Whole Wheat Honey Bread

In the wake of the intensity 6.5 earthquake last Monday, Rad and I went shopping for some supplies. We have decided to again, revive our "earthquake" emergency bag. Funny how fear motivates one to finally get everything ready. Shizuoka City has been waiting for the Tokai earthquake for more than 30 years now and although, the city/prefecture prides itself as being ready for that great big quake, it pays to be ready, personally too. But this is not a blog about earthquake, so....

While we were shopping, I asked Rad to pick some bread for breakfast but he refused saying, "Why should we buy bread when now you can make it yourself already?". Needless to say, there`s that added pressure to have a newly baked bread available always. And so, despite my resolve to stay away from the oven for a while till I finish my papers, I once again, have to do some experiment.

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com .

Ingredients:

• 2 cups warm water (about 45 degrees celsius)
• 1 tbsp active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 5 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add honey and stir well. Mix in whole wheat flour, salt, and vegetable oil. Work all-purpose flour gradually. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead for at least 10 - 15 minutes. When dough is smooth and elastic, place it in a well oiled bowl. Turn several times in the bowl to coat the surface of the dough and cover with damp cloth (I used a wrap). Let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

Punch down the dough. Shape into two loaves, and place into two well greased loaf pans. Allow to rise until dough is 1 to 1 1/2 inches above pans.

Bake at preheated 190 degrees Celsius oven for 25-30 minutes.

I only used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour so I adjusted the all-purpose flour. I also used 1 cup milk in lieu of one cup of water. I just liked the idea of having milk in my bread. I followed the directions to the letter except that, I left the dough to rise for about 4 hours because I had an appointment. When I came back, it really rose! and overflowed! Tehehehee

The recipe said that it can make two 9 x 5 in-loaf breads but I only had 2 small loaf pans I use for my quickbreads. So I used another round pan. The dough in the round pan, I mixed in raisins as per Rad`s request. I also put some lemon-sugar glaze because it looked so dry but even without the glaze, it would still taste great. It is a bit bland which is really good for bread to be used for sandwiches but I think adding honey up to 1/2 cup won`t hurt. I am quite thankful that I finally found a bread recipe which actually gave me the loaf bread that I wanted. It is quite an easy basic bread recipe with so many possibilities. This would surely become a weekly activity.