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Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Our favorite homemade honey whole wheat bread and the best smelling thing in the universe! This makes a huge batch which works in my 6 qt KitchenAid, but you might want to cut in half and make two loaves!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Total Time1 hour 1 minute
Course: bread
Cuisine: American
Keyword: bake, bread, homemade, honey, KitchenAid, wheat berries, wheat grinder, whole wheat
Servings: 48
Calories: 146kcal
Author: Lillie

Ingredients

  • 5 cups warm water
  • 2 1/4 tbs yeast*
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1 1/2 cup white flour
  • 1 1/2 cup oat flour just blend oats in blender and measure after.*
  • 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
  • 1/2 cup melted better 1 stick
  • 1 1/2 tbs salt
  • 9-11 cups WHITE whole wheat flour** I grind hard white wheat berries I get online from Costco, but you can of course buy white whole wheat flour. If I don’t have berries to grind, I like the King Arthur.
  • *You can use instant or non-instant yeast. Just read #1 below carefully. I get a large package of instant yeast from Smart and Final and keep it in my freezer. SOOO much cheaper than the little packs from the store.
  • **The great thing about bread it's good with all kinds of flour! So this is what I shoot for, but any time I'm out of oat flour, I sub with wheat flour. If I run out of wheat flour, I sub with white flour. And sometimes we just want it to be extra yummy and choose to do all white flour. If so, NO NEED FOR GLUTEN FLOUR. That's just to assist the wheat flour in rising and achieving the right consistency in your bread. Macros will be almost the same regardless of the flour you use.

Instructions

  • Add water to your KitchenAid and sprinkle with yeast. Mix in honey and let sit for 5-10 minutes until bubbly and frothy. (If using instant yeast, don't let it sit, just continue on to number 2.)
  • Add in the white flour, wheat gluten, and about half of the whole wheat flour. Mix with paddle attachment. Then add in melted butter and salt. Mix well.
  • Switch to dough hook and add in a few more cups of whole wheat flour.  Keep adding as you mix until the dough pulls away from the sides.  I usually do about 10 cups of whole wheat flour total.  But it depends on the weather etc.  "Knead" the dough on medium speed for ten minutes.
  • Transfer dough into a large greased bowl.  Mist top of dough as well with cooking spray, then cover with plastic wrap. Let rise about an hour or until doubled in size. But I often let mine sit for a few hours until I get around to it. Either works! (I've also been known to let mine rise in the Kitchen-aid bowl covered with a light towel until it overflows all of the my counter.  I don't think that's the proper way.
  • Spray your clean counter with cooking spray or dust with flour.  ( I prefer spray for easier clean up.) Dump out your dough and punch it down. Separate into four equal rounds and form them into loaves by gently pulling and tucking the sides down and underneath to get the top nice and smooth. Drop into greased bread pans. 
  • Let rise in pans until they're an inch or so above the rim of the pan, 30 minutes to an hour. They should look almost like beautiful loaves of bread already. Nice and puffy. Make sure you start preheating your oven when they're getting close. 
  • Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 35 minutes. To fit all four at once, I put one loaf horizontally in the back and three side by side in front of it.  Of course you could half it.

Notes

  • I suggest halving it: Again, I use a large 6 qt Kitchen-aid to make my bread, and we love to freeze our extra loaves and pull them out as needed. It's not JUST as soft and delicious as when it's fresh. But we're mostly toasting it after day one, and for that, it's hardly any different! Still so amazing. But I know not everyone likes to be as stocked up as me. And a smaller mixer might not be able to handle all this dough.
  • If you count macros, I didn't give you gram measurements because with bread, you just really have to go by the look and feel of the dough. It won't be exactly the same each time. I've found the macros to be SO CLOSE regardless... so I don't think it's worth stressing about. Even if you add a lot more flour, your loaves will just be bigger... but your 65 gram slice will consist of a VERY similar break down keeping your macros almost the same.  To log my recipe directly from MFP, just search "Lillie Eats and Tells Honey Whole Wheat Bread." You'll be able slice your bread as thin or as thick as you like and log in grams.

Nutrition

Serving: 68g (1/12 a loaf) | Calories: 146kcal | Carbohydrates: 27.3g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 2.1g | Saturated Fat: 1.1g | Fiber: 3.3g