One of Life's Pleasures

High on my list of favourite things is a treat we just enjoyed: a slice of homemade whole wheat bread, still warm from the oven.  Spread a little butter and a good dollop of homemade raspberry jam, and see if you don't come back for a second slice!  I've found that if I make the dough immediately after grinding the wheat I can use 75% whole wheat flour and the bread still turns out nice and light.  

I make the dough in a bread maker, but use only the dough cycle.  When the dough is ready I take it out, slice the dough in half and weigh each half to make sure they are equal.  I roll the dough out on a pastry sheet with a rolling pin, roll it up by hand and put it in the loaf pans, lined with parchment paper.

Here's the recipe: 

12 oz. warm water 

1 egg

3 TBS canola oil

3 cups whole wheat flour, freshly milled

1 cup of Robin Hood best for bread flour, white

2 TBS sugar

1 tsp salt

3 TBS flax seed, partially ground (in a surplus coffee grinder, used only for this purpose)

2 TBS gluten flour (helps raise the dough)

2 tsp Quick Rise Yeast

This is the order the ingredients go into my bread maker, a Zojirushi.  Process on the Dough Cycle (45 minutes).  Divide into two, shape, oil and let rise in two standard loaf pans.  When high enough, bake for 30 minutes in a 350 oven.

I bought the rather expensive Zojirushi because it had a loaf shaped pan and two paddles, but after baking my first loaf in it, I reverted back to this method of using the bread maker only for the dough.  That means I could have bought a much cheaper bread maker and been happy with it!