Bosch Homemade Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Enough with talking about Wifey's homemade wheat bread, here's the step by step recipe...

You will need:

• around 10 cups of ground flour
• 3 tbs Saf instant yeast
• 2 cups high gluten bread flour or 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
• 3 tbs dough enhancer
• 2/3 cup honey
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 tbs sea salt
• 6 cups warm water (~115 degrees)

She used her WhisperMill to grind her wheat. High on our lists of "wants" is a hand grinder, we just haven't found one we like that fits our budget yet.


WhisperMill filled with wheat berries.

View of ground wheat.

Added Vital Wheat Gluten

Added dough enhancer

Added yeast

Added honey

Added 6 cups of flour and salt.

Using Berkey filtered water for best taste, brought 6
cups of water up to around 115 degrees and added to Bosch.

Turn the machine to speed 1 and continue to add wheat flour only until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. When you can see the sides pull clean, as well as the dough coming clean from the bottom of the bowl, you know you have enough flour. Be careful not add too much flour.  The dough should be very sticky and does not come together at this point, but the bowl is clean.

Knead on speed 1 for 8-10 minutes or until the gluten has been developed. If you feel your dough is too dry, simply add a few tablespoons of water to moisten, always pulling the sides clean.  If dough starts sticking simply add a little white flour to take up the moisture.

Consult a YouTube video if you start to question whether
or not your dough looks right, like we did ;-)

Grease your bread pans. Wifey used a ziplock
baggy as a glove to spread butter.

Oil your hands, remove dough from mixer onto a slightly oiled counter, divide your dough into 4-5 large loaves depending on your pan size.

Shape loaves, and place in a well greased or sprayed (pam) pan, never use oil. Cover with a dry towel and let rise until dough has risen double or approx. 2 inches above the rim of the pan. This will take from 30 to 60 minutes depending on the room temperature.

Divide up the dough into five equal sections.

Put the dough in your greased pans.

Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes, or until the inside temperature is 200 degrees. An instant read thermometer is very useful in telling whether your bread is done. Test after baking time is complete by taking bread out of its pan and pushing the thermometer into side or bottom of loaf. If not 200 degrees, place back in pan and bake another few minutes.

Cool on cooking racks before putting into bread bags. The recipe says the bread can be frozen up to 30 days without freezer burn but we've haven't had a loaf last 2 days before it gets eaten ;-)

Fresh out of the oven.

Bread fresh from the oven. Fluffy and airy. Delicious.

We bought our ingredients from a local store called Shar's in Gilbert, Arizona. This was the recipe they recommended and we are glad they did.  We've had red hard wheat and white hard wheat in two different batches. While the red tasted good, the white tasted better. I think next time we'll try more honey to sweeten the bread a little more.

How do YOU make homemade bread?

~OJD

Work in Progress...

Our first Butternut Squash ever harvested.

What a busy weekend. I am currently working on several posts-in-progress but this crazy schedule has me bouncing back and forth so here's a preview of this week's coming posts:

Seed For Security Butternut Squash update. Wifey couldn't resist picking one today. We looked up some recipes and ended up baking it in the oven. I can't overstate how ridiculously delicious this turned out. I can't wait to cook more.

My Remington 870 Knoxx Tactical. "Go ahead Punk..."

Review: Remington 870 Knoxx Tactical. I'm currently writing a review of the weapon I chose for home security. This is our only gun for now but will be adding a handgun (or two) in the future.  So far, I am VERY pleased with the 12 gauge Remington with the shock absorbing Knoxx stock.

Rainwater collected during our brief storm.

Crown Berkey Rainwater Challenge. We had a short but productive thunderstorm here in the desert. Every time we get one, I am quick to put out my home depot buckets and start catching rain. I think rainwater ran through a Berkey is the best tasting water on the planet. I just poured one bucket of rainwater in the Berkey and was surprised at how brownish-green the water was that ran off my roof. I don't know why it surprised me (given our smog problem and rare rainfall to clean the roof)  but it instantly triggered an idea of water taste comparisons. I will be conducting a taste test between Berkey filtered tap water and Berkey filtered rainwater. Knowing how well my Berkey works, I'm betting on the rainwater.

First attempt at homemade bread...yum!

Homemade Wheat Bread Recipe. I took a handful of pics while Wifey was making her first ever batch of wonderful homemade bread. You'll see the WhisperMill at work, the terrific results and the recipe that made it possible.  I already blogged about the fantastic sandwich that I conjoured up with the help of this airy yet firm bread. I almost had Wifey talked in to making more tonight but she got busy sewing one of our daughter's a new skirt for the Fourth of July.

Review: Sentry Safe Gun Safe. I finally bought a safe for my shotgun. It arrived from Amazon and I'm carefully planning a place to bolt it down. I'm having a hard time deciding on a location. I'm not just happy about the price but it also came with free shipping! No driving, no loading it up...just ding dong, here it is. Thank you!

Homemade Bread Makes A Great Dagwood Sandwich

Five homemade bread loaves, mmmmmm!

(Don't forget our contest from July 1-15, great prizes!)

One of our family goals in achieving greater self sufficiency this year was to learn how to make our own bread. Wifey's been grinding her own wheat with her Whispermill (old version of the WonderMill) for most of the year to make brownies and cookies. Yesterday she used her ground wheat to make her first batch of homemade bread.

Wow, was this batch spot on! She had some doubts during the dough stage as to whether it was "sticky" enough. Not sure what that meant but I encouraged her onward. I mean, it looked like dough to me...

So, sometime this week I'll post the recipe for those of  you looking for one or are going to attempt your first bread making. I highly recommend it. The resulting odor of fresh, oven baked bread wafting throughout the house was worth it all by itself.

Light, fluffy and delicious!

We tried it out immediately last night.  I first dipped it in some balsamic vinegar and it tasted fantastic. Then I tried some with strawberry preserves...even better! Wifey sliced some up and tossed it in the toaster to crisp it up for jelly. Kids came crawling out of the woodwork to taste mom's efforts. Unanimously we declared success and look forward to making it on a regular, dare I say biweekly, basis.

The recipe ended up making 5 loaves. Since we only had three bread pans, I offered up the round cake pans for the last two loaves. Ah, but there was a method to my madness you see.  Having grown up with a healthy dose of Schlotzsky's sandwiches (aka Dagwood sandwich, from the Dagwood cartoon), I was eager to attempt my own sandwich masterpiece. I envisioned "The Dadwood Sandwich". [picture Homer drooling, halalaalaalal].

After the mayo & cheese, my hunger tripled!

I started with a round loaf and sliced it horizontally.  I layered it with mayo and shredded cheddar cheese on both halves.  Next I used my own sliced ham, as mentioned in this post (we save money buying whole and slicing it ourselves).  I pre-heated the oven, layered one side of the sammy with shaved ham, then slid both halves into the oven.

About eight minutes later, the halves emerged slightly crunchified covered with gooey melted cheese and baked shaved ham. Mmmmm.....   I quickly sprinkled it with diced dill pickles and jalapenos. If my brain was fully functional, I would have thought to add lettuce from our garden too (DOH!).  I quartered it, served it up for Wifey and me, and washed it down with delicious, ice cold Berkey filtered water.

Schlotzsky's nothing, meet the Dadwood sammy.

Wifey and I agreed it was beyond scrumptious.  A new family menu item has been born to our delight. Since our new homemade bread recipe results in five loaves, we can make three traditional loaves and two Dadwood Sandwich loaves every time she makes bread.  I will SO be the envy of the gang at work when I pull out my homemade sammy at lunchtime.  Eh, I might share...I might not.   :-)

So, if you haven't made fresh bread in YOUR homestead yet, I HIGHLY recommend it.  I'd say it only took about half an hour to make, half an our to rise (in the oven), and half an hour to bake. Not bad at all.  Oh, and don't forget the aroma of fresh baked bread lingering through the house for hours!

What do you do with YOUR homemade bread?