The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Embarassingly Easy Honey Wheat Bread

cake diva's picture
cake diva

Embarassingly Easy Honey Wheat Bread

One of the consequences of being unemployed is that you have all this free time to do whatever your heart wants to do, and my heart wants to cook and bake and spend my waking moments in the kitchen (if I'm not in front of the computer trying to look for long-lost high school classmates).  This makes my college-age daughter, home for the summer, happy as a clam for about 3-4 days, then she starts to plead with me to stop else she tips the scale more than she wants to.

So I thought today I might try to back off a bit by making a brown wheat bread (it's got to be healthful, right?) that's also delightful to eat.  The following is a recipe that a fellow TFL'er pointed me to when I inquired about a honey wheat bread similar to the one The Cheesecake Factory used to make.  The recipe is called Outback Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bushman Bread from www.cdkitchen.com.

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cup water, warmed
  • 2 tbsp. butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 2 cups bread flour
  • 2 cups wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp. cocoa
  • 1 tbsp. sugar
  • 2 tsp. instant coffee
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 2 1/4 tsp. yeast
  • 1 tsp. caramel color (optional;  I used raw buckwheat honey instead)

Directions:

  1. Place all the ingredients in the bread machine and process on dough setting.  The dough will be a litte on the wet side and sticky.

hw in bread machine

     2.  Let rise for one hour.

before bulk ferment

    After one hour bulk fermentation....

post bulk ferment

    3.  Punch down and divide into 2 large or 4 medium or 8 small portions.  Shape into logs.

shaping hw

    4. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Solstice

Oh wait!  While I was in the kitchen, my husband had sneaked into the car dealer's in the guise of taking advantage of the Cash for Clunkers Program, and brought home this beauty to test drive. Hearing my shriek, my next door neighbor gave a thumbs up and said it would totally look good on me!  So off we went!

    5. About an hour later, after dough has doubled, place logs in parchment, slash, mist, then bake in hot stone at 350F for 20-25 minutes. 

final rise

      6. Serve warm with butter!

finished

The requisite crumb shot.  Don't be fooled- crumb may look tight, but this is one soft bread, slightly sweet from the honey, and just delightful for snacking even unadorned.  I'd try doing a preferment next time to inject some flavor complexity to the finished bread if I weren't the impulsive, down-to-the-last-minute type of baker.

crumb

Comments

97grad's picture
97grad

Looks great cake diva, never knew coco and coffee could be used in bread, I learn something new here everyday. This has to go on my try list.

p.s. my daughter who is 17 has been complaining about all the bread I have been baking lately too, worring about her figure and stuff, then she walks in holding 3 bags of potato chips!!!

Tereze

cake diva's picture
cake diva

LOL!  But these kids don't know how fortunate they are to have parents who are passionate about baking.

I was surprised myself with the inclusion of the cocoa and coffee. I'm sure those are the magic ingredients that make this bread so good.  Do try this recipe;  you'll be pleased.  -  cake diva

ques2008's picture
ques2008

Hi cake diva,

Aha, something I can put on my to-do list!  Also liked a whole wheat bread (strictly whole wheat) recipe from KAF but I'm eager to try yours - especially as the cocoa and coffee make an intriguing combination.  Do you think I could thrown in 3 tbsp of vital wheat gluten as well?

Thanks, cake diva for sharing.  Enjoy the cah!

audra36274's picture
audra36274

  I have made it for a long time, only I make mine into rolls or smaller loaves and serve them like they do at the steakhouse, with a knife stuck in the top and a side of butter. I'll post the picture in a bit, they are on the first rise now.

                                                                       Audra

Oh, and I love the new wheels!

cake diva's picture
cake diva

My husband bought a very responsible hybrid instead!  I love the red Solstice though, and I can picture myself easily in it with my big dark shades and colorful scarf floating in the wind(LOL)... Oh maybe someday when the girls are out of college and I've learned to drive a stickshift.

Audra, I've never been to OUtback so please post the bread as they present it.  Ques2008, my understanding is that the vital wheat gluten promotes a firmer bread structure, so if you prefer a less softer bread, by all means add it.

Later,

cake diva

audra36274's picture
audra36274

into rolls already. Not only did I do those today, honey butter on the side: my children wanted parkerhouse rolls. So I did a half a batch of each. I love the pocket in those Parkerhouse rolls. I bought the book by Sister Schubert, when she still owned her own company before she retired "rollin' in dough" hahahaha! Get it? Well anyway, its a good book.

                                                     Audra

audra36274's picture
audra36274

dough. I had only enough for honey butter, so I used sorghum syrup instead. I have also used mollasses. Any/either is fine as you probably already know.

                                             Audra

punainenkettu's picture
punainenkettu

I assume the instant coffee is to be used straight from the jar and not reconstituted as a liquid? Could you just explain how you incorperated it please?

Thanks,

Shannon

cake diva's picture
cake diva

Really,you can just add it in with the dry ingredients if you don't have a bread machine and were using a stand mixer instead.  If you don't have instant coffee, just replace some of the water in the composition with coffee that has been cooled to room temperature..No worries, this is very easy to do.

 

punainenkettu's picture
punainenkettu

I assumed as much but always feel better asking first! I'm going to give it a go this afternoon.  :)