Whole Wheat Bread

"If thous tastes a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens." Robert Browning

Good day, my fine followers!
Well, before we get to this week's recipe, I have some updating to do! First of all, the 'Cottage Life' show last weekend was great! Jane Rodmell and I did four cooking demonstrations and I must say, we did a very good job! Our morning demos were for a one skillet brunch of potato and sausage hash topped with eggs and the afternoon demos were for chocolate, orange and walnut phyllo bundles. All in all, it was a fun time as always and the bonus was that Jane and I had our photo in the program! Ha! Also, the winter edition of 'Sideroads of Halton Hills' magazine came out on Tuesday! Yippy! As you can see below, my recipes were a layered cheese terrine, roasted squash with brown butter and sage and butter tarts with cranberries and walnuts (if you click on the photo, it will enlarge and the recipes are easily read! Thank you again Michelle for the great scanning job!). Well, onto today's subject matter: bread. A little while ago, my friend Dana requested a recipe for bread. Something 'wholesome' she said. No problem! Bread is not hard to make, but it does take a bit of elbow grease and some time. Bread, in one form or another, has been around just about forever. Modern bread making was first practised by the ancient Egyptians about three thousand years ago. Next, the Greeks continued to hone the methods and ingredients, until leavened bread was being made and sold across Europe, followed by the rest of the world. Often referred to as the 'staff of life,' bread has been eaten out of necessity, used in religious ceremony and most recently, celebrated as an artisan craft. Consumed at any or all meals, bread is extremely versatile and can be treated in a countless number of preparations. For Dana's bread, I have decided to use a simple country recipe. Made with ingredients you would find on the farm, I have added some rolled oats and seeds to make it a little more 'wholesome.' I hope you like it, Dana!

Simple and Tasty Recipe:

Whole Wheat Bread
(makes 2 large loaves (tin size 11cm x 21cm or 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches))

2 3/4 cups milk, warmed
1/4 cup honey
1 package of dry active yeast
5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sea salt
2 large eggs, room temperature (1 for the bread, 1 for the egg wash)
3 tbsp butter, softened
about 1 cup unbleached flour (for kneading)
3/4 cup rolled oats and mixed seeds: I used pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), sunflower, poppy, sesame and flax seeds (1/2 cup of this goes in the bread, 1/4 is for the top of the bread)

.in a large bowl combine the milk and honey, stir with a wooden spoon until dissolved, sprinkle in yeast, stir to dissolve and set aside for about 5 to 10 minutes until frothy
.add in 3 1/2 cups of flour and stir vigorously for 1 minute, cover with plastic and set aside in a warm place for 30 mins (I like to use a clean, recycled plastic bag for this recipe...)
.next, stir the salt, 1 egg another cup of flour into the sponge
.stir in half the butter with a half cup of flour until the lumps are out (this is when a little elbow grease is needed!), add the remaining butter and the last half cup of flour and stir again until lump free (if I can do it, so can you!!), then finally stir in 1/2 cup of the rolled oats and mixed seeds
.turn the sticky dough out onto a flour covered surface and knead for about 10 mins, adding flour as you go so it won't stick to the counter or your hands, shape into a a nice rounded ball (a.k.a. blob)
.wash out your large bowl, lightly oil it and place the kneaded dough ball inside, cover with plastic and put in a warm place until it has doubled in size (about an hour), meanwhile lightly butter two loaf pans
.punch down the leavened dough, turn out onto a floured surface, knead for a few minutes, mould into loaf shapes and place into your prepared loaf tins, cover with plastic set aside in a warm place until doubled in size again (about another hour)
.turn your oven to 375 degrees and beat the remaining egg in a small bowl or cup
.brush the tops of the loaves with the egg wash and sprinkle over the remaining 1/4 cup of rolled oats and mixed seeds (you could make slash marks across the top of your bread if you like)
.bake 40 to 45 mins until nicely browned
.remove the bread from the tins (when tapped on the bottom a hollow sound will be heard) and cool on a rack before slicing, enjoy!

Making bread form scratch without a bread machine is a labour of love, but a job that will leave one feeling very proud of oneself! With bread that tastes this good and costs so little to make, why go back to store bought?! Of course, any of the seeds I used can be substituted with your favourites. Nuts could also be used. Or, of course, they could all be left out! It's up to you, my crafty followers! This is the perfect time of year to make bread, just the smell alone that will be left wafting your your home is reason enough to make it! I hope this 'wholesome' bread is what you were expecting Dana, I promise it's delicious! Now, make sure to store your loaves in a sealed plastic bags to keep it fresh. Freezing the bread is also fine. Now followers, you better have some bread handy next week, for I will be making bread's best friend... Come on, you know who it is! That's right, butter. Yummy, homemade butter. It's gonna be a good one! Bye for now!

Here are the links to the 'Cottage Life' magazine recipes that Jane and I demonstrated :
http://www.cottagelife.com/index.php?ci_id=41443&la_id=1
http://cottagefeast.cottagelife.com/2010/11/19/chocolate-orange-bundles-recipe/