The Art of Breadmaking

Recently, life has been pretty stressful and I have been drawn to baking bread. It's funny, I've always thought that bread was just too difficult and my life was too busy to spend hours baking bread. But what I've come to realize is that the act of baking bread has been teaching me two things: the art of patience and the joy of completing a task from start to finish.

As the holiday season approaches, a time of peace and worship for many, we all seem to get to wrapped up in the jam-packed schedules, parties, travel, baking, shopping, etc. and since dealing with a very stressful situation over Thanksgiving, I have found that baking bread helps me slow down. In fact, that darn yeast makes me! You simply cannot rush yeast-it will rise when it wants to and it will sit still when the temperature of your kitchen doesn't satisfy itself. It also helps me bond with my three year-old who loves to help bake, but is more interested in dusting herself with flour.

But back to the bread. I have baked four loaves of bread this past week. All honey whole wheat and I'm not sure I will ever eat store-bought bread again. For about $10.00, I bought enough ingredients for 8 loaves of bread, and I know I will have some left over.

The proven, tried and true recipe that always works for me is the one on the back of the Whole Wheat Gold Medal Flour  bag. It takes a little over three hours, the house smells wonderful. There is such a wonderful feeling that comes from baking break, I hope you all will take some time this holiday season to slow down, and bake some bread.


Old-Fashioned Honey-Whole Wheat Bread   


Prep Time

35Minutes

Total Time  3 hours 10 min

Makes

2loaves

 

3

cups whole wheat flour                                        

1/3

cup honey

1/4

cup butter

3 teaspoons salt

2

packages regular or quick active dry yeast

2 1/4

cups very warm water (120°F to 130°F)

  3to 4 cups Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

Butter or margarine, melted, if desired

 

1. Mix whole wheat flour, honey, shortening, salt and yeast in large bowl. Add warm water. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Beat on medium speed 1 minute, scraping bowl frequently. Stir in enough all-purpose flour, 1 cup at a time, to make dough easy to handle.
2. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Place in greased bowl and turn greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place 40 to 60 minutes or until double. Dough is ready if indentation remains when touched.
3. Grease bottoms and sides of 2 loaf pans, 9x5x3 or 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches.
4. Punch down dough and divide in half. Flatten each half with hands or rolling pin into rectangle, 18x9 inches, on lightly floured surface. Roll dough up tightly, beginning at 9-inch side, to form a loaf. Press with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal. Press each end with side of hand to seal. Fold ends under loaf. Place seam side down in pan. Brush loaves lightly with butter. Cover and let rise in warm place 35 to 50 minutes or until double.
5. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 375°F.
6. Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped. Remove from pans to wire rack. Brush loaves with butter; cool.

Makes 2 loaves (16 slices each)