Whole Wheat Bread

Yesterday, Luke and I spent the day in the kitchen baking.  I made whole wheat bread and hamburger buns, and he made pita bread, raviollis and egg noodles.   I think I am gaining weight now that Luke moved back home.  He is a great cook, and I can't resist all of the delicious foods he makes.

  About 12 years ago, Steve bought me 2 machines that I have loved.  One is a Grain Master Whisper Mill, and the other is a Bosch Mixer. 

The Whisper Mill is a convenient electric grain mill  which  can easily grind wheat (or other grains) fresh every time you need flour.  I can store my wheat berries with no worries of spoilage and yet still have whole wheat flour when I need it; once berries have been ground into flour, the germ is exposed to oxygen, and will soon begin oxidising, causing the flour to become rancid in a short amount of time. Mass marketing in the 20th century brought us flour with the germ removed, which gives a longer shelf life, but cheats us out of important nutrients contained in the grain.  I recently started grinding some wheat berries that we had in storage for over 10 years.  The grains were fresh, clean and ready to grind.  The flour made delicious bread.  Wheat berries if stored in a clean, fairly cool environment, will actually remain nutritious and intact for thousands of years.  Wheat berries which were discovered in Pharoah's tomb were found to contain all vitamins and minerals still intact,  and were able to be sprouted and also ground for bread after 5000 years. God sure knows how to package and preserve food doesn't He?

There are several good quality mixers on the market, but for making whole wheat bread, my favorite, is my Bosch Mixer, which is a wonderful heavy duty mixer that allows me to mix and knead  dough in large quantities (5-6 loaves at a time), without worries of burning up the motor, which incidentally I did with a couple of bread machines years ago from excess whole wheat bread making.  

sponging in my Bosch machine

The recipe I use for my basic whole wheat bread is one I got from the little bread making supply store that we bought these machines from.  They were located in Denver but I can't even remember their name now... they are no longer in business. Everyday they did demonstrations for grinding wheat, making breads, buns, rolls, pizza etc. I have been using the recipe ever since.

Basic Whole Wheat Bread

Grind approximately 10 cups Wheat Berries in your Wheat Grinder. This produces about 16 or 17 cups of flour.

In your mixing bowl put:

• 6 cups of very warm water (when it is hot to the touch, but not scalding)

• 1/3 cup oil (I use olive oil... you could use whatever you like)

• 1/3 cup honey (if you use the measuring cup for your oil first, then measure the honey, the honey comes out of the cup easily)

• 2 tablespoons yeast (I use instant or fast acting yeast)

• 5 cups wholewheat flour

Mix together and let sponge 10 - 15 minutes.... until bubbly.

Turn on mixer and add:

• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt

• 1/3 cup gluten (this gives the bread a softer, airier, stretchier texture; in recent years I have been leaving this out. I sometimes add a cup or two of white flour in place of the whole grain, for an alternative to additional gluten).

• Approximately 9-1l cups more flour) Each time you make bread, your flour measurements can be different, depending on the moisture in the flour or the moisture in the air, or whether the flour is freshly ground, or has been ground previously (the flour will be more compact, the longer it is stored as flour). The best way to determine if you need more flour is to watch as you put in each cup. Once it no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl, you have enough.

Add ins may be added at this point... such as sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, oatmeal, dill or caraway seed what ever you like.



Knead for 5-6 minutes if you have a Bosch Machine, or 7-10 with a standard mixer (if using a standard mixer, cut this recipe in half or 1/3), 13-15 minutes for hand kneading .


Put bread dough onto an oiled surface (this keeps the bread moist). Cut dough into portions for each loaf pan, pat them nicely into a log shaped loaf and place into oiled pan. This recipe makes 4-5 large loaves, or 5-6 medium loaves. I also use the dough to make pizza, cinnamon buns, hamburger buns and rolls.


I grease my bread pans with natural shortening or cooking spray or you can also use a mixture of oil with a little bit of liquid lecithin as described below: Also, a narrow sided bread pan is best, in order to support the rising bread dough, providing better chance that your dough will not collapse in the center.

Lecithin non -stick mixture:

• 1 Tablespoon lecithin (this adds to the non-sticking quality of the oil)
• 2 Tablespoons oil 

You can keep a mixture of this in your fridge for ready use.

Allow bread, or rolls time to double in size.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake bread approximately 25- 35 minutes depending on the size of your loaf.  You may use a thermometer to check the internal temperature; you will want it to be about 195 degrees.  I don't ever use a thermometer, but take it out once it is lightly golden, usually about 25 minutes.

Dough waiting to be oiled, and divided into loaves and rolls.

Rising Loaf

Rising Hamburger Buns

Cinnamon rolls and sticky buns are a yummy way to enjoy healthy, wholesome, bread.

Cinnamon Buns rising

This bread makes wonderful sandwich bread.