I had made a note in my old cookbook to use 9 x 5 pans for the Lemon-Honey Whole Wheat bread, but had NOT transferred that info to my new book.
Please use the larger pans! It will still taste good in the small pans, but it is “ Leaden Breaden” as it can’t rise properly.
One of the blogs I follow AJoyfulchoas.blogspot.com is written by a delightful lady who talks about her family, as well as growing up Amish. Recently, she posted her goals for the New Year, one of which is to bake 52 different kinds of pie.
I mentioned that back when The Squire was still working, I had sent him off to work every morning for a month – twenty working days – with a different kind of bread. Since each batch makes two loaves, and even with three growing daughters we couldn’t eat all of it, so I gave the extra loaves to the girls in my carpool.
For the last couple of months, I’ve been making a rich white bread (see my post for November 20), but today I decided to make a Whole Wheat loaf that The Late and Unlamented claimed was ruining his stomach. Mind you, he said that about most of the stuff I cooked. I swear, it’s a wonder that man ever got off mother’s milk.
And so – Cool Rise Honey Lemon Whole Wheat Bread
I make this in my bread machine, but you can also do it the “old fashioned” way. When I first started baking, bread machines weren’t even dreamed of. You were lucky to have an electric mixer!
3-1/4 to 4-1/4 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 packages dry yeast (4 -1/2 teaspoons if you buy it in bulk)
1 tablespoon salt (yes, that’s correct)
¼ cup honey
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2-1/4 cup hot water
I put the water into a microwave-safe cup and add the honey. It’s easier than measuring the honey by itself. I also put the butter in there to soften while I heat the water.
Use the Dough setting on your machine and let the dough rest 20 minutes before you shape it into 2 9 by 5 pans. Brush the surface of the bread with oil or use cooking spray, and cover the loaves loosely with waxed paper and then with cling film. Refrigerate for 2 to 24 hours. When you are ready to bake the bread, remove it from the fridge and uncover. Let it sit for 10 minutes while you preheat the oven to 400° F. Prick any surface bubbles with an oiled toothpick before baking. Bake on lower rack for 30 to 40 minutes, or until it reaches 190° internal temp. Remove from pans immediately, brush with butter or margarine, and cool on a rack.
Please note the change in the pan size.
When I was a kid I did not want to eat the heels of bread. I made it very clear I wanted “bread on both sides”. My grandfather would smile and nod, and agree those pieces were for the chickens.
Now that I make all of our bread, I’ve discovered the very best part is the heel of the loaf, hot from the oven, and spread with a good pat of fresh butter.
Life doesn’t get much better than that.
Several weeks ago, my BFF and I each bought a ginormous jar of Kalamata olives at Costco. She is on the “Whole Thirty” diet, and this is one thing she can have, but I used my olives to bake what we consider the best bread in the world. It does not, as The Squire admits, make very good jelly bread, but an egg salad sandwich on this bread is a glimpse of some Heavenly feast. (They eat a lot of olives in the Holy Land, right?)
I use a bread machine, but this can be made by hand if that is how you do things. Put the ingredients into the machine in the order listed; I take the bread out of the machine and let it rise and bake in a standard bread pan.
1 cup water
1-1/2 teaspoons olive oil 1-1/2 teaspoons oregano
1-1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2-1/2 cups bread flour, or all-purpose flour and 1 tablespoon gluten
1-1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
About five minutes before the mixing cycling is done, add 1/3 cup chopped and well drained Greek olives. (You may have to add a tablespoon or so more flour; watch it and see.) Put into a greased bread pan and let rise about 45 minutes. Bake at 350-F for 30 to 35 minutes. If you have an instant-read thermometer, bake to 190-F. Perfect!
(I tried really hard to make this single spaced, but it just would NOT work. Sorry about that.)
thisendoftheswamp 