Fluffy 100% Whole Wheat Bread

I am so excited about this 100% whole wheat bread.  I made it twice in as many days because I had to try it again.  My daughter ate two slices with butter all to herself the first day I made it – which is saying a heck of a lot for a little person who isn’t even allowed in a forward facing car seat because she’s too small.  The first time I didn’t knead it enough and it was a little crumbly, but the second time it amazed me even more.   I’m convinced the secret is in the kneading with any whole wheat bread, and since I don’t have a machine to do it for me, it takes quite a long time.  But this bread is really worth it.

And what makes me even more excited is that it’s mostly local.  The wheat was grown locally if you remember me mentioning my good deal on wheat in a previous post, the flax seed can be grown locally – although I’m uncertain of whether the flax seed I used was.  Not to mention the honey I used was raw local honey and the oats can be grown locally as well.  That’s really exciting to me!  I’m always amazed at the variety our little valley can produce.

One tip, just watch out that you don’t add too much flour because the dough should still be sticky when you’re done kneading.  You have to feel the dough.  When it doesn’t have the correct amount of flour added into it you should be able to squish it between your fingers very easily, regardless of how sticky it is because there is a much higher water to flour ratio.  Once you’ve kneaded in more flour you can pinch the dough again and feel that there is much less water to flour.  If your bread gets too hard because of too much flour, you can wet your hands every few kneads to get some more liquid into the dough and to prevent sticking.  After the first rise it wont feel sticky anymore anyways because the whole grains will have had time to absorb the water.

Submitted to Yeastspotting and posted to Sugar Free Sunday for this week.