Making Whole Wheat Bread

In February, our Relief Society did a whole-wheat bread making class. Most of us have mixers, and can make bread much quicker than by hand, but it is a skill we should have in our back pocket should we need it. We had sisters learning to make bread and sisters who were pros at it, working together. The mentoring made such a difference. You really have to learn what the dough feels like when it's ready, and it was so helpful to have someone there to give me tips. Here is the recipe we used at the class, it makes just one loaf of bread and works great for learning how to make bread by hand.

Whole Wheat Bread
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1 cup warm water
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp instant yeast

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup of water (at a temperature of 110 to 120 degrees) with one cup of flour and the salt, honey, yeast, oil and milk. Stir well.

Mix in the remaining flour and stir until the dough starts to pull away from the bowl.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for 6 to 10 minutes. You may need to add more flour a little at a time through this process.

Shape into a loaf and put in a lightly greased loaf pan. Loosely cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let rise for 30 to 60 minutes until the doughg rises approximately one inch above pan.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the loaf in the center of the oven and cook for about 40 minutes. After 20 minutes loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil, test if the wheat bread is done by thumping the bottom of the bread, it should sound hollow. Let bread cool on a rack, then serve.