Photo by me
Recipe by Williams Sonoma
This is the best 100% wheat bread that I've ever made. I love my Williams Sonoma cookbook, their recipes always impress me. I was squealing with delight when my bread came out looking this beautiful! This recipe will make 2 loafs of bread. If you just want 1 loaf, then half the recipe.
2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast
2 cups whole milk, 105-115 F
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
6 cups whole-wheat flour
2 tsp sea salt
6 tblsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
Dissolve yeast in the milk into a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add honey, eggs, flour, salt and butter. Place bowl on the mixer (or knead by hand) and knead on low speed. Add a little more flour as needed for the dough to come away from the sides of the bowl after a few minutes of kneading. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes. Remove dough from the bowl.
Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in bulk, (30-40 minutes is what it usually takes for me).
Butter two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
Punch down dough using your palm of your hand, pressing to release bubbles. Place dough onto lightly floured work space and cut dough in half. For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the bottom third up onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand. Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log. Place the log, seam side down, in the prepared loaf pans. Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans.
Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let the loaves rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size (30-45 minutes). Be careful, you don't want the bread to rise too much otherwise it will fall during baking. So just until it doubles in size.
Bake on 375F for 35-40 minutes, or until they are honey brown and sound hollow when tapped on top. Be careful not to overbake this bread or it will be dry. Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.
Enjoy!
**If you don't have milk on hand, or are lactose intolerant, you can substitute water for the milk and use only 2 tblsp honey instead.
This is the best 100% wheat bread that I've ever made. I love my Williams Sonoma cookbook, their recipes always impress me. I was squealing with delight when my bread came out looking this beautiful! This recipe will make 2 loafs of bread. If you just want 1 loaf, then half the recipe.
2 packages (5 tsp) active dry yeast
2 cups whole milk, 105-115 F
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
6 cups whole-wheat flour
2 tsp sea salt
6 tblsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
Dissolve yeast in the milk into a large bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add honey, eggs, flour, salt and butter. Place bowl on the mixer (or knead by hand) and knead on low speed. Add a little more flour as needed for the dough to come away from the sides of the bowl after a few minutes of kneading. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, 5-7 minutes. Remove dough from the bowl.
Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot until it doubles in bulk, (30-40 minutes is what it usually takes for me).
Butter two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
Punch down dough using your palm of your hand, pressing to release bubbles. Place dough onto lightly floured work space and cut dough in half. For each half, evenly flatten the dough with the heel of your hand. Roll the bottom third up onto itself and seal it by pushing it gently with the heel of your hand. Continue rolling and sealing the dough until you have an oval log. Place the log, seam side down, in the prepared loaf pans. Press on them to flatten them evenly into the pans.
Cover loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let the loaves rise in a warm, draft-free spot until they double in size (30-45 minutes). Be careful, you don't want the bread to rise too much otherwise it will fall during baking. So just until it doubles in size.
Bake on 375F for 35-40 minutes, or until they are honey brown and sound hollow when tapped on top. Be careful not to overbake this bread or it will be dry. Carefully remove the loaves from the pans and let cool completely on wire racks before slicing.
Enjoy!
**If you don't have milk on hand, or are lactose intolerant, you can substitute water for the milk and use only 2 tblsp honey instead.
**If you're using a breadmaker to bake this bread, make sure it doesn't rise too much. You will have to punch it down manually and control the rise time, then set it on "bake only" once it's doubled in size after the second rise.
If you don't do this and just use the "whole wheat" cycle on your breadmaker, you'll have a FALLEN LOAF. I've tried this and other wheat recipes on 2 different breadmakers, with the same drastic results.
So, just trust me, and do the "basic cycle" for kneading, manually controlling the rises and then "bake only" and you will have BEAUTIFUL BREAD!
This looks good, I will have to try it.
ReplyDeleteI love your recipe blog and have implemented several recipes into my cooking repertoire already. I'm making the bread tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteOooh your bread looks so awesome! It is SUCH a satisfaction to have bread come out so well after all that hard work! Way to go! I 'll have to try my hand at it too! My roll recipe works great for rolls but it's hit and miss with the loaves. Strange huh?
ReplyDelete