake for 30-35 minutes. If it is browning more than you like, tent a piece of foil and add on top. After the time is up, remove it from oven and let it sit for a few minutes in the pan. We like to add melted butter to the top as shown below.

After about 10 minutes pop bread out on to a wire rack. Now, you can enjoy the bread warm or wrap it up and save it for later. You can also freeze it. I like to double the recipe and make 2 loaves at a time and freeze 1.

If you are like me, I don't like to eat the ends, so I usually save them in a bag in the freezer or a few in a separate bag and use them for croutons or pop them in the food processor for breadcrumbs. Don't let that yumminess go to waste.

Honey Wheat Bread

1 cup water

3 Tbsp butter (2 in bread, 1 for top)

2 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp milk

2 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups wheat flour

2 1/4 tsp instant active dry yeast

• Combine 1st 7 ingredients & mix well.
• Add 1 cup of each type of flour and yeast and mix with dough hook. Once combined, continue to add flours, alternating 1/4 at a time and letting flour mix into dough to get a soft, not too sticky consistency.
• Once mixed to right consistency, continue on low speed for 7-10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic.
• Add dough to a lightly greased bowl, in a warm spot, and cover for at least 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
• Punch down and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Roll out into a rectangle shape. Then, form into a loaf and pinch ends together. Put in lightly greased loaf pan.
• Let bread sit in loaf pan for another 30 minutes, in a warm place, and covered. Let rise until slightly above edge of pan.
• Preheat oven to 350° and bake bread for 30-35 minutes. Remove from oven and add melted butter. After 10 minutes transfer to wire rack and let cool.