Wheat Bread

So I just finished chatting with my good friend Kendra and she told me she had just taken bread out of the oven - well I had too! So I decided to post my bread and recipe. Let me just first off start by saying I have decided to do something very drastic for us. And, if you haven't figured it out already, I sometimes go a little nutty about new ideas I have. Drum roll please....we (I) have decided to put us on a grocery budget. TJ thinks he is going to die, he can be so dramatic sometimes! We have never lived on a grocery budget. I just buy what we like to eat and never think about cost. Let me just reassure you that we are doing fine, no money problems etc. etc. But I have been inspired by Moneysavingmom.com to live on a $50 a week budget. Yes you read right - $50 a week. We did it already last week. We will see how long we can keep it up. So I'm sure you can imagine that $50 doesn't go very far in food. I decided that making bread could save me probably about $10 a month, and I love homemade bread. Plus, there is no preservatives in it. And I have a ton of wheat. And I have an awesome wheat grinder. So I won't even have to buy any flour for a few years... Ok, this recipe came from The Bread of Life Bake Shop in Pensacola and it's perfect for sandwiches. I have another recipe for wheat bread that I LOVE, but it's more of a eating bread (does that make any sense???) rather than a sandwich bread. I'll post that one later.

Whole Wheat Bread - Sponge Method

7-8 cups fresh white wheat flour

1 TBS dough enhancer

2 TBS instant yeast

2 tsps salt

2 1/2 cups warm water

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup honey

1. Combine the warm water, yeast, and two cups of fresh whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl. Allow to sponge for 15 minutes. Add the honey, oil, dough enhancer, salt, and 4-5 cups additional flour until the dough is stiff and cleans the side of the bowl. Let mix on speed 2 in your mixer for about 7 minutes or until dough is very smooth and elastic with small bubbles or blisters beneath the surface of the dough.

2. With oil on hands, remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place on oiled surface. Divide dough into two balls. With rolling pin, roll 1 ball out two times the length and one times the width of your bread pan. Starting at one end, roll the dough, sealing each roll with fingers. Place in pans which have been well greased. Allow to rise in a slightly warmed oven (84 to 88 degrees) or other warm place until doubled in size (about 30-40 minutes).

3. Bake loaves 30-35 minutes in a 315 degree oven. When loaves are done immediately remove from pans and let cool on a wire rack. Placing bread on its side may help to reduce the risk of falling - I never have had my bread fall.

That's it!