Emily's Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Okay...so I thought I could bake a pretty good loaf of whole wheat bread, until... I had my friend Emilies bread & WOW, she put mine to shame! For the longest time we couldn't figure out what the difference was in our bread. Mine was great right out of the oven, but hers was AWESOME out of the oven AND several days later. It was moist, soft & elasticy (is that a word??) like store bought bread. We compared recipes & realized she does three things different. First, her recipe has Vital Wheat Gluten in it, second, she 'sponges' her dough (I will explain this process below), and third she uses special bread pans (not really...just ones that actually make your bread come out without ripping the sides apart!) These three additions to your homemade bread will make ALL the difference! So...here is the 'secret' recipe:

Emilie's Whole Wheat Bread

Makes 4 8/4 inch loaves.

7 c. whole wheat flour (grind your own if you have a wheat grinder)
2/3 c. vital wheat gluten
2 1/2 T. instant yeast

5 c. steaming hot water (120-130 F)

2 T. salt
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey or 1 c. sugar (I like honey the best!)
2 1/2 T. bottled lemon juice

5 c. whole wheat flour

Mix together the first three ingredients in your mixer with a dough hook. Add water all at once and mix for 1 minute; cover and let rest for 10 minutes (this is called sponging). Add salt, oil, honey or sugar, and lemon juice and beat for 1 minute. Add last flour, 1 cup at a time, beating between each cup. Beat for about 6-10 minutes until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. This makes very soft dough.

Pre-heat oven for 1 minute to lukewarm and turn off. Turn dough onto oiled counter top; divide, shape into loaves place in oiled bread pans. Let rise in warm oven for 10-15 minutes until dough reaches top of pan. Do not remove bread from oven; turn oven to 350 F and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans and cool on racks. This recipe can be halved to make 2 loaves.

*She ONLY uses Bakers Secret 8x4 inch non stick pans (we could only find them at Smith's grocery store, strange enough).

**Another tip..when the dough is put into the bread pans, squish the dough softly into the corners of your bread loaf pans. This will make your bread cook more evenly and not have the large lump in the middle of your loaf.

FAMILY HOME EVENING - YUMMY TREAT ! 100% WHOLE WHEAT CINNAMON ROLLS

EZ Wheat Bread recipe
(This recipe is from the wonderful EVERYDAY FOOD STORAGE website)
1 1/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup honey or 1/3 cup sugar
2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (or whatever combination white/wheat you like..I use 100% hard white wheat)
1/4 cup wheat gluten
1 tsp salt
2 Tblsp nonfat non instant dry milk
1 Tblsp butter/margarine/oil
1 Tblsp vinegar
1/4 cup potato flakes (NOT potato pearls)

Mix ingredients in order listed in mixing bowl of mixer with dough hook attachment (like kitchen-aid) for 12-15 minutes. Let rise until double, 1- 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, and shape into loaf or rolls. Let rise again until double and bake 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and sounds hollow when lightly tapped.

If you are making this recipe in a bread machine, follow your bread machine’s directions for wheat or whole grain selection and add the ingredients in the order listed for their recommendations. (only one loaf will fit in a bread maker)

Cinnamon Roll Filling
1 c. packed brown sugar
1-2 T. cinnamon
1/3 c. butter

Cream ingredients together and spread over rolled out dough.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. (half a bar) cream cheese (I use fat free)
1/2 c. butter
2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

Cream together cream cheese and butter (I know I didn’t do this in the video…it was only because I forgot…don’t make my same mistake!) slowly add in 2 c. powdered sugar and vanilla. Store leftovers in the fridge.