Pete's Whole Wheat Bread

Sandwich bread isn't gone through as quickly at our house as it is in most homes. When we do eat sandwiches we often make pressed sandwiches on my Cuisinart Griddler (thanks for making me realize I had to have one Mom!!) After reading about all of the unpleasant additives in processed store bought bread, I decided to try to make my own. Because we eat it so infrequently, it seems like something that could be frozen and would not be a daunting task to replace. A search on the Cooking Light BB brought up a recipe posted by RecipeGirl. Pete's Whole Wheat Bread seemed to be a crowd favorite, so on a rainy afternoon, I gave it a try.

PETE’S WHOLE WHEAT BREAD
Source: “PeteFL” Cooking.com Forum

2 cups whole wheat flour, sifted
4 to 5 cups bread flour, sifted
2 Tbs granulated sugar
1½ tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast (a rounded Tablespoon)
2 ounces honey
1 2/3 cups water
2/3 cup milk
½ stick unsalted butter

1. In a large mixer bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt and yeast.

2. In a medium bowl, combine honey, milk, water and butter, and heat to 105 degrees in the microwave.

3. Stir liquids to melt the butter and add, all at once, to the dry ingredients in the mixer bowl.

4. With the dough hook installed on your stand mixer, mix dough. Add more flour by the Tablespoon, as needed, until the dough comes together and clears the bowl. Mix for 5 minutes with the dough hook and remove to counter surface.

5. Knead by hand until no longer sticky, adding flour as necessary.

6. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Remove from bowl and divide dough in half. Make each half into a 10 x 12 rectangle and roll each up like a cigar. Pinch the seams. Roll on the counter top to make a uniform log and place in an oiled breadpan seam-side up. Shake the roll to oil the bottom, turn the pan over, catch the dough and reinsert it into the pan, seam-side-down.

7. Return to warm place and let rise an additional 30 minutes or until at least 1 inch above the pan top. Bake in a preheated 400°F. oven for 25 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on rack.

Yield: 2 loaves

Cooking Tips
*To create a nice, warm place for your loaves to rise, turn on oven for 60 seconds and then turn it off. Turn the oven light on too. The temperature should be just about right for your loaves to rise nicely.
*If you do not plan to consume both loaves right away, they freeze beautifully. Wrap loaf with foil as soon as it comes out of the oven- just foil, nothing else- the wrapping-while-hot trick retains the moisture so when thawed it’s very fresh tasting.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Combine the wet ingredients, including the butter in a microwave safe bowl.

Heat the wet ingredients to 105 degrees in the microwave.

Stir the liquids to melt the butter.

Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once into your mixing bowl.

Mix dough with your dough hook for five minutes.

The dough should form into a ball around the dough hook.

Prepare a lightly floured surface to kneed the dough.

Remove the dough from the dough hook.

Turn dough out onto the lightly floured surface.

Kneed by hand until no longer sticky.

Place the dough into a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

Place into the oven and turn the oven on for for one minute, then turn it off and allow the the dough to rise in the oven for 30 minutes.

Remove the dough from the oven, place back onto the lightly floured surface and divide into two.

Roll each piece of dough out into a 12 by 10 inch rectangle.

Begin to roll from the 10 inch side.

Roll into a cigar shape.

Pinch the ends of the dough together to seal.

Place the dough seam side up into a greased bread pan. Shake the dough to coat with oil.

Flip the dough over so it is seam side down.

Place loaves back into the warm oven for their final rise, 30 minutes, or until the loaves rise one inch above the edge of the loaf pans.

Once the loaves have risen, place them into a preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Remove bread from the oven.

Place onto a wire rack to cool.

Baking bread is something that I would like to master, but realize realistically that this will take years. My first attempt at sandwich bread seemed to take all afternoon, but Pete's Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread was worth the wait. It seemed to take forever to rise for the second time, but finally it reached past the edge of the pan. Unfortunately, it deflated a bit when I took it out of the warm oven to heat it to 400 degrees. I blame this on the rainy day and the cold temperature of my house. Although the loaves were not as tall as I would have liked, the texture of the bread was light and airy. Terry and Jon ate an entire loaf with butter when they returned home from the UCLA basketball game. It's a good thing that Pete's Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread recipe makes two loaves! We have been enjoying the second loaf, making turkey and ham sandwiches. I will make this recipe again as soon as we run out of this last loaf.

-Heather