Wednesday, August 10, 2011

MrsDrPoe: Whole Wheat Bread

Today's What's for Dinner Wednesday is another treat to eat with your meal- whole wheat bread made from scratch from start to finish (just call me the little red hen). This recipe is essentially from my VitaMix cookbook, with a few minor adjustments. If you don't have one of these mixers-on-steroids, you can start with whole wheat flour and mix/kneed the dough by hand.


Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups warm water (not pictured), 1 package active dry yeast, 1 tablespoons honey, 1 3/4 cups whole kernel wheat, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Place the whole wheat kernels in the dry container, securing the lid. Turn the machine on VARIABLE speed 1. Quickly increase the speed to 10 and then to high. Grind wheat for 1 minute, and then let it cool for a few minutes.


Combine yeast, honey, and the water in a bowl to proof for approximately 5 minutes.


Pour oil, lemon juice, and yeast mixture into the wheat flour in the blender container. To mix the dough, turn the machine on HIGH for 1 second. While the dough rests, grease a loaf pan. To kneed the dough in the machine, two steps are required; repeat the two-step process 5 times.

Step 1: Scrape the sides of the container with a non-stick spatula, pulling the dough at the sides to the center of the container.

Step 2: With the speed set to HIGH, turn the machine on and off quickly, 5 times.

Dump the dough into the loaf pan, scraping the container with the spatula if necessary. Shape the loaf with the spatula:


Let the dough rise about 30 minutes until it reaches the top of the loaf pan.


Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

Each loaf makes 12 slices, and each slice has: 99 calories, 0 grams of fat, 4 grams of fiber, 2 milligrams of sodium, 0 grams of sugar, and 22 grams of Carbs...obviously not low-carb but pretty healthy (bread-wise) and no preservatives. Enjoy!



**Edit 8/11/11: The above nutrition information is for a slice of bread made without oil, honey, salt, and lemon juice which are considered optional ingredients in the original recipe. Thanks to Anonymous for prompting a second look!

2 comments:

  1. I would love to try this recipe, looks like a healthy alternative to a lot of the store bought breads. I have been surprised at how long it takes me to go through all the bread to find one without HFCS. I have a few questions: 1) Do you find whole kernel wheat in a regular grocery store? 2) Can I use a regular blender? and 3) Can you please explain how there are 0 grams sugar when honey is one of the ingredients?

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  2. @Anonymous
    You should definitely try it! In answer to your questions:

    1) I have found whole wheat flour but not whole wheat berries at my local Kroger and Publix; however, you can find the berries at whole foods stores or online. From what I read, the berries have an indefinite shelf life, so if purchasing the berries is a bit out of the way for you, buying in bulk could be an option.

    2) I've not tried the recipe with a regular blender, but I don't know how well it would work. According to the Vitamix website, the special "dry" blade is thicker and duller, and using the "wet" blade (similar to that on a regular blender) will cause your dough to be more of a damp paste.

    3) I had originally assumed that since the amount of honey used was so small, the amount of sugar per slice was negligible (less than a gram). After taking a closer look, it would appear that this nutrition information from Vitamix is for a loaf without honey, salt, oil, or lemon juice, which are considered "optional" ingredients in the original recipe. Using the honey, each slice should have about 1.5 grams of sugar. Thanks for provoking a closer look!

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