The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Easy wheat bread recipe

Linda H's picture
Linda H

Easy wheat bread recipe

I'm looking for an easy to make wheat bread recipe. I've looked on this site some, but they all have ingredients I've never heard of, and I live in an area where I doubt I'd be able to buy them.

I just finally managed to make a good loaf of white bread, so was thinking of expanding my horizons, but have been a bit overwhelmed by what I've found so far. Any help would be appreciated. Oh, and I don't use a bread machine, just my kitchen-aid stand mixer and me.

 

Thanks in advance

Linda

MarieH's picture
MarieH

Linda,

Do you want to make a sandwich type loaf bread using yeast? Or do you want to use a sourdough culture?

Linda H's picture
Linda H

Good question...

Um I have no clue what a sourdough culture is. So I'll play it safe and say a sandwich type loaf bread.

I did find a recipe under Handbook on this site -

Buttermilk Honey Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Is there a way to make it without using the buttermilk? I'd rather stay away from buttermilk if something else could be used in it's place.

LindyD's picture
LindyD

If  you mean whole wheat, there's one on the front page, under "Favorite Recipes":

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/wholewheathoneybread

Linda H's picture
Linda H

Yes! I think that's exactly what I was looking for! Thank you so much!

AW's picture
AW

Linda,

Please feel free to try mine if you like:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16345/whole-wheat-sandwich-bread

-Arlene

Linda H's picture
Linda H

Thanks Arlene. I will probably try several to see what my family likes best.

Chuck's picture
Chuck

but they all have ingredients I've never heard of

Can you be a little more specific about exactly which "ingredients" seem odd? Perhaps they really are unusual; but perhaps they're just a different name for something you'd otherwise recognize.

I live in an area where I doubt I'd be able to buy them

Mail order is wonderful (at least for things that aren't quite heavy like flour:-) Suddenly the variety of things that are available goes up by several hundred-fold. It's typically a little bit more expensive to cover the "shipping" costs  ...but the expense is not out of line, certainly not prohibitive. A good source is
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/landing.jsp?go=Home

Linda H's picture
Linda H

Well, there were several that I looked at that had ingredients that I had never heard of...One of them is "vital wheat gluten" not sure if the vital is a brand name or what exactly...this recipe also called for organic buckwheat honey - and I have no idea where I could buy that locally.

I know you can order just about anything online these days, but I had hoped to make the bread today on my day off work.  With the economy the way it is extras are not in the budget, so it might just be out of the question for me right now.

Chuck's picture
Chuck

Yep, VitalWheatGluten is sometimes used, especially with bagels and whole-wheat bread, to make the dough rise even higher and/or be even more chewy.(If you're in a cartoon mood, you might think of it as "white flour on steroids".) It's made by extracting just the gluten from wheat, and is generally roughly around 75% "pure". It's (often) called '"vital ..." to clearly distinguish it from other things, is often abbreviated VWG, and is sometimes (confusingly!) called "gluten flour" (or even worse "high gluten flour", which is the proper name of something else entirely). Some supermarkets (particularly those that sell "unusual" bread flours) regularly stock VWG next to the flour.

Although some WholeWheat bread recipes include it so the bread will rise nicely even if the baker does a whole lot of things wrong, many other recipes do not. I think it's more typical to mix WholeWheat flour (for example 60%) with "bread" flour (for example 40%), which is made by virtually all flour brands and is a regular item at supermarkets .

It sounds like you hit on a rather funky recipe that did some unusual things and wasn't very good at explaining them; finding a different recipe seems to have been a very good idea. (I hope TFL has cleared some things up for "next" time though:-)

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Vital wheat gluten is a high gluten wheat flour, a concentrate, and should be well mixed into the flour before wetting it as it clumps.  Can also google it or read more on our site search machine, upper left corner of the page.  A lot of discussion on the subject.  It is also easy to find recipes without it.  

Buckwheat honey just means the honey was collected in an area where buckwheat fields are located.  Use your favorite honey.   I support the buying of local honey, check with your local bee-keepers.  

Welcome to The Fresh Loaf!   Hope to hear about your first loaf soon.  :)