Ingredients
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
2-3 Cups White Flour
3 Tsp Quick Rise Yeast
¼ Cup Sugar (honey or maple syrup)
1 Egg
1 Cup Warm Water (just above room temperature)
¼ Cup Oil
1 Tsp Salt
Optional
If you are going to add inclusions (listed below) you will likely only need 2 cups of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat:
¼ Cup Flax Seed
½ Cup Large Flake Oats
¼ Cup Chia Seeds
Instructions
Makes appx: 2 Loaves
Total Rising and Cooking Time: Appx 2.5 Hours
Take out a large mixing bowl and add: 1 cup whole wheat flour (this can be white flour if you prefer), 3 tsp of quick rise yeast, and 1 tsp salt and combine.
Add 1 cup of slightly warmer than room temperature liquid to the mixing bowl. You can use water, or in the video I used ½ cup orange juice and ½ cup water. The extra sugar and acidity of the orange juice makes for a lovely bread, but you can also use milk or cream to play around with different textures.
Next add ¼ cup of desired sugar (I used honey), ¼ cup of oil, and 1 egg.
Use a wooden spoon to combine the mixture.
Next you have the option to add a variety of inclusions in lieu of extra white flour - this will create a more dense loaf but it will be delicious.
If you prefer a fluffier, whiter bread, skip the inclusions and use an extra cup of white flour (3 in addition to the 1 that you started with in the bowl for a total of 4 cups of flour).
If you are using inclusions add the: flax seed, large flake oats, and chia seeds to the bread mixture. Stir to combine.
Next add white flour in 1/4 or 1/2 cup increments to the mixing bowl, combining each half cup fully before adding the next. Adding the flour in increments ensures that you don’t “over flour” the dough which results in a denser product.
Once you have slowly added 2 (or 3 without inclusions) cups of whole purpose flour, your dough should have formed a small ball in the bowl (as you stir with a wooden spoon the dough forms a ball around the spoon).
Lightly flour a flat surface on your counter and drop the ball of dough onto it. Gently knead your soft dough, 8-10 times, using the heel of the hand to push into the centre of the ball and then folding the dough back over towards yourself (video reference will be helpful here).
Clean out your bread bowl and lightly grease the bottom and edges. Place the kneaded dough ball into the large bowl and cover with either a lid or a dish towel.
Place the covered bowl in a warm place, or in a proofing oven, and allow it to rise for approximately 1 hour or until the dough ball doubles in bulk.
Once the dough risen and doubled in bulk, lay the dough back on a floured surface and roll into a large rectangle (appx 12x18 inches) using a rolling pin (or a wine bottle).
Roll the dough (starting from the long side of the rectangle) into a large roll, pinch and fold each end and cut the dough roll in half to form two loaves and pinch the open sides closed.
Place each loaf in a greased bread pan. Cover both pans with a dish towel and place in a warm place or a proofing oven and allow the loaves to rise for approximately 30 minutes.
Once loaves have been proofing for 20 minutes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
After loaves have finished rising and the oven is warm, lightly butter remove the dish towel, lightly butter the tops, and place the loaves in the oven. Allow them to bake for 20-30 minutes. Top of the loaf should be lightly browned before removing from the oven.
Once resting on cooling racks, spread a layer of butter on top of the loaves to seal the crust.
ENJOY (try not to eat the whole loaf in one sitting).