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4.10.13

The Bread Series: Basic Wholewheat Bread

We're fans of homemade bread around here. Our aim is to always bake our own bread. It's cheaper and what's better than fresh bread with a slab of butter? The answer is nothing. While I don't always have the time, I do love a good homemade bread. I've had a lot of requests for my various recipes so I thought I would share a few of our favorites. These are tried and true and feature regularly in this household. First up is a traditional wholewheat loaf that's simple to make. I'll also be sharing recipes for my mom's famous bread, Phil's artisan crusty bread, and my dad's french bread (which is a great quick bread that I like making for dinner guests).

Homemade Wholewheat Bread Recipe
Homemade Wholewheat Bread Recipe

This bread is the one I bake most often. It's simple to make and doesn't call for any fancy ingredients. I find that it needs to be kneaded fully and it needs to rise longer so that it gets nice and tall. I use a mixture of wholewheat and white flours but you can use whatever flour you like. This bread is a great basic bread, I've adapted it into sweet or savory breads with no problem. Simply add in more sugar for a sweet bread or add in flavors like garlic or tomato paste for a more savory bread.

Traditional Wholewheat Bread

3 cups flour (whatever kind you like)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp yeast
bread improver (optional, I use 1 tsp)

Mix together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add:

1 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix ingredients then knead for 8-10 minutes. Set the dough in an oiled bowl and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size. Knock back, shape, leave to rise again until doubled and bake at 180C for 35-40 minutes.

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I knead all my breads with a stand mixer and bake in a preheated oven. Before I got a stand mixer we hand kneaded all our bread with the same results. No fancy equipment needed here!

7 comments:

  1. What is bread improver? I've never heard of it, but it sure looks like it gives great results. Yum! Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Woooo Hoooo, thanks for this receipe, I waited so long for this. I'm definately looking forward to this series.
    Your blog is exceptional!! Thanks.

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  3. Yum! We make all our bread here too. Freshly baked bread beats store-bought hands down! Lately, since I sold my Kenwood in Switzerland :( I've been using a no-knead bread recipe which is fantastic. Looking forward to trying this one and those to come!

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  4. That looks amazing. I really would love to make our own bread, looks simple enough so I might need to try it later this week!

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  5. Looks and sounds delish! My wrists cant handle daily kneading so we have been using a no knead recipe every day for amost a year!

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  6. Hi Talia, Just tried out your recipe - it is simply amazing. I actually have a breadmaker, but love this easy hand-knead and bake one! Could you post your "mom's famous bread, Phil's artisan crusty bread, and {your} dad's french bread when you can - would love to try these also! BFN - Naomi

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