Homemade Whole Wheat Bread That You Will Actually Want to Eat

A few years ago I started making my own bread from scratch and now I will never go back. The homemade kind tastes so much better, is so much better for you, and is so much cheaper. It is a little extra work, but once you get the hang of it, it is not hard at all. I make bread at least once a week.

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I made it a lot more and froze a bunch so that I wouldn't have to make some for a while after I had my baby. You can freeze them for a month or two, but I wouldn't go longer than a few months or 6 months at the most as they get freezer burnt really easily and that ruins the texture.

When I first started making bread, I used the bread recipe from pantry secrets. It is an okay recipe that is meant to be fail safe and easy. It is easy and fast, but I don't think that my recipe is any harder. Mine might be a little easier to mess up, but even when I do mess up, it still tastes good, it just doesn't look as pretty. I also like that mine has all REAL ingredients. Theirs requires Soy Lecithin and I am not sure what that is exactly, but I am sure it is processed and we are trying to avoid processed foods as much as we can. It is also hard to find and you have to buy it from them (which is convenient for them).

My recipe comes from my mom, who got it from a local bakery in CA. I have modified her recipe a bit to make 2 regular size loaves as hers makes HUGE loaves that don't fit in my bread bags. Growing up, everybody knew my mom for her bread. She would donate a few loaves for silent auction fundraisers and they would often sell for over $50 a loaf! It is really that good and you can hardly believe that you are eating whole wheat bread because it is so light, fluffy, and moist.

I was scared to make hers at first because I didn't think that I could make mine as good as hers, but come to find out it is really easy and mine taste just as good!

This bread uses 100% whole wheat flour. I grind mine myself if a wheat grinder right before I make it. Wheat flour loses its nutrient value quickly after you grind it (like within a few days) and can become rancid quickly. When you grind wheat, if you do not use it right away, be sure to store it in the freezer so that you can retain the nutrients better. You can also use whole wheat flour purchased from a store, but it won't have the nutrient value that using freshly ground wheat can have.

So on to the recipe (scroll all the way down for full recipe)

Break making is so much easier if you have a good mixer with kneading attachments. I use the 20+ year old mixer that was a hand me down from my mom after she got a Bosch. Bosch mixers are the best. Kitchen Aids will work, but their motors are not as strong and will burn out rather quickly if you make bread very often.  You can also mix and knead everything by hand.

 First thing I do is grind my wheat. I usually use hard white or hard red wheat. You can use either kind, just not soft wheat. I think the red has a little bit stronger of a flavor and I have heard that it can be a little harder to digest for people who are not used to eating a lot of wheat, but I have not noticed any difference.

I fill the top of my grinder with as much as it will hold. For my grinder, this makes about 4 cups and only takes a few minutes to grind. I set it aside to use later.

 In the mixing bowl, I first combine 2 1/4 cups of hot water, 1/3 cup oil, 1/3 cup honey and 1 t salt. For the water, I use filtered water and then heat it in the microwave for a minute. You want it hot, but not so hot that it burns your finger if you put it in it.

I also have a trick for the honey. I take my 1 cup pyrex liquid measuring cup and first put in 1/3 cup of oil. Then I add honey until it gets up to 2/3 cup. The honey will settle towards the bottom, but there will still be a little oil between the glass and the honey. Then when you pour it out, the honey just slips right out without sticking to the glass.

Then I add 1/3 cup of gluten. The gluten is very important as this is what keeps the bread from being crumbly. When using whole wheat flour, you have to have gluten or the bread won't have good texture and will be dense. Gluten has gotten a bad rap lately, but gluten is only bad for people who are sensitive to it. For most people, it is totally fine. Just because something is gluten free, does not mean it is healthy. 

 Then you add 1 Tablespoon of yeast. You can use dry active or instant yeast. Both will work just fine. The instant rises faster at first, but the dry active catches up and in the end they both make the bread rise in about the same amount of time.

 After the yeast, I leave my mixer on, and then add about 4-5 cups of wheat flour, a cup at a time. My wheat grinder usually does about 4 1/2 cups at a time, so sometimes I supplement with a little bit of bread flour (I like the Turkey Flour from Lehi Roller Mills) if 4 1/2 isn't a enough. Do not use all-purpose flour.

 The amount of flour needed will vary depending on the day (humidity, pressure, temperature, etc) which is why you add it a cup at a time. You want to keep adding until the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a clump in the middle. When I made it for these pictures I used about 4 3/4 cups. If you add too much, it will be dry, but if you don't add enough, it will be too wet and sticky to work with. If you end up adding to much, just a little bit more water.

After adding the flour, put on the lid, turn up the speed and have it knead the bread for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile I usually put the ingredients away, wash my measuring cups/spoons, and grease my pans and a small section of the counter. I will also turn on the oven for just a minute, just so it is a little warm, but not hot.

After 5 minutes, turn it off and then grease up your hands really well so you can take the dough out of the bowl and put it on your counter. The dough should be pretty smooth and a little sticky so make sure you put it on the greased section of your counter. After you start kneading bread, you don't want to incorporate any more flour which is why we grease our hands and the counter instead of flouring it. 

Now we are going to hand knead it just a bit to smooth it out a bit more after taking it out of the bowl. Start out with a somewhat flattened mound, then fold it in half and press. Then rotate it 90 degrees and do it again. I usually use both hands for this, but I needed one hand to take pictures with. Repeat this 4-5 times.

Now you want to split the dough in half to make the 2 loaves. I form an elongated ball and then use my thumb and middle finger to pinch the dough into two (somewhat) equal halves.

 To form the loaves, I flatten it out and fold it in half like I do when kneading, but then pull the sides down a bit to form a smooth top with the seam on the bottom. I place the loaves seam side down in the pans.

 My loaves weren't quite even, but that is fine. It won't matter too much. I place the pans inside the warm oven to rise. The rising time will again vary a ton. For me, it takes 20-30 minutes. If you have not made bread before or do not make bread very often, it will probably take longer. The more you make bread, the faster it will rise due to the amount of "wild" yeast that will be present in your kitchen. You want it rise until the dough forms a little dome above the rim of the pan. It will rise a bit more when you start to bake it too so don't let it rise too high or it can collapse. When mine gets close, I take them out of the oven and put them on top of the stove so that the oven can preheat.

When fully risen, bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the top. When you pull them out of the pans, the sides should be slightly golden brown too. If they are pale, they need to be baked few minutes more.

Immediately take them out of the pans and place on a cooling rack. If you don't do this, not only can they become overbaked from the hot pans, but the steam can make the bottoms all soggy.

They smell so good, that it is tempting to cut into them right away, but in order to retain the most moisture and not have them dry out, it is better to wait for them to cool before slicing. Use a good serrated bread knife and cut them while on its side rather than from the top for best results. The end result is soft, moist, fluffly whole wheat bread that tastes soooo good. Store it inside a bread bag to keep it from drying out, but be sure it is fully cooled first to keep moisture from forming on the inside of the bag and making your bread soggy.

Because it has no preservatives, homemade bread will mold faster than store bought bread so be sure to either eat it within a few days or just store it in your fridge. I've kept loaves fresh for 2 weeks or more by keeping them in a plastic bread bag in the fridge.

The original recipe calls for 2 rises, first in a bowl and then in a pan, but most of the time I just skip that first rise and it always turns out just fine.

Homemade Whole Wheat Bread

2 1/4 cups HOT water

1/3 C oil

1/3 C honey

1 t salt

1/3 C gluten flour (if bread is crumbly add more)

1 T Yeast (active dry or instant)

about 4-5 C Flour (whole wheat, bread flour or combo) then more if needed.

Combine water, oil, honey, and salt in mixer, then mix in gluten. Add yeast, then add flour 1 cup at a time until it pulls away from the sides. Put lid on and mix/knead on high for 5 minutes. *Butter/oil bowl and your fingers. (Dough should be sticky and moist) Twist dough around finger in bowl, then turn upside down in mound. Cover with a towel and put in warm, draft-free place to double in size (about 20-25 minutes). Punch down, divide in two and put in two loaf pans. Let rise in pan (about 15-20 minutes). Bake at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.

 *You can also skip the first rising and put the dough directly into the loaf pans to rise.

So there you have it. It may seem hard, but it really isn't. Just a warning though, once you start making it, you will not want to buy store bought bread ever again :)

Choco-PB Rice krispy Treats

My mom made the BEST Rice Krispy treats growing up. She had several variations, but this one was my favorite and I have never found a recipe like it. Most recipes either have PB or chocolate, or are PB with a chocolate top. These both the PB and the chocolate are incorporated into the whole thing and they are sooo good. Its a good thing it only makes a small pan because in my current pregnant state I could probably eat the whole pan.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Treats

6 T butter or margarine
1/4 C Peanut Butter ( I like crunchy and I usually use closer to 1/3 cup)
1- 10oz. pkg marshmallows (about 4 cups mini or 40 large)
1/3 C Cocoa
4 C Rice Krispies
optional- 1/2 C nuts, raisins or chocolate chips  (I use mini chocolate chips)

Melt butter and PB in saucepan over med-low heat. Add marshmallows and continue to stir and melt until marshmallows are completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in cocoa. Lastly stir in rice krispies and chips/nuts until all are well coated. Spread evenly into a lightly greased 9x9 pan. Cool before serving. 

*My mom originally got this recipe from an old Hershey's cocoa recipe booklet. 

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Honey Lime Chipotle Chicken and Enchiladas

After Thanksgiving I was searching for some creative ways to use the leftover turkey and found this honey chipotle chicken recipe so we had to try it on our turkey. It was so good and my husband has been asking me to make it again ever since. Recently on pinterest I saw a recipe for honey lime enchiladas and immediately knew that I had to try that too. The problem was that we didn't have any cooked chicken and I didn't feel like just cooking a chicken to marinade it after for these recipes.

I figured that there must be an easier way. My solution was to cook the chicken with all the yummy flavors in the crock pot. It turned out amazing and my husband couldn't stop raving about how good it was!! I kept the spiciness level to a minimum so the kids could eat it too and they loved it as well. My picky 3 year old even asked for seconds which almost never happens. If you want it really spicy, feel free to add more chipotle peppers. I think next time I might add some chipotle peppers to the sauce instead of using green chiles too. I love when dinner experiments turn out good.

Honey Chipotle Lime Crock Pot Chicken
Inspired by this recipe

1/2 cup honey
juice of 2 limes (about 5-6 T)
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (use more if wanting more spiciness)
2 t adobo sauce
1 T minced garlic
about 1 pound of boneless skinless chicken breast (about 3-4 chicken breasts)

Combine first 5 ingredients and puree using an immersion blender (or regular blender). Place chicken in crock pot and pour puree over the top. Cook on low for 5-6 hours.

About a 1/2 hour to an hour before serving, remove chicken, shred and then return to crock pot soak up the juices/flavor. Serve in tacos, burritos, salad, or use in enchiladas like the recipe below.



Honey Chipotle Lime Chicken Enchiladas
Inspired by this recipe

Honey Chitpotle Lime Chicken (recipe above)
8 flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
3/4 sour cream
1 4 oz can of diced green chiles (or 1-2 diced chipotle peppers)

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray. Mix the last three ingredients to make a sauce. Spread a few spoonfuls of sauce on bottom of pan. Fill tortillas with chicken mixture (leaving as much of the juice as you can so they don't get too soggy) and a mix of the two cheeses, reserving about a cup of the cheese for the top later. Roll and place in pan. Add any of the leftover juice to the sauce and mix. Cover enchiladas with the sauce and then cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove foil and sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for another 5-10 minutes or until cheese is all melted.

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Lime Buddies Chex Mix

So, I will be 17 weeks tomorrow, which means I should be feeling better by now, but I am not. I am just wishing that this does not last the whole pregnancy. All I want for Christmas this year is for the morning sickness to go away :(

Anyways, we needed to make something easy for a Christmas treat for some of my husband's coworkers/teacher friends at school and I saw this recipe for Lemon Buddies Chex Mix on a box of Rice Chex. It looked so good and we had all of the ingredients except for a lemon. We had a lime though so we figured we'd give it a try with the lime. I am so glad that we did, it turned out so good and it only took 15 minutes!

Chex Lime Buddies
adapted from this recipe

9 cups Rice Chex cereal
1 1/4 cups white vanilla baking chips (we just used 10oz of vanilla candy coating)
1/4 cup butter or margarine
4 teaspoons grated lime peel (about half a lime)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (about half a lime)
2 cups powdered sugar

1. Measure cereal into a large bowl and set aside.

2. In a 1-quart microwavable bowl, microwave chips, butter, lime peel, and lime juice uncovered on high for 1 minute; stir. Microwave for about 30 seconds more or longer until mixture can be stirred smooth. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated.

3. Pour powdered sugar and cereal into a 2 gallon ziploc bag and seal. Gently shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper or foil to cool. Store in a resealable container.


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Super Easy Turkey Pot Pie

How was your Thanksgiving? We hosted this year and had a great time. We kept it pretty informal and just focused on the food. We used paper plates, which I am a little embarrassed about, but I wasn't sure if we would have enough "real" plates and I didn't want to bother with doing dishes. I try to conserve energy when I can nowadays since energy is on short supply for me lately. 

One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is the leftover Turkey. There are so many things you can do with it and this is one of my family's favorites: Turkey Pot Pie. I am pretty sure that my bachelor brother makes a turkey by himself every year just so that he can make this pot pie. In keeping with the energy conservation theme, this version is super easy.

Easy Turkey Pot Pie


I never measure anything with this pot pie, so these amounts are approximated. Feel free to adjust them to your liking.

1-2 cups Leftover Cooked Turkey, cut into bite-sized pieces
3-4 cups vegetables- I usually use peas and carrots, you can use fresh or frozen
3-4 potatoes, skinned and cubed (or use frozen hash-browns, the cubed kind not the shredded)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup of milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 roll of crescent rolls, the Pillsbury kind works best as the store brands don't seem to work as well.

Pre-cook all the veggies and potatoes in water on stove until fork tender. Drain. If using frozen veggies/potatoes, just cook until warm and no longer frozen. Mix veggies, potatoes, turkey, cream of chicken soup, milk, and salt and pepper. If sauce is too then, add more milk. Spread in 9x13 pan. Take crescent rolls and roll out into a solid sheet the size of the pan. I  like to buy the "recipe creations" kind of crescent rolls because it comes in a solid sheet already and I just have to roll it out a little bit. Spread crescent rolls on top of filling to act as top crust. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-40 minutes or until top crust is light brown and filling is hot and bubbly. Let cool a few minutes and serve.


There you have it. Super easy and so good. My kids love this, my husband loves this and I love this in my pregnant, everything tastes gross and makes me want to puke state. Try it, you won't regret it.

Also, don't forget, today is the last day of the free shipping sale in my Etsy Shop. Use the coupon code "THANKSGIVING2011" at checkout for free shipping on your entire order (U.S. order only). Ends tonight at midnight so you better hurry.

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Perfect Pie Crust and Buttermilk Pie Recipe

Growing up, we always had pie for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I LOVE pie. I hate store bought crust though. It is so gross compared to the real stuff. My mom taught me how to make the perfect crust and I am going to share that with you. I am also going to share my favorite pie recipe, Buttermilk Pie. So yummy!

This pie crust recipe is from Martha Stewart (I think) and it uses real butter so it tastes so good and has the perfect texture.

Pie Crust:

2 1/2 C Flour
1 t salt (use less if using salted butter)
1 t sugar
2 COLD sticks of butter, cut in pieces (preferably unsalted, if using salted then reduce amount of salt)
1/4-1/2 C ICE water

Mix all ingredients except for water with a pastry blender until butter looks like very small peas (smaller the better). Slowly mix in water, a few drops at a time until it starts clumping together when you squeeze it with your hand. The less water, the better.

Makes 2 crusts or a top and bottom crust.

 I slice and quarter my butter into little squares

Add the other dry ingredients

 Blend with pastry blender (I usually put on a show and sit on the floor with the bowl in my lap and blend away for 15 minutes or so)

 The butter should all be broken up and the flour and butter all incorporated pretty well

You really want the water to be as cold as possible so when I say ice water, I mean it. Drizzle it on a little at a time while you mix it. 

When it clumps together well when you squeeze it in your hand, then you have enough water. If you add too much, it will be too sticky and a pain to roll out. If you don't add enough, then it will be too crumbly and will fall apart. 

Take half of it and form it into a ball with your hands. If you are short on time, you can wrap them in saran wrap and put them in the fridge for a few hours, or you can just make the crusts now.

At this point, the less you touch it the better. You want it to stay cold. You can roll it out on a floured surface or...

...between 2 sheets of parchment paper (still use a little flour though). Roll it out until it is somewhere between 1/8-1/4" thick (or however thick you like it, this is how I prefer it.)

 Transfer to pie dish by folding in half (or quarters) and lifting over pie dish.

Unfold and press gently into edges and smooth out. 

Use a sharp knife (I think a serrated one works best) to trim edges just below edge.

 Fold the excess over the top (this is how I do it, everyone has their own "method" to this part)

 

Pinch between index fingers to form a decorative edge

 The finished product, all ready for filling. Repeat for the second half.

When I am making a lot of pies (which happens a lot in my family, we love pie!) I will make a bunch of pie shells ahead of time, wrap them in saran wrap and stick them in the freezer. When I am ready to make the filling, I just take them out to thaw in the fridge a few hours ahead of time. 

Now for my favorite pie recipe, Buttermilk Pie. This pie is a sweet custard like pie with a top that almost reminds me of crème brûlée. Don't let the name fool you, this pie is amazing. It is not healthy, but so good.

Buttermilk Pie

1 1/2 sticks butter or margarine
6 eggs
1/2 C flour
3 C sugar
1 C buttermilk
1T vanilla

2 unbaked pie shells

Melt butter, put aside. Beat eggs together. Add sugar and flour to eggs slowly. Add melted margarine, then buttermilk and vanilla. Pour into unbaked pie shells. Bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes at 325 degrees on lower shelf.

Cool before serving.

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Homemade Wheat Rolls, aka My Mom's Famous Rolls, aka The BEST Rolls You'll Ever Make

 These homemade rolls are the best and my mom is famous for them in our family. She makes them for every family event/holiday and we even had them at my wedding reception. My Step-Grandfather asks for a batch of his own for Christmas because they are that good. I've tried other recipes, but I always go back to this one because nothing is better.

They are made from a hot roll mix that we make a big batch of and store in the freezer. Then it is easy to throw together a batch when you need them.


Hot Roll Mix

5lbs flour (1lb=4 cups, so 20 cups) I use about half wheat flour and half bread flour
1 1/4 cup sugar
4t salt
1 cup instant nonfat dry milk

Combine ingredients. Makes about 22 cups of mix.  (I store mine in gallon size ziploc bags in the freezer to protect the nutrients in the fresh ground wheat flour)

Pan Rolls

1 1/2 T yeast
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water (not too hot or it will kill the yeast)
2 eggs beaten
1 cube melted butter or margarine
about 1/2 cup gluten flour (the more wheat flour you use, the more gluten flour you need)
5 to 6 cups of hot roll mix (this amount can vary, I usually only end up using about 4 1/2 cups)

Dissolve yeast in warm water in mixer. Add eggs and butter, leaving motor on, add gluten flour and then roll mix 1 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Put lid on and mix on high for about 5 minutes (or knead by hand for about 10-15 minutes). Place dough in buttered large bowl and turn dough over so top is buttered. Cover and place in warm, draft free place until double in bulk. (oven with light on works well). Make into rolls and place on greased cookie sheets and allow to rise again until doubled or about 30 minutes. Bake at 375 for 15 to 20 minutes. Make about 2 dozen (I usually get about 30). Cool on baking racks.

Dissolving the yeast:

After 3 cups of mix (still too wet):

4 cups, getting closer.

After 4 3/4 cups, perfect. The dough pulls away from the side and all sticks together around the kneading arms.

 After the first rise.

Form into rolls

Place on greased cookie sheet, you want them to have a little room to rise, but not too much or they will spread instead of rising up. 

After second rise.

Just perfect! The more wheat you use, the darker they will come out. I have found that the best way to judge their doneness is to lift them up and look at the bottom. If the bottom is slightly golden, then they are done.

These freeze well too, so make a couple of batches and freeze them for later!

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